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Katy French RIP <KatyFrenchRIP>

"katy french RIP. EARTH'S LOSS HEAVENS GAIN"

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	Remembering Katy, one year on	383 Tage her
	http://www.independent.ie/national-n... Sunday December 07 2008 What a difference a year makes. She should have been celebrating her 25th with some kind of wonderfully over-the-top party that echoed her infamous 24th party. But it was Katy French's funeral that echoed yesterday as her friends and family gathered for a memorial service. The same bitterly cold kind of day, the same lonely country churchyard. And after all the hype and all the talk, it came back down to the same basics that await us all; the great levellers of death, a church, a choir, mourners and memories. One year on, commentators have started to put meanings on Katy French's death. Because of how much her life and death resonated with people and perhaps too because of the year that it's been, Katy French has been imbued with a symbolism, a power and a mythology. Her story has been made an archetypal one. It may be a cliche to say so, but she would have probably enjoyed her notoriety in death. She would have enjoyed too being taken seriously and being discussed as a person of substance. None of the meaning or symbolism really mattered in the cold church in Wicklow yesterday. When Katy's Mam and Dad and sister spoke, it was clear that they had given up trying to fathom any meaning to her death. Mainly they just miss her. Her Dad spoke of how the pain and the anger don't go away; about the time he thought he had left with her; her sister spoke of the constant inclination to ring her; her Mam spoke about how Katy's death had sort of made her believe in a God in some way. But they clearly haven't found sense nor reason to it. And in Enniskerry yesterday, it wasn't an icon or a symbol that was being remembered -- it was just a poor, ordinary, flawed human being. Because more so than she was Katy French, she was John and Janet's little girl, and Jill's big sister. That was what she meant to them. But meaning seemed to echo around the church too. The words of Katy's family were poignant but so were the hymns and the songs they had chosen. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted." And on the booklet for the service the words of Byron: "And on that cheek, and o'er that brow/So soft, so calm, yet eloquent/The smiles that win, the tints that glow/But tell of days in goodness spent/A mind at peace with all below/A heart whose love is innocent!" But the cover of the booklet probably summed it up best: "Katy Ellen French. 31st October 1983 -- 6th December 2007. She loved and is loved." And what more can you ask for from a life? Except maybe a bit more time.
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	Katy's mother recalls 'intimate bond' as first anniversary of model's death nears	383 Tage her
	http://www.independent.ie/national-n... By Fiach Kelly Wednesday November 26 2008 KATY FRENCH'S mother has spoken of the intimate bond she shared with her daughter, who died almost a year ago after a suspected cocaine overdose, and how the two had the "closest of mother and daughter relationships". In a poignant personal remembrance written in advance of the first anniversary of the model's death, Janet French says she enjoyed "wonderful times, full of laughter" with her daughter, who died on December 6 last year, at the age of 24. She writes about her daughter's attitude to life and says that "Katy's respect for others is one of the many things I loved about her, and I believe that is what so many other people recognised and admired in her". Mrs French is planning an intimate memorial for close friends to mark the anniversary and it will take place on December 6, at St Patrick's Church, in Enniskerry. In the family's first written tribute, Mrs French says that she spent "so many precious times with my daughter, when she shared her life and thoughts with me ... and when we developed the closest of mother and daughter relationships, that will remain with me forever". In the remembrance, in the latest issue of 'Social and Personal' magazine, to which Katy contributed a regular column, Mrs French also talks about how her daughter articulated her thoughts through her writing and how it reflected her personality, especially her respect for other people. According to her mother, Katy maintained that "love is in respecting others -- allowing them to be whatever they wish to be and giving them the time to come to the correct solutions on their own". "She would sit on the sofa ... typing, thinking, questioning, and bouncing ideas off me," Mrs French writes. Although a file has been sent to the DPP in connection with Katy's death, it is expected that no one will be charged. Earlier this month, Katy's sister Jill paid tribute to the model on what would have been her 25th birthday. "Happy birthday Katy. 25 today," she wrote recently on a Bebo tribute page. The two sisters were extremely close; Jill held Katy in her arms as she passed away in Our Lady's Hospital, in Navan. Katy died five days after she was found in a collapsed state in friend Kieron Ducie's house, in Kilmessan, Co Meath. She collapsed just two days after her 24th birthday party at Dublin's Krystle Nightclub. Mrs French's full remembrance is available in the new issue of 'Social and Personal'. - Fiach Kelly
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	ONE YEAR ON STILL MISSED DEARLY	395 Tage her
	"Months have grown day by day, It's now a year since you went away, Thoughts are full and hearts do weigh, Without you here to share the way, Time may dull the hand of fate, Memory forever recalls the date."
