Frances Bean Cobain - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Cobain was born in Los Angeles, California. She was named after Frances McKee, the guitarist for the Scottish indie pop duo The Vaselines.

Before Love gave birth to her daughter, there were rumors suggesting that she used heroin during her pregnancy. This scandal intensified when Vanity Fair published Lynn Hirschberg's article "Strange Love" that alleged Love admitted to using heroin even after learning of her pregnancy. Along with Cobain, Love maintained that Vanity Fair took her words out of context. Eventually, child welfare services launched an investigation questioning their parenting abilities. The investigation was eventually dismissed, but not without a significant amount of legal wrangling and being removed from her parents' custody for a short time, beginning when she was two weeks old.

On April 1, 1994, Frances Bean Cobain visited Kurt at the Exodus Recovery Center, a rehab center in Marina Del Rey, California, where they played together. This would be the last time Cobain saw her father alive. In the early morning hours of April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle. A final ceremony was arranged for Kurt Cobain by his mother on May 31, 1999, attended by both Courtney Love and Tracy Marander.

Cobain was subsequently raised by her mother, her aunts, and her paternal grandmother. During her kindergarten year, Cobain attended Highland Hall in Northridge, California. While her mother was filming The People Vs. Larry Flynt in Memphis, Tennessee, Cobain attended The Maria Montessori School for a short time. She also enrolled at The Willows Community School, located in Culver City, California for elementary school and middle school. Beginning in 2004, she attended Happy Medium School in Seattle, now called Giddens School.

During Love's hospital stint in 2003, Cobain was put into the care of her grandmother. Cobain was returned to the custody of Love several months later. In late 2005, Love's father Hank Harrison prepared a brief petitioning a Los Angeles court for visitation rights to the minor child, but the petition was denied.

On December 11, 2009, a California Superior Court in Los Angeles appointed Wendy O'Connor, her paternal grandmother, and Kimberly Cobain, her father's sister, as temporary co-guardians of Frances. On December 16, 2009, it was reported that a judge had issued a related temporary restraining order, prohibiting Love from having any direct or indirect contact with her daughter. The papers were filed under the heading "motion to seal all documents … relating to a minor and allegations of domestic violence." Among those documents are Frances's medical records, according to the filing.

On August 18, 2010, Cobain inherited 37% of her late father's estate. Newly revealed documents from the Fix.com show that Frances, not her mother, Courtney Love, now controls the publicity rights to the name and image of her late father, Kurt Cobain. According to the Fix.com, until her mother pays back a loan for $2.75 million which Love borrowed from her daughter's trust fund, Courtney has no rights or say over the use of Kurt Cobain's name or image.