Helena Christensen has shared throwback photos of herself and late INXS star, Michael Hutchence, after being publicly criticised by his sister for keeping his brain injury a secret.
The former Victoria’s Secret angel, 53, dated Hutchence for four years following his split from Kylie Minogue in 1991.
The post was captioned “Hey Michael, was just on the phone with some friends of yours who all love you very much.”
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“We shared some beautiful memories and of course we laughed a lot cause being around you was so fun and joyous.
“You made everyone feel alive and loved, there was always such a magical light around you ~ a light that will never go out.”
A host of celebrities posted in the comments section, including Linda Evangelista, Jamie Oliver and Karen Elson.
Her post comes just days after the later rocker’s sister, Tina Hutchence, accused Christensen of hiding the truth about the singer’s brain injury that contributed to his state of mind at the time of his death.
Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of Hutchence’s death by suicide. In 1992, five years’ prior to his death, Hutchence suffered a brain injury after he was punched by a Copenhagen cab driver in Denmark.
The details of this altercation and injury were not shared with the family and only revealed by Christensen in a 2019 documentary about the INXS frontman’s life, Mystify: Michael Hutchence.
Christensen said the incident contributed to Hutchence’s depression and eventual suicide in a Sydney hotel room five years later but that he had sworn her to secrecy about the altercation, despite being open about losing his sense of smell and taste.
In the documentary Christensen recounted the moment she witnessed the taxi driver yell at Hutchence to move out of his way before getting out of his car and punching him, the ABC reported.
The punch was so forceful that the singer fell backwards, smashing his head on the curb and becoming unconscious in the middle of the street.
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‘He was unconscious and there was blood coming out of his mouth and ear,’ Christensen recalled in the documentary.
The supermodel rushed Hutchence to hospital thinking he wouldn’t make it through the night in his critical condition. He survived, but when he woke at the hospital, Christensen says he wasn’t the same person.
‘This dark, very angry side came out in him,’ she said.
Christensen said his personality changed from ‘joyful, sweet, deep and emotional to dark and very angry’.
It wasn’t only Christensen who noticed the changes in his behaviour after the incident.
In an interview with Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program, INXS’s Los Angeles-based bassist Garry Beers admitted, “When Michael hit his head, he came back a different person and I’m sure doctors were prescribing all sorts of weird and wonderful concoctions.”
“He was a d–k and it wasn’t him, that’s the thing. It wasn’t the Michael we knew and that’s what was so surprising. He couldn’t smell, he couldn’t taste, he was drinking wine by the bottle ’cause it was just like nothing to him,” he said.
In the week and a half he stayed at the Danish hospital, he was aggressive and would push away doctors and nurses, insisting he was fine to go home.
In the following month, he spent the entire time in the supermodel’s apartment refusing to eat and vomiting blood.
The couple then travelled to Paris where they visited a specialist, who confirmed that Hutchence’s sensory interest in food and wine was erased in the attack.
He also sustained multiple brain contusions and began taking drugs to deal with the pain caused from the injury.
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While he was public about losing his sense of smell and taste, Hutchence swore Christensen to secrecy about the attack.
‘She didn’t even tell her parents for 20 years, so her interview was very revealing. And then the coroner’s report was even more revealing – of what he was hiding,’ Australian director Richard Lowenstein told ABC Radio National’s Stop Everything.
The director said not even the band members knew the full extent the Hutchence’s injury until they saw the documentary in full.
Lowenstein obtained the singer’s full unedited coroner’s report through British journalists and obtained the advice of neurologists and psychologists.
He said it was a ‘revelation’ about Hutchence’s downward spiral, with a ‘perfect storm of suicide risk’ in the report.
Speaking to The Sun this week, Hutchence’s sister said she was angry the ’90s supermodel waited so long to talk about the incident.
She said her family only found out that the INXS frontman suffered a brain injury three years ago and that it was Christensen’s duty to tell the family news of this significance.
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“I know Michael was so happy with Helena and there was a time when I could not imagine them not being together,” she said.
“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 said there were ‘awful stories’ about her brother following his death, including that he passed away from a sex act gone wrong. She said Christenson could have privately reached-out to their family.
“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.”
Tina added: “I’m sure that if Michael didn’t have that accident in Denmark, he would still be with us today.”
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