Frances Bean Cobain biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Celebrity, model, singer. Born on August 18, 1992, in Los Angeles, California. Daughter of the late singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain from Nirvana and singer and actress Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain has spent much of her young life in the spotlight because of her parents.

Cobain was making headlines soon after she was born. Since both of her parents had struggled with drugs over the years, there was a lot of speculation about Frances’s health. One tabloid newspaper went so far as to run a story titled “Rock Star’s Baby is Born a Junkie.” Contrary to such reports, Frances Bean Cobain was a healthy, normal baby with incredible blue eyes just like her father.

Battle for Custody

Two days after her birth, her parents were visited in the hospital by a social worker from the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services. The investigation had been launched after a profile about Courtney Love came out in Vanity Fair magazine. In the interview, Love admitted to doing drugs while pregnant. The article also seemed to imply that the couple was still using drugs. As a result, the department of children’s services sought to have Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love declared unfit parents, according to Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross.

After a lengthy legal battle, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were able to regain custody of their daughter. They employed several nannies over the next two years to help them care for her. Both of her parents, unfortunately, were still battling their drug problems during this time. In March 1994, Frances went to visit her father at a rehabilitation center in Los Angeles with her nanny, according to Cross. This may have been the last time she saw her father.

Kurt Cobain's Suicide

Leaving rehab, Kurt Cobain eventually returned to Seattle and killed himself at the family’s home there on April 5, 1994. Frances was not even two years old by this time. After her father’s death, Frances developed a close relationship with her grandmother, Wendy O’Connor, Kurt’s mother. She recently told Harper’s Bazaar that O’Connor is “the most constant thing I’ve ever had.”

Cobain was placed in her grandmother’s care for a time after her mother’s drug-related arrest in October 2003. Hours after her arrest, Love overdosed on painkillers. During the overdose, Cobain was present and made her mother some tea while they waited for an ambulance to take Love to the hospital, according to People magazine.