Kurt Cobain's daughter Frances Bean speaks out on 30th anniversary of Nirvana frontman's passing

5 April 2024, 19:18 | Updated: 19 April 2024, 10:04

Frances Bean Cobain with a daughter of her late father Kurt Cobain holding her as a baby. Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty, Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

The daughter of the late Nirvana frontman has shared a heartfelt post on Instagram on the 30th anniversary of the grunge legend's untimely passing.

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Frances Bean Cobain has paid tribute to her father Kurt Cobain on the 30th anniversary of his tragic passing.

The late Nirvana frontman lost his life to suicide on 4th April 1994, shocking the music and entertainment world.

Three decades later, his daughter - who was just one years old when the grunge rocker died - has shared a heartfelt post in tribute to her father as well as all those united in grief.

Sharing a series of photos on Instagram, she began: "30 years ago my dad’s life ended. The 2nd & 3rd photo capture the last time we were together while he was still alive. His mom Wendy would often press my hands to her cheeks & say, with a lulling sadness, “you have his hands”. She would breathe them in as if it were her only chance to hold him just a little bit closer, frozen in time.I hope she’s holding his hands wherever they are."

The daughter of of the Courtney Love and the Smells Like Teen Spirit singer went on: "In the last 30 years my ideas around loss have been in a continuous state of metamorphosing. The biggest lesson learned through grieving for almost as long as I’ve been conscious, is that it serves a purpose. The duality of life & death, pain & joy, yin & yang, need to exist along side each other or none of this would have any meaning. It is the impermanent nature of human existence which throws us into the depths of our most authentic lives. As It turns out, there is no greater motivation for leaning into loving awareness than knowing everything ends."

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A post shared by Frances Bean Cobain (@thespacewitch)

She continued: "I wish I could’ve known my Dad. I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story. I always wondered if he would’ve caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of Camel Lights & strawberry nesquik (his favorites, I’ve been told). But there is also deep wisdom being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is. He gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the LIVED experience of losing someone. It’s the gift of knowing for certain, when we love ourselves & those around us with compassion, with openness, with grace, the more meaningful our time here inherently becomes.

"Kurt wrote me a letter before I was born. The last line of it reads, “wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you.” He kept this promise because he is present in so many ways. Whether it’s by hearing a song or through the hands we share, in those moments I get to spend a little time with my dad & he feels transcendent. ✨

"To anyone who has wondered what it would’ve looked like to live along side the people they have lost, I’m holding you in my thoughts today. The meaning of our grief is the same."

Frances Bean shares new track references suicide

It's not the first time Frances Bean has talked about the effects of her father's suicide.

Back in 2018, she attended the Museum of Style Icons' Growing Up Kurt Cobain exhibition in Ireland with her grandmother Wendy O'Connor and aunt Kim Cobain.

Opening up about her father, she told Reuters: "He's unavoidable in my life, I see a Nirvana shirt every day."

She added: "My dynamic with Kurt is probably more similar to a fan's dynamic as there's almost like an untouchable thing. All the information I have [about him] is from stories. He's there every day of my life."

She continued: "On some days it feels a little frustrating, like I've had emotional breakdowns in Ubers and he's come on [the radio] and I've been like, 'I needed you so much right now.'

"It plays out on different days in different ways".