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	NO ADVERTISING	512 Tage her
	ABSOLUTELY NO advertising of any kind will be tolerated on this page. Out of respect, please do not bother trying to advertise on this page ***************************************  *************************
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	Heartbroken family still unsure how model died	707 Tage her
	http://www.braypeople.ie/news/heartb... Thursday January 10 2008 Suggestions that Katy French took three types of drug before she tragically died in her sister's arms on December 6 have been flatly rejected by her heartbroken family.Initial reports suggested last week that tests found Ephedrine, found in over-the-counter slimming pills, as well as cocaine and a third unidentified drug, believed to be a sleeping tablet, in the Enniskerry mode Suggestions that Katy French took three types of drug before she tragically died in her sister's arms on December 6 have been flatly rejected by her heartbroken family. Initial reports suggested last week that tests found Ephedrine, found in over-the-counter slimming pills, as well as cocaine and a third unidentified drug, believed to be a sleeping tablet, in the Enniskerry model's blood. Those suggestions have been strongly rejected by her grieving mother and sister however, who insist that the reports are dwon to pure speculation'. We don't know what happened to Katy and no-one else does either. All this innuendo is just terrible,' said her mother, Janet. Garda sources have also rejected recent reports that a post-mortem found illegal drugs in Katy's blood, saying that this can only be confirmed by toxicology tests which normally take up to six weeks to complete. The results of these tests are still pending. What has been in the papers isn't true because no results have come back from the hospital,' said Katy's sister, Jill. She also denied that the 24-year-old had been a close friend of Kieron The Wolf' Ducie (3 . This was despite the fact that Katy was in his home in Meath the night before she was rushed to hospital. She died later that week after the decision was made to turn off her life support machine.
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	Family of Katy says cocaine rumours 'not true'	707 Tage her
	http://www.independent.ie/national-n... By Anne-Marie Walsh Monday January 07 2008 The heartbroken family of deceased model Katy French has insisted there is no indication yet that cocaine played a part in her tragic death. Katy's mother, Janet, and sister, Jill, said people should wait for official results before making up their minds about how the Assets model lost her fight for life. Janet French said there was still a strong possibility that cocaine may not have contributed to her daughter's sudden collapse and death in Meath last month, and that everything in the newspapers was just "pure speculation". As the devastated family pondered their first Christmas without Katy, they revealed she had assured them she was no longer using drugs despite having dabbled in the past. Jill (21) said it was purely speculation thatinitial blood tests found traces of cocaine and slimming tablets in the model's system, as was widely reported. She also confirmed her sister was not a close friend of Kieron 'The Wolf' Ducie (3 , despite being in his home in Kilmessan, Co Meath, the night before she was rushed to hospital. "What we want to say is this: 'what has been in the papers isn't true because no results have come back from the hospital'," Jill said. Katy's mother, Janet, added: "We don't know what happened to Katy and no-one else does either. All this innuendo is just terrible." The French family yesterday broke their silence about the young model's death, a month after Katy (24) died in Jill's arms on December 6 in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. It was reported after her death that medical tests taken following her admission to hospital showed traces of cocaine in her body. However, Garda sources rejected reports that a post-mortem examination by State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy showed she had traces of illegal substances in her body. They said this could only be confirmed by toxicological tests, which take up to six weeks to complete. - Anne-Marie Walsh
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	KATY FRENCH GROUPS	722 Tage her
	Since making this group and other people making similar groups for Katy French, the support from everyone has been amazing. 3 Katy French memorial groups are in the top 100 groups on bebo, and I am happy to say that this group today as it stands is the 2nd best/most successful group to date on bebo. So would like to thank everyone who has become a member of these groups and encourage everyone to join them and pay respect to this poor lady who lost her life at such an early age. Doesn't matter how, doesn't matter how famous or rich she was. She is someones daughter, sister, grand daughter, niece, cousin and friend. I'm sure all who knew her, misses her terribly. http://bebo.com/Chart.jsp?Type=GR Sean O'Cleirigh
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	MESSAGE FROM THE MODERATOR - WHY I MADE THE PAGE	727 Tage her
