Michael Hutchence and Helena Christensen were a "perfect match". Then a head injury changed him.

Content warning: This article deals with suicide and may be triggering for some readers.

In 1991, a Victoria’s Secret Angel met a rockstar.

Helena Christensen and the INXS frontman Michael Hutchence were the quintessential 90s couple, and they remained together for four years until the pair split in 1995.

Speaking in new documentary, Mystify: Michael Hutchence, which explores Michael Hutchence’s turbulent life, Christensen described their relationship as a “perfect match” that was “joyful, sweet, deep and emotional”.

“[It was] total mental and physical chemistry,” she said.

But two years after they split, the 37-year-old was found dead in a hotel room in Sydney’s Double Bay. An inquest found it to be suicide.

Helena Christensen believes the answer to Michael Hutchence’s deteriorating health and wellbeing in the final five years of his life lies in an accident in August 1992.

When the couple were drinking on the streets of her hometown Copenhagen, Hutchence refused to move for a taxi, prompting the driver to assault the musician. Hutchence fell to the ground, hitting his head on the concrete.

"He was unconscious and there was blood coming out of his mouth and ear," Christensen recalled. "I thought he was dead."

Hutchence suffered a serious head injury, one Christensen says left him a different man.

Watch the trailer for Mystify. Post continues after video. 

While he survived, she believes the injury fundamentally changed his personality, revealing a "dark and very angry" side to the rockstar.

"We got to the hospital and he woke up and was aggressive... They were trying to make him stay but he was physically pushing them away," Christensen said in the documentary.

Christensen described the change as quick and drastic. Three years after the accident the musician left her for British television host Paula Yates.

In 2002, seven years after Hutchence's death, Helena Christensen told The Guardian she believes his death was a mistake.

"'I'm sure he never meant to do what he did. It was a terrible mistake. The first thing I'm going to do when I get up there [pointing skywards] is ask him, 'What were you thinking of?'".

More recently, in a tribute to Hutchence on the INXS frontman's remembrance website to commemorate 20 years since his passing, Christensen described him as "kind".

"Hey Michael, thinking about you today as 20 years have passed since your death. In fact, I think about you often, when I hear your voice singing or when something random reminds me of you, a place, a word, a scent… Thinking of you usually makes me smile, even crack up, because you were very funny in such a unique and refreshing way," she wrote in the tribute in 2017.

"I hold so many memories about us being totally childish and doing hilarious things and I love that those moments are how I best remember you. You shared your enormous talent with the world and touched so many people with your kind, empathetic heart,  but what a special honor it is to have been one of the lucky few who got to know the sweet, curious, caring, smart and funny man you were on a personal level," she added.

She went on to thank the musician for the gifts he left the world.

"You left us the beautiful  present of  being able to listen to your amazing voice, over and over, and for that we will always be grateful. We play INXS every summer when we’re gathered under a dark violet summer sky, while cicadas chirp along and stories about you are being told, making us all smile and hug. You are with us in so many ways still…"

This week Helena Christensen was appointed as the UN's newest Goodwill Ambassador. The 50-year-old has one son, Mingus Lucien Reedus, who was born in 1999 with her then partner Norman Reedus.

Read more on this topic: 

• In 1994, Paula Yates interviewed Michael Hutchence. Four months later, she left her husband.
• 'Only three things could've happened that day.' Inside the mysterious death of Michael Hutchence.
• For years, Tiger Lily Hutchence didn't know that Michael Hutchence was her biological father.
• "He was a broken man." Inside Kylie Minogue's intense relationship with Michael Hutchence.

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