Tiger Lily Hutchence was expected to inherit millions at 21. She barely saw a cent.

Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof was just 16 months old when her father, INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, took his life in a Sydney hotel room in November 1997.

As the rockstar's only child, she stood to inherit millions from Hutchence's estate come her 21st birthday.

Hutchence's fortune was estimated to be between an eye-watering $10 million to $20 million. Yet decades later, Tiger Lily has barely seen a fraction of what was intended.

Yes, even our cogs are turning. How does this make any sense? Where did the money go?

Well, settle in, because it's a messy one.

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What happened to Michael Hutchence's millions?

The battle over the estate.

At the heart of this complex story is Colin Diamond, Hutchence's former lawyer and Tiger Lily's godfather.

Hutchence's death sparked a bitter war over his estate. For years, his mother Patricia Glassop, father Kel and sister Tina were involved in a messy legal battle with Colin, over what they believed was an estate worth $10 million to $20 million.

Hutchence's money was tied up in a maze of offshore trusts set up in tax havens by Colin and other advisers. His advisers said the singer was deliberately not a beneficiary of the trusts and claimed he didn't want his "thieving relatives" and "girlfriends" to get his fortune.

This was at odds with the wishes Hutchence expressed in his will, which left half of his estate to Tiger Lily, with the rest split equally between his partner Paula Yates and family Kel, Patricia, Tina and Rhett.

There were also two bequests of $250,000 to Amnesty International and Greenpeace. These were never received.

In 2005, eight years after his death, Hutchence's family finally received the executor's report on his estate.

There was no money left. His estate was worth nothing, with only $506 in cash and $572 as his share of INXS's bank balance at the time of his death.

Paula Yates, Michael Hutchence and Paula's children in 1996. Image: Getty.

The Paradise Papers revelation.

In 2017, the bombshell Paradise Papers leak — the biggest ever leak of secret documents outlining the offshore dealings of politicians, celebrities and world leaders — revealed Colin was the sole owner of Hutchence's estate.

Michael's brother Rhett alleged that Colin swooped in immediately after his brother's death and exploited Hutchence's assets.

"Two days after Michael died, Colin Diamond went into the Rose Bay Police Station, acting as Michael's attorney, and took hold of all of Michael's possessions that he had with him in Australia," he told an ABC Four Corners report in 2017.

"He kindly left the belt that Michael used [to kill himself] for my father to pick up. My father was — I mean, the whole family was completely shocked that he had actually taken all this stuff. That should have been part of the estate. It's the family stuff."

While Hutchence's estate was worth nothing, there was still value in the rights to his music.

Michael Hutchence and Paula Yates in 1996. Image: Getty.

In 2008, Hutchence's share in the rights to INXS's music were sold for a figure understood to be in the millions, with the proceeds going to a British Virgin Islands company called Chardonnay Investments, according to the ABC.

The Paradise Papers included an email from Malcolm Lim, a lawyer for Colin, stating all intellectual property rights belonged to Chardonnay Investments, which was being controlled by Colin.

"The reason for this is that he was a trusted friend of Michael Hutchence and because of that and the fact that he (MH) had various family issues, he left Colin Diamond to deal with the assets of Chardonnay," the email said, per ABC. Colin became the sole owner after Hutchence's death.

The sale effectively cut off any future royalty payments to the Hutchence family.

The papers also show Colin, along with music entrepreneur Ron Creevey, formed a company called Helipad Plain in 2015 in the tax haven of Mauritius, to further exploit "sound recordings, images, films, and related material embodying the performance of Michael Hutchence", according to The Guardian.

Michael Hutchence in 1990. Image: Getty.

What does it mean for Tiger Lily?

Media expected Tiger Lily to inherit millions of dollars at her 21st birthday. But as we've learned, the reality was far less fruitful.

Hutchence's older sister, Tina, also claims Tiger Lily and the rest of the family haven't received their share of Hutchence's missing fortune.

"We feel swindled," Tina — who wrote the book Michael, My Brother, Lost Boy Of INXS — told the Daily Mail in 2019.

"The estate paid for Tiger's school, nanny and upkeep until she turned 18, but the big payments she was supposed to receive at different stages of her life, when she turned 18 and 21, never arrived. My response to that is, 'How dare they?'" Tina said.

"My brother worked with INXS for 20 years and he wanted to leave money for his daughter and family but none of us have seen a penny," she added.

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Four Corners asked Ron whether Tiger Lily would receive any money back in 2017 and he said: "My understanding is that Colin Diamond is well disposed to Tiger Lily and discusses matters with her, but that is between them ... I am no longer involved in the unreleased music side of things."

The program reports Tiger Lily has received some money from Colin but nothing even close to the full value of her father's music rights.

Tiger Lily's life today.

Today, Tiger Lily leads a different life from what her father might have envisioned.

Tiger Lily with her boyfriend, British model Ben Archer. Image: Instagram/benarcher_.

In February 2025, she announced she's expecting her first child with boyfriend Ben Archer, a British model and filmmaker.

The 28-year-old divides her time between Western Australia, where she focuses on creativity, surfing, and yoga, and the UK, where she visits Bob Geldof — who raised her after both her parents' deaths — and her sisters.

If her father had been here to see her, he would have just turned 65.

RELATED: No inheritance and a baby announcement: The life of Michael Hutchence's daughter Tiger Lily.

This article was published in 2017 and has been updated.

Feature image: Getty.