	There are some really stupid and ignorant people on Bebo. I am going to explain the reason why I made this page AGAIN and I will try and explain it the best way I can so that everyone can understand it. I made this page the Tuesday or Wednesday before Katy died. The page was originally cd "Get Well Katy". Now I don't know the girl, I never met her in my life. I have seen her on TV and I thought she came across well. I read in the newspaper, the media coverage this poor girl was getting and the online hate campaigns while she was in a coma fighting for her life. My sister is not much older than Katy and I couldnt imagine having to read some of the nasty things that were said about her if she was my sister and days away from dying. The Irish media are getting as bad as the British tabloids. Just because she is famous, does that mean she gets to be publically scrutinised because she gives her opinion on, lets say for example, abortion, or that allegedly she took cocaine. Well most of us have an opinion and voted for or against abortion, and in todays society there are alot of people taking cocaine. People forget that Katy French was a human being, the same as the rest of us and 2nd of all she was a model. I have some of her friends on my bebo friend list and they were also a good reason to start up this page. I thought, well if someone who doesn't know her can write awful and perhaps untrue stuff about her, and make "I hate Katy French" websites, why can't someone who doesn't know her, do some good for her. I had hoped that somehow Katy would have seen the "Get Well Katy" page but as we all know she didn't get well. So the page turned into a Memorial page. To be honest, I knew very little about Katy French, so my reasons for making the page had nothing to do with her being famous. There are Memorial pages all over bebo, some of famous people and some of normal joe soaps, so why would anyone have a problem with this page or others like it. She has family and friends the same as everyone else. I think Katy French did alot of good in her life and I will highlight that on this page because God knows there has been enough negative stuff about her in the media. Now out of respect, if anyone has a problem ith this page, or Katy French, keep your opinions to yourself. The poor girl is dead. I would also ask those who are thinking of advertising on this page, not to, otherwise you will be blocked from the page. Katy French RIP. My condolenses again to her family and friends. Sean O'Cleirigh
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	Katy: Her final interview	736 Tage her
	The day after her 24th birthday party, Brendan O’Connor interviewed Katy French. She talked about life, love, family and friendship. She also spoke about how she enjoyed her year in the spotlight and how she was looking forward to taking it to the next level in the New Year. It would be her last interview. http://www.independent.ie/entertainm... By Brendan O'Connor Sunday December 16 2007 One of the last things Katy ever said to me was that we shouldn't ever fall out. I had told her some bit of gossip about someone, and made her swear not to tell the person if we fell out. She made me promise never to fall out with her, to swear we would always be pals. So I guess I'll never fall out with her. As I transcribed the tape of this interview, sweet, generous, beautiful, smart, sexy Katy was lying in a coma. Now the poor pet is gone. Where to start? And how to write this without sounding mawkish? Over the past few days I've read lots of journalists writing about their relationships with Katy French. Even the young journalist who wrote the savage and poisonous piece on that fateful Saturday about Katy's 24the birthday party, an article that really upset her, has had the gall to write about the Katy she knew. The hypocrisy about, and the exploitation of, Katy over the past few days has been appalling. No doubt it will only get worse. Here's some of my truth about her and, more importantly, Katy's truth about herself. I started writing this piece hoping she'd be around to read it -- because if anyone could have woken from that coma and wanted to see straightaway what all the papers were saying about her and what all the fuss was about, it would have been Katy. But I knew in my heart I was hoping against hope. People don't often surprise you with the things they say. People don't often tell you little truths about life that you haven't thought of in some way yourself. People don't often make you laugh, really laugh. And Katy French did all that. We had a kind of a charade going of me giving her advice about things. But really, she already knew anything I could tell her about business or media or people or life. Most of the time it was really her giving me advice, this 23/24-year-old young one. But then again, Katy was an old soul. The last conversation I ever had with her was by text, the night she became ill. I had been on Tubridy Tonight. Katy was on to me to tell me she thought I was good. I wasn't so happy. She explained to me, better than Eoghan Harris could have, the subtleties of why she thought it worked. She also said she was in the mood to do something, maybe go for a drink. I told her I had to go home. She warned me to go straight home and not to get sidetracked on the way. My wife, Sarah, and I had been to an ante-natal course that day and Katy was all tickled and excited about that, and that I had mentioned we were having a baby on Tubridy. She was thrilled about us having a baby. Andrea Roche and Katy were two of the first people Sarah and I told, outside of immediate family and very close friends. We were down in Kilkenny at a fashion show I was MC-ing for a friend of a friend. Sarah and Andrea went off to buy dresses, while Katy took the piss out of me about being a father and how great I would be at it. Katy was always dying to have babies, to have a stable home and family. But not a word of that. Just happy for us. She was all front sometimes. She was also one of the kindest, most generous, giving, caring people I ever met. I'm not just speaking well of the dead. She was an exceptional sweetie. All the texts between us that fateful Saturday night were about me. And while she told me to go home, I never told her to make sure to go home, to stay at her mother's. I presumed she was going to. Lots of people have their own guilt about what happened to Katy that night. Mine is, would it have killed me to go for a drink? If we had, maybe it would have been a