The late Kurt Cobain, the much loved frontman of Nirvana, is one of the world’s most iconic rock musicians.
But it’s his daughter Frances making headlines now, opening up about life with her famous dad’s name who died at the young age of 27 in 1994.
Frances, now 26, is the only child of Kurt and fellow rock star Courtney Love.
If you want to brush up on your Nirvana, here is the music video to “Heart Shaped Box.” Post continues after video.
The pair met in the early 90s and despite Cobain’s attempts to “live life like a bachelor for a few years,” love won out.
Just two years later they married in Hawaii. Cobain wore green pyjamas because he was “too lazy to put on a tux.”
By this point, they were already pregnant with Frances, who was named after Frances McKee the guitarist for the Scottish indie pop duo the Vaselines.
A sonogram of their soon to be baby was included in the artwork for Nirvana’s single “Lithium.”
Media scrutiny at the time focused on the idea that Frances might be born addicted to drugs at birth, thanks to her mother’s heroin addiction.
Her father was also addicted to heroin, and had been in rehab in the lead up to this death.
Kurt Cobain was found dead by suicide in his Seattle home on April 5, 1994.
Frances was just one year old.
In a recent podcast episode of RuPaul's What’s the Tee? she reveals she wasn’t told of her father’s suicide until she was five, with her mum sending her to therapy a year before so she could be “eased in” to the conversation.
When asked about her relationship with Courtney, Frances said: “When she is on a right and healthy path she is one of the most fulfilling, beautiful, intelligent, kind people that I have ever met.”
Inherited guilt
Speaking to the American podcast, which is hosted by RuPaul and his fellow Drag Race host Michelle Visage, Frances opened up about what life was like growing up as the child of Cobain and Love.
“My relationship with money is different because I didn’t earn it,” she said.
Having spent a life only being shown how to “live life in excess” thanks to her famous parents, she then went on to inherit her late father’s multi-million dollar fortune, in 2010.
She receives more than $100,000 a month in income from the rocker’s estate, and has $15.83 million in other inherited assets.
“It’s almost like this big fat loan that I’ll never get rid of, and it’s almost like I have this foreign relationship to it or like guilt because it feels like money from somebody that I’ve never met, let alone earned myself,” she told the podcast.
Frances believes she only took responsibility for her finances after getting sober in 2016 and splitting from her husband Isaiah Silva in 2017 after three years of marriage.
“It took me stepping away and getting sober to realise that no matter how much money you have, it’s not permanent,” Frances told What’s the Tee?
She has never revealed what substance she struggled with. But her addiction is not the only similarity she shares with her famous parents, having inherited their artistic genes.
Frances is a model, visual artist and singer. She was also executive producer on the HBO movie about her father’s life Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck which premiered in 2015.
RuPaul and Frances go way back
A famous picture from Frances’ childhood reveals, perhaps, the reason she is so comfortable talking to RuPaul about her life in the podcast.
In it, RuPaul holds a baby Frances who is in floods of tears beside her smiling father.
Dressed in full drag, RuPaul’s face is one of sheer concern at the toddler’s red cranky face.
“I firmly believe that photo captures my personality being made,” Frances said as the pair reminisced on the snap during the podcast.
“You are the reason I am the way I am,” she continued.
“And the reason for my appreciation for drag culture,” she added.