Michael Hutchence‘s sister has discussed being “angry” after learning of the INXS singer’s brain damage injury from his ex-girlfriend, Helena Christensen.
Hutchence died in 1997 and a coroner ruled he died by suicide while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. After his death, it emerged that Hutchence suffered brain damage after being assaulted by a taxi driver in Denmark in 1995.
This became public knowledge in 2019 in a documentary from Richard Lowenstein, who obtained a full autopsy report of his death and met with Christensen. Lowenstein then reported that Hutchence asked Christensen to keep the brain injury a secret from his family and the wider world.
Discussing the revelation in an interview with The Sun On Sunday, Hutchence’s sister Tina said: “I know Michael was so happy with Helena and there was a time when I could not imagine them not being together.
“But I did feel angry when I first found out about the assault, as I felt it was her duty to say something to his family.”
She added: “There were all these awful stories about Michael after he died, so for Helena not to tell us about the head injury was wrong. She was very close to our parents and could have easily reached out.”
Elsewhere, INXS’ Jon Farriss recently revealed that when they decided to continue as a band after Hutchence’s first replacement left, they’d planned to do so with a woman behind the mic.
The revelation came in a two-part special episode of the LiSTNR program Behind The Hits, which was released last Friday (November 18) and also featured interviews with former INXS members Andrew Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Jon Stevens (who filled Hutchence’s role as lead vocalist between 2000 and 2003), plus one-time members Jimmy Barnes and Suze DeMarchi.
During her interview, DeMarchi – frontwoman of Australian rock contemporaries Baby Animals – confirmed the decades-long rumours that, after Stevens left the band in 2003, she’d been formally invited to join INXS as their permanent singer; she’d previously performed with them once in 2000, sharing the mic with Stevens at a one-off gig that December.
In his new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono also revealed that he ended his friendship with Hutchence over the late singer’s use of drugs.