quieter night. Andrea and Katy had been out in Dundrum that day, filming a pilot for a TV show they were doing. Katy French was a natural TV performer. She had whatever slight hint of madness it is makes a star. She had perfect instincts and the special intelligence that allows someone to think on their feet under lights and cameras. And TV was definitely going to happen for her in 2008. If Katy had pulled through and become a TV star, I guarantee you there would have been no stopping her. Katy and Andrea had both been gushing about what a great day it had been. They had had such a laugh. They sounded like two kids running around messing. And there was something childlike about Katy in a way. If Katy could have had a life where she could have just hung around, innocently doing things like having a laugh with her friend, I think that's what she would have done all the time. She always said she wasn't really that keen on going out. Of course, she was in one way and she would go on a mad one now and then. But I think lots of the going out was based on looking for false intimacy, the momentary bonhomie of the party: I think Katy really just wanted to be a home bird. I think Katy just wanted someone to look after her and someone for her to look after. And, despite the fact that Katy French had everything in the world that a woman could have going for her, she still hadn't found that yet in her short life. On that Saturday, she was a bit pissed off about a few things. She was extremely upset about a piece in the Mail newspaper about her 24th birthday party. Among loads of savagery, the piece had implied possibly the worst thing you could say about a 24-year-old girl -- that she had no friends, no real friends. What a horrible thing to plaster across a newspaper. When Katy was venting to me about something else that day, she claimed initially she didn't give a damn about the piece in the Mail. But that was Katy being proud. It was Katy demonstrating the same kind of character she did later that night when she just casually asked me to meet her for a drink because she felt like doing something. She didn't say that she felt like a chat. If only she was less proud. Later in the day, Katy admitted she was actually devastated by the suggestion that she had no friends. She was also hurt by the suggestion that her party was a disaster and that the people there were bitching about her. The Mail had essentially gone to that party to set out to prove that Katy had no friends. They had done this by interviewing people who weren't Katy's friends -- it was a self-fulfilling prophecy of a piece: they interviewed people who weren't Katy's friends and then said these people weren't Katy's friends. Then again, would the Mail have recognised any of Katy's actual friends? They weren't all models. I was clearly at a different party. I was at a party that felt not like a PR event but like a party with Katy and her friends and family -- a proud mother, and a father who, despite a sometimes fractious relationship with his daughter, told me wistfully about Katy learning to ride a bike. She had dreamt the night before that she could ride a bike, she told him, and thus she was able to do it. We had a great time that night. Katy had a great time -- I know she did. She was in great form the following day when I spent most of Friday with her hanging out and doing this interview. On Saturday, despite the article in the Mail, and despite being angry about man troubles, Katy was in great form, delighted about her party. Contrary to what the Mail or anyone else might have thought from the outside looking in, Katy French had a great gift for friendship. I'm not going to try to muscle in here as one of her oldest pals or anything, but Katy and I had become good friends this year. We got each other. I don't make new friends much at this hour of my life, so I think the credit for that should go primarily to Katy. I am proud to have been Katy's friend and there are plenty more who are, too. Some of them are from the world of media and entertainment, and others are old friends. Her friends and family would all have characterised Katy as wise beyond her years. They would all concur with the thing that was said so often about her, often by people who were surprised by it when they met her: Katy French hadn't a bad bone in her body. Forget what you think you know about Katy French. I promise you, the truth is that she was the most generous person you could ever meet. She was incredibly calm and easygoing, too. She was never rude to anyone. She was also incredibly well read and, unlike most well-read people, she wore it lightly. Funny thing, driving to Dundrum that Saturday between filming and messing, Katy was playing Leonard Cohen songs for Andrea. She played Tower of Song -- "I was born like this. I had no choice./I was born with the gift of a golden voice." Katy had played it for me, too, the day before, as she dropped me home after I interviewed her out in Citywest. She had been singing it after her party the night before, too. Katy was born like that. She had no choice. She was born with the gift of a golden voice. Funnily enough, it wasn't her looks that were important to Katy or that drove her ambition. It was practically the first thing she had said to me in the interview that Friday, when I asked her if she was addicted to publicity. "What I'm addicted to is actually being vocal and having a voice." When I met her on Friday, Katy was in great form. Whereas I was visibly hungover from the night before, Katy looked immaculate. And she was doing one of the things she loved to do: playing house. I thought I wasn't hungry but she insisted on making spaghetti carbonara. She horsed it in to her. I realised I was hungry, and did too. Then, I didn't want tea, but she made tea in a proper pot with the good Marks and Spencer's biscuits. Spending