Frances Bean Cobain celebrated a milestone birthday this week, one she wasn’t always sure she’d live to see.
On Wednesday, the daughter of Courtney Love and the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain posted a series of images on Instagram from the past year to commemorate turning 30 years old. Frances wrote in the caption, “30!!! I made it! Honestly, 20 year old Frances wasn’t sure that was going to happen. At the time, an intrinsic sense of deep self loathing dictated by insecurity, destructive coping mechanisms & more trauma than my body or brain knew how to handle, informed how I saw myself and the world; through a lens of resentment for being brought into a life that seemingly attracted so much chaos and the kind of pain tied to grief that felt inescapable.” Frances’s father died by suicide when he was 27 and she was just 1 years old, and her mother has been candid about her struggles with addiction over the years, revealing in 2020 that she was 18 months sober.
Frances went on to explain that, “an event on a plane which brought me closer in proximity to death is ironically the event that catapulted me towards running at this lived experience with radical gratitude. I’m glad to have proven myself wrong & to have found ways to transform pain into knowledge.” She added, “There’s a quote by @jaiyajohn I hold closely, which is ‘the softer she became with herself, the softer she became with the world.’ It’s a sentiment I try to remember daily.” The artist concluded, “Entering this new decade I hope to stay soft no matter how hardening the world can feel at times, bask in the present moment with reverence, shower the people I am lucky enough to love with more appreciation than words could ever do justice & hold space to keep learning, so the growth never stops. I’m happy to be here & I’m happy you’re here too.”
In one of the photos celebrating the 29th year of her life, Frances posed with her new boyfriend, Riley Hawk, the son of famed skateboarder Tony Hawk. The pair confirmed their relationship on Instagram at the beginning of the year when Frances shared a carousel of images of things that brought her “a great amount of joy” over the course of 2021, which happened to include a couple shots of the professional skateboarder. Frances was previously married to Isaiah Silva, tying the knot in 2014. But the pair went their separate ways 21 months later, finalizing their divorce in 2017. In the legal filings, the couple cited “irreconcilable differences” as the cause, per People, and Frances stated that her ex should not be entitled to any money from her late father’s estate, which is valued at $450 million. However, in dividing their assets, one of their disputes was over the ownership of the 1959 Martin D-18E Cobain played during his iconic 1993 MTV Unplugged set, which Frances ultimately lost to Silva in the settlement. In 2020, the guitar was put up for auction.