Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love welcomed their only child together, Frances Bean Cobain, about a year after beginning their whirlwind romance in 1991.
“They both had had pretty difficult upbringings. They both had been outsiders. And even though they both had creative ambitions, and they were both on the way to fame … living in poverty and growing up with neglect, which both of them had [done], I think can’t be overstated in how they bonded,” Charles R. Cross, author of the 2001 book “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain,” told The Post in February 2022.
Though passionately in love, the late Nirvana frontman and the Hole songstress, 59, embarked on a short-lived relationship marked by high highs and low lows, as drug use and allegations of domestic violence ran rampant.
The rockers married in February 1992, and their daughter arrived six months later. Kurt died by suicide via a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in April 1994, just one month after he had overdosed on painkillers.
Frances Bean Cobain is born
Frances was born on August 18, 1992 in Los Angeles.
Chaotic early life
In September 1992, when Frances was just a few weeks old, Vanity Fair published a controversial article that claimed Love had used heroin during her pregnancy.
Although she initially denied it and insisted she stopped using the drug as soon as she found out she was pregnant, Love and Kurt temporarily lost custody of Frances.
In the January 2015 documentary “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” which Frances helped produce, Love admitted, “I used it once, then stopped. I knew she would be fine.”
Restraining order against her mom
In December 2009, a judge stripped Love of legal control over her daughter, granting a temporary restraining order that prohibited the singer from engaging in “certain behavior and from coming within a certain distance of Frances and her guardians.”
Lawyers for the guardianship that was established on Frances’ behalf wanted the case sealed because it related to “a minor and allegations of domestic violence.”
It was later revealed that Frances had filed for the order of protection after the pair got into an alleged physical fight.
Frances’ sworn testimony reportedly claimed that Love lived on “Xanax, Adderall, Sonata and Abilify, sugar and cigarettes,” started three different fires after falling asleep while smoking, had a hoarding problem so bad that it caused the deaths of their family pets, and once involved her daughter in a tumultuous argument with her then-boyfriend.
Her accolades
Frances served as an executive producer on HBO’s “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” which she wanted to focus on the man, not the legend.
Though she admitted she wasn’t the biggest fan of Nirvana’s music, Frances noted that the song “Dumb” from the band’s 1993 “In Utero” album made her “cry every time.”
“It’s a stripped-down version of Kurt’s perception of himself — of himself on drugs, off drugs, feeling inadequate to be titled the voice of a generation,” she explained ahead of the film’s release.
Frances is also a visual artist and model who controls the publicity rights to her dad’s name and image.
Marriages, divorces and sobriety
Frances married musician Isaiah Silva in a secret ceremony in June 2014. She filed for divorce less than two years later in March 2016, which was followed by an ugly battle over Kurt’s guitar.
Their split was finalized in December 2017.
A few months later, Frances celebrated two years of sobriety.
On her 30th birthday, she admitted she didn’t think she’d make it to the milestone, citing a past “sense of deep self loathing dictated by insecurity, destructive coping mechanisms & more trauma than [her] body or brain knew how to handle.”
In February 2022, she confirmed her relationship with Riley Hawk, the son of retired skateboarder Tony Hawk, whom she’s believed to have begun dating in 2021.
The couple said “I do” in October 2023 in a ceremony reportedly officiated by Frances’ godfather, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe.