the afternoon with the notorious Katy French was more like having afternoon tea with the Queen Mother. We had a great old afternoon, the two of us, with pasta and tea the only stimulants. I didn't know then it was an afternoon that I will never forget. I asked her if, in her career, she was really not just looking for attention she maybe felt she never got from Daddy, or something: "Yeah, maybe I'm looking for some kind of validation or maybe I'm just trying to prove it to myself." Do you have low self-esteem? "Yeah, yeah, I do yeah. Everyone says to me: 'Jesus you must be tough to take all that.' But I don't think I am. I think I'm probably really actually more sensitive than most people. But that's why I am tough. It's like a balance thing." Have you enjoyed the year? "Immensely. It was tough. It was hard work and a lot of it was a real struggle but I thrived on it." If you have low self-esteem, it must be tough to put yourself out there like that. "Yes, but maybe I'm trying to look for some kind of validation, not necessarily from other people but to put me in a position where I really have to believe in myself. Sort of testing myself." So, you're forcing yourself to do things that kind of scare you? "Yeah. Not forcing myself. Choosing." But you're obviously not just looking for this validation from yourself. You seem to need it from other people too. "Obviously I'm not just doing it for myself. Because I'm extrovert and doing the job I do. If I just wanted internal validation, I'd just write a novel, which I will do someday. I get more pleasure out of my writing than I do from the modelling." Katy wrote for this magazine a good bit in the past year or so. Her two LIFE cover stories in 2007 (discounting the professional modelling shoot she did to illustrate a piece about the Celtic Tiger) were both written by Katy herself. People used to assume I wrote or rewrote the pieces for her. I'll tell you now what I told them -- I never actually changed a word in anything Katy French wrote for me. Her copy came in perfect. Her family would tell you Katy took her writing very seriously, spending hours writing and rewriting and editing and testing bits of it out on her mother. She locked herself away, only coming out to eat -- one of her other great passions. Katy French was a serious person. That Friday, we talked about her plan to start a new column for LIFE, in the new year, The Consolations of Philosophy with Katy French. You might laugh now, but then you probably never heard Katy discuss philosophy and psychology. True to form, the plan was that she would appear on the page, dressed each week in a different set of lingerie. She was very serious about underwear too. It always had to match. Are you glad the thing happened with Marcus?, I asked her. "Yeah. It was a silver lining. It was a good silver lining. It did give me something. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. After that, it's what you make of it." At the beginning of the year you were in one way very secure, engaged to be married. "Falsely secure. I have constantly built a life on different cases of false security. Relationships are a huge way I do that. I've always gone from one long relationship to the next, and kind of -- even knowing they're not right -- you kind of build the world around them and maybe that stems back to childhood and having the perfect family. And we did. I had a great childhood and I'm never going to say any different but . . . what it was, it wasn't perfect. And then it was totally shattered. "I didn't grow up in an abusive household or with an alcoholic parent. I grew up living the dream as a kid. Great family, great holidays, great school. I was blessed. But it kind of just, bit by bit, broke away. It was like a big lie. It was because of what was actually going on behind the scenes. "It was a blessing in one way because I didn't grow up with obvious problems. I didn't grow up aware of things because it seemed perfect so it was perfect to me. And then, all of a sudden, one day you open your eyes and it's like, 'Jesus, it wasn't.' "I first started noticing things when I was 13, when I started not being at home as much. I was always out with friends. And I realised then that something wasn't right. My parents actually separated about seven years ago when I was about 17, but it was going on longer than that. But that was when what was going on with my parents became too obvious to hide anymore. And then all the money went." How? "Business ventures." So your father was quite like Marcus -- a sometimes unlucky entrepreneur? "Yeah." The reason people doubt Katy French's age is not just because she is mature for her age but because she has been around so long. Though she is mature. I remember when she and I and Andrea went on a road trip to Kinsale recently, for a gig. Katy was acting like the mother. Myself and Andrea, the older ones, were laughing at her precocity, telling her she was actually 50 in her head. But then, she was always precocious. How old were you when you started going out in town? "Fifteen." Where would you go? "Out and about. Not too much drinking. My friends were always much older, so they had apartments and stuff and we'd hang out there. I was very young when I first walked into a nightclub in town." How old? "Sixteen." Were you very pretty? "I don't know. I suppose I was. I had my own look. But I presented well enough." But then, by the age of 16 Katy had finished school. Why? "I was finished. I started school when I was three. Every year my parents would go in and say should we keep her back a year, but they never did. My grades never slacked, I never fell behind. If anything, I was ahead. Got on like a house on fire with all my teachers. I was always in the popular group in school. But I was still the one who would talk to the so-called uncool people. I never fell out with