On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain took his own life at his home in Seattle, Washington. Tuesday marked the anniversary of the Nirvana rocker's death. His daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was not yet two years old when her father died. Now 18, Frances is focusing on her future, and online interest is heating up.
Over the past 24 hours, web searches on "frances cobain" and "frances bean cobain" have doubled. Lookups for "frances bean photos" are also jumping. Considering how famous her father was (and how controversial her mother, singer Courtney Love, continues to be), it's interesting to note that Frances has kept a relatively low profile.
Interviews with Frances Bean are rare, but online queries are not. Of particular interest to Web searchers: her middle name. According to TMZ, she earned the unusual middle name after Kurt saw an image of her on the ultrasound. Kurt allegedly remarked that the as-of-yet unborn Frances looked a bit like a kidney bean. The name stuck.
Frances, like many celebrity children, has famous godparents. Michael Stipe of REM is her godfather and Drew Barrymore is her godmother. She's interned at Rolling Stone magazine in recent years, but it does not appear that she is focused on journalism at the moment. In 2010, she gave an art show in Los Angeles under a different name, the mysterious moniker of "Fiddle Tim."
Why the alter ego? It could be a desire to earn success without family connections. She clearly has problems with those who, in her opinion, rely on famous family members. In 2009, she let those thoughts be known on social networking site Twitter. Frances ranted about Lindsay Lohan's younger sister Ali. To Ali, she wrote: "You blatently (sic) don't care how your recognized, its the objective to get famous and that is what makes you replaceable and a recycled idea."
Photo by Steve Grantiz/WireImage