Sir Bob Geldof has revealed that he occasionally sees his late daughter Peaches, who died in 2014 aged 25. The Boomtown Rats frontman was driving recently when he felt her presence, an experience that brought him to tears.
The 74-year-old musician said he has learned to 'contain' his grief over time. Speaking on RTE Radio 1, he described how the emotion 'erupts' unexpectedly, such as at traffic lights. 'Suddenly Peaches was there. She was with me. And I wept,' he said.
Sir Bob also reflected on the death of his ex-wife Paula Yates from a heroin overdose in 2000. He regretted how he told his young daughters – Fifi, then 17, Peaches, then 11, and Pixie, who was celebrating her 10th birthday – about their mother's death, saying he felt he had failed them.
The Live Aid organiser described grief as being stored like a 'memory stick' that can be put away but occasionally erupts unbidden. He deals with it by acknowledging the feeling and containing it. He added that his experience of loss has helped him understand the central importance of love in life, quoting the poet Philip Larkin.