anyone. I've never been in a fight. People tried to start fights but I've never been in a fight. I loved school. I loved learning." She went on to study business for a year while she repeated Leaving Cert maths and worked for her dad's company. Once she had got her maths exam, she studied psychology for two years. And then she met Sasha, her first fiance. She'd had boyfriends before but only one serious one. And so it was, aged 18, that Katy French became engaged for the first time. "Yep," she says. "Eighteen and engaged." Why? "Well, I didn't ask the question, did I?" It's a bit mental to be engaged to be married at 18. "I know it is. It's in the family [Sasha's family]. When I'd be around at the house -- when I was 18, remember -- the mother and the daughter would rub my belly and say: 'No baby yet?' The mother was Yugoslavian. I think it was just a different culture." Did you actually think you were going to get married? "No." So what were you at? "It was kind of funny when it happened. It was actually Sasha's birthday and we were all in town, 40 or 50 people, friends. So we were all there and the cake came out and, you know, Happy Birthday and all that, and I was kind of there having a laugh and then his mother stands up and says: 'Shh! Sasha has a wish, Sasha has a wish, Sasha has a wish.' And I was going: 'What the hell is this about?' The next thing is, he gets down on his knee and pops the question, and when you're with someone and you love them and you care about them, you're not going to say no, especially in front of 50 people. "It was the mother had given him the ring. Funny thing, though, the ring used to itch me. I remember looking at the ring and one of the diamonds had fallen out of it and was replaced and was kind of wonky and that used to freak me out. "The two times I've been engaged, I've had funny superstitions about the rings. There was that one, because obviously it was an engagement ring from a marriage that didn't work and the ring used to burn and itch me and I used to try to take it off. And when I got engaged to Marcus, the ring that he got, the original ring -- it cost about €1,000, not even -- it was the prettiest little ring you've ever seen, a real engagement ring. Set up high, really high. He always used to say to me: 'I'm going to get you another one,' and I was always: 'I don't want one'. I think it was because the people we hung around with, a couple of friends, the girls had fallen out because one ring was bigger than the other. I think it was a guy thing. I didn't want a bigger ring because that was the ring he proposed with, that was the special moment. You remember that. It was only small but to me it was huge. "I remember he got me the other ring for Christmas, the so-called 40-grand ring. I don't even think it was 40 grand. I gave it back to him anyway, so he didn't have to ever pay for it." How long were you engaged to Sasha? "About a year. It wasn't going to work and we both knew it. It ended on Stephen's Day. But it was fine, I was home with my family. We were actually on the phone. Would you believe that? Who broke up with whom? "I suppose it was a mutual thing." So he broke up with you? "Yeah. He initiated it and I was heartbroken but I was happy. I get to the point in a relationship where I would be unhappy, but I couldn't let go. Like, I don't cut out." Because you're afraid to? "This is what I'm talking about, my little false-sense-of-security world." You'd rather live in that? "Sometimes, yeah. Like, I'd get very involved, I suppose. His family were very much like family to me. Even though the parents weren't together or whatever. "I tend to build a world around the men I'm with. Not smother them, but I give up everything I do and I have and really give it all to them and that's part of that reason why I can't walk away. In my head, I've got this idea it could get better -- it could be all nice and it could be all lovely. And -- I don't know whether it's done subconsciously or intentionally -- I let go of my world to be with this person, which makes it very difficult and very scary to walk away from someone, because you've kind of left yourself with nothing." So when Sasha broke up with you, did all your social network collapse? "I have two or three very close friends who will always be that way, who have been with me through everything from the start. Friends who know everything about me and who don't judge me. "With the relationships, I was building up little cushions around me in my outside world. Building little nests -- even though the tree was going to break anyway -- instead of trying to find a nice tree. But I really want to make clear that I did not have a bad family background. My mother did everything. She's the best mother you could ever have in the world. She's just my idol. I adore her. She'd work hard and she'd still come home and make dinner. "For my mother, everything was about her family and her husband and her children. She did everything for us. We never had a ready-meal. Even when she was working, she'd still come home and read a story or whatever. My Dad wasn't there a lot. He was away a lot." Are you looking for your Dad? "I think I'm looking for what my Mum looked for, which is just the perfect home and the perfect family. But perfect, what's perfect? Dysfunctional is perfect. Because we're all solid and we all love each other and that's the bottom line." Solid isn't the word I'd use to describe you. You're pretty flaky. "Everyone's flaky." You're flakier than most people. In a good way, like. "I'm not really. Why?" You know you are. What does your mother think of all this carry-on? "My mother never advises me. She does what you would want. She asks questions that I might want to be asked, in order for me to make a proper decision. I'd never do anything without running it by my mother." Did you tell her last week