Courtney Love claims she was trying to help Peaches Geldof

Courtney Love says she tried to help Peaches Geldof before her death.

Courtney Love has claimed that she "tried to help" Peaches Geldof by setting a better example, after the socialite turned up at her Chateau Marmont hotel room with a "bag full of 500 pills".

The Hole frontwoman, herself a former heroin addict, said she was shocked by the visit in 2010 and admitted to pushing Peaches out of the door because the temptation for relapse was too strong for her.

The encounter, she said, made her want to mentor the socialite, whose own mother Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose in 2000 and whose behaviour made her fear for the welfare of her daughter with Kurt Cobain, Francis Bean Cobain.

"My drug was heroin, I stopped taking it in the 90s, but I have taken the pills, the Roxycontin, Oxycontin," she told Grazia.

"Peaches was in a room with a friend who had a bag full of these drugs, like 500 pills and I wanted it so badly, never have I ever wanted anything more - no man, no money - and I had to physically push Peaches and her friend out of the door.

"I was shaking and I kept thinking of the way her mother died and I thought I owe it to this girl to be an example.

"I was trying to help her, but at that point in her life, it proved to be impossible. Now the parallels to her mommy are horrific. It terrifies me for my own child."

She added that she is grateful that Frances Bean, now 21, is "sensible", but said the meeting with Peaches still deeply affects her - especially in hindsight, following her tragic death in April.

"What happened with me and Peaches that day, when the junkie in me came out and I had to fight for the good side, brings me out in a cold sweat," she continued.

"You just can't believe it happened, it's so f****** tragic. This girl was vivacious, so full of life and it was weird and horrible that she has passed away.

"I read heroin was involved and I was not shocked. I know how Peaches liked opiates."

A preliminary inquest on May 1 into the "sudden and unexplained" death of Peaches, who was 25, ruled that the levels of heroin in her bloodstream was the "likely cause".

A full inquest is expected to be heard in July.

- Independent