you were going to talk about coke? "Yeah. She said: 'Yeah, that's the right thing to do.' She asked me when I did that Hot Press interview and it was all very honest. She said: 'Why did you lie about the drugs?' Obviously she totally disapproved of me ever taking drugs, but she felt it was best to be honest about things." Are you dying to have kids? "Yeah." You're only young yet. "I know. I don't want them yet." How did you start modelling? "I just walked into the agency, Assets." And did you think: 'Yeah. I'm pretty hot. I could be a model"'? "No. I'd been asked before when I was younger and I thought the whole idea of wanting to be a model was a joke. I always liked being academic. I always liked learning. Coming from a business family, I liked business, I liked working. I thought modelling was very two dimensional or even one dimensional. And it is. "I battle with being a model. Massively. I have a huge chip about it because it's seen as really shallow. But I got into it and I did well at it and I kept going and I suppose that's the path I took. And I kind of liked the path I took and I like my job. "I actually like the industry I work in. But it is really fucked up at the best of times. "I don't know. You know, my best friend is a doctor and her husband is a surgeon and the stories they tell. Another friend who's a lawyer and he goes on about it. I suppose every job has its ups and downs. But I find mine really curious because I get to work with people in a really shallow, superficial industry. There's a lot of low self-esteem." Among models? "The whole industry. The whole media industry is full of low self-esteem. Anyone in entertainment or showbusiness, you know? It's based on really superficial values that really there's not much behind." So are you neurotic about your looks? "No." No? "No." Do you think you're good looking? "I don't think I'm ugly." Is it nice being a beautiful woman? "Of course." Are you kind of always consciously aware of the power that gives you?" "Yeah. I'm also aware of the negatives it gives you. You get pre-judged very quickly." As a bimbo? "Yeah." By women? "By everybody. Women don't like you. Men treat you like . . ." Do women not like you? "Some women don't, yeah. I'd say a lot of women don't." Because you're a model or because you're good looking? "Probably both. And then men look on me as a piece of meat." I don't. "But you're different. But when you talk to me about shoots, it's all about being sexy, isn't it? In another way, that's the category I got put into. Because I'm not high fashion. And I'm glad. One, because there's no money in it -- in this country you don't make money from being high fashion. You'd be eating jam sandwiches for the rest of your life. And two, because, like, I suppose, I'm not skinny. I have boobs. I have an arse, you know?" Have you had your boobs done? Someone who was on a shoot with you recently thought you maybe had. "I haven't. My mum has good boobs, though." So, will you have your boobs done at some stage? "Maybe. I'd have no qualms about whatever needs to be done. Liposuction, boobs. I don't think I'd get my face done, though. I'd be a bit worried about that. I always think there's other ways of doing things. Like work out, eat healthy. I always eat well. That's another reason people call me fat sometimes in the paper. I like my fucking food. "And I don't care. I'm not gonna be skinny. I'm not gonna be decrepit in 10 years. I'm not going to have osteoporosis and women's problems because I mistreated my body when I was young. I've been through that. I went to an all-girls private school. I went to schools where girls would have a half a Ryvita and a bottle of Diet Coke for lunch and then puke up in the bin. "When I was young, I ate whatever I wanted. I'd have a bag of crisps or whatever when I wanted. But I was a very active youngster. I never sat in watching telly. I was always out in the park on my bike playing. I had my horses. I was always out and about. We never did the package holiday going to a hotel and sitting on the beach. We went off cattle ranching and went white-water rafting in the Grand Canyon, on safari. We used to go hiking in the Alps from when I was 10 or 11. Skiing. We were always doing active stuff. I was really blessed. "I'd never knock my childhood in a million years. I had more things than most kids had. I really did. I never wanted for anything." Do you like sex? "Yeah." Do you love sex? "I love sex when it's right." Do you think you're more sexually driven than a lot of girls? "No." That would be the impression among people. "Why? Again, prejudice. Because I look like I'm sex driven. That's what I mean. Put me in that category." How often do you have sex? "Em. When I'm with someone, all the time. You know, every day or a few times a day. Then you could have days when you don't. You could have a lazy day in, when you're not doing anything, and do it two or three times. "And then you go through the normal stages where it's like every night you go to bed, you brush your teeth, you have sex. Then, sometimes, the morning. Then, sometimes you have days when you don't have sex. Just kind of normal stuff." So are you in a relationship? "I'm seeing someone, yeah." Is it a good relationship? "Yeah, I'm enjoying it." How long is it going on for? "A few months." A few months? Three months? "No. A bit longer than that." Four months? "No, it's been over six months." Do you think it's going anywhere? "I hope it is." You have characterised the relationship with Marcus as a very unhealthy, controlling kind of relationship? "It was. But I allowed it to happen." I know that you would get back with Marcus in the morning. "I wouldn't. Brendan, I wouldn't. You like to think that. There's an element of me would love to think it could change but I know it won't." We covered a lot more ground but a lot of it was stuff I intended to check out with Katy the Sunday she was brought to hospital when I was meant to be transcribing the tape. She couldn't help being honest and if you asked her a question, she'd answer it. But she wasn't stupid either and she'd get back to you to say: 'Actually, don't use that, I don't think people are ready for that yet.' I wish Katy was reading this with you and I'd love to see her number come up on my phone, her ringing to say: 'What was all that about?' But, hopefully, Katy knows that she has lots of friends who love her, that the Irish people loved her and we'll never forget the shining star that was Katy French. - Brendan O'Connor
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	Their anguish, tears and heartbreak . . .	744 Tage her
	By Nicola Anderson Tuesday December 11 2007 SHE was the plump little baby with the bonnet tied under her chin. The lovely solemn-faced child engrossed in a family boating trip one sunny summer's day. The snaggle-toothed, gangly schoolgirl happily enjoying a picnic lunch on the lawn with friends. This was the Katy French her family desperately wanted to reclaim from the media frenzy, analysis and counter-analysis of her tragic demise. Their "Katykins" and the happy days they had enjoyed together. Private snapshots of her all too short life, set to a soundtrack that put a lump in the throat of all those who watched Katy's progress from a child, visibly growing in poise and confidence, into an already beautiful young teen, fooling around for the camera with her parents and embracing the grandmother to whom she had been so close and whom she had resembled. Just a few shots included in the family album showed Katy as the public knew her -- the stunning blonde model who had quickly garnered so many column inches that in the space of just 12 months she had become an icon of the Celtic Tiger era, symbolising all its glittering attractions and -- in the end -- all its murky perils. "Don't look no more, coz it'll only make your eyes sore... coz we are indestructible," the lyrics of the Alisha's Attic song blaring to accompany the video of still pictures, produced by Katy's sister, Jill, seemed sorrowfully appropriate. A smell of sweet wood smoke hung in the bitterly cold air as mourners trudged sadly into the picturesque churchyard of St Peter's in Katy's hometown of Enniskerry, Co Wicklow to bid farewell to the 24-year-old woman whose life was brought so horribly to a close. Withered crab-apples clung to their branches in gardens and fairylights strung prettily on the eaves of the shops in the village were a poignant reminder of how close it is to Christmas. Illuminated by the harsh winter's sunshine, the hearse carrying her coffin, bedecked with an enormous wreath of white roses arrived at the church and was carried tenderly inside, amid the hushed and frozen crowd of mourners. Katy's estranged parents John and Janet, sister Jill and grandmother followed closely. In a touching gesture, they had brought along their family dog, in need of the comfort the animal seemed to offer. Immaculately groomed women wearing red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes and with luxury designer handbags slung over their shoulders and men with winter tans and cashmere coats showed that this was, indeed, a society funeral. Amongst the 500 strong crowd, were public faces from the world of celebrity and fashion over which Katy had presided. Rosanna Davison, with father Chris de Burgh; model Glenda Gilson, with her hair scraped back into a ponytail, Katy's good friend Andrea Roche, in duck-egg blue -- adhering to the French family's request for mourners not to wear black. Claudine Palmer, the model and girlfriend of soccer player Robbie Keane, was there, alongside singer Brian Ormond and others such as Michelle de Bruin, Daithi O Se and Michael Healy-Rae from the Celebrities Go Wild programme which had propelled Katy into the spotlight. A sombre silence fell as Katy's mother Janet stood to pay tribute to her beloved daughter -- an angel who had "lived her life in sunlight". "Who is Katy French?" She wanted to answer that question, speaking of Katy's openness of heart, speech and spirit. She could forgive Katy for anything, Janet declared -- and Katy had always been ready to forgive her too. She spoke of all Katy had learned and taught her from her five-day visit to Calcutta, working with GOAL, quoting Katy herself, who had said: "I not only learnt what a smile can do, I also came to realise that it's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving that matters." Then Janet referred obliquely to Katy's tragic passing as she told how she had used to call her daughter "My little Persephone". In Greek mythology, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld. Katy had spent "some of her time in Hades on the dark side," said Janet, whilst she, "as her mother Demeter, cried my tears to water the flowers and the trees to make everything beautiful for her return to the brightness and the light". Katy had been "confident, beautiful, intelligent, cheeky... and had one hell of a temper," her tearful younger sister Jill said. She could have done anything she wanted -- but she chose the path she had because she was a "people person". Katy had "lived love, she is love and she is loved", she declared, inviting her sister to carry on living through her, to travel with her and to experience with her. Her father John said much had been written about Katy in recent days -- some true, some false, some simply made up. He believed his daughter was not gone but was here, close, right now -- "thoroughly enjoying the show". Sobbing, the grieving family held one another in the fast-fading light as their beloved Katy was laid to rest amid the peace and tranquillity of the beautiful old churchyard. - Nicola Anderson
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