The Nirvana frontman had been depressed and taken his life in 1994, two years after the couple got married.
True love works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, it arrests us so completely that we are unable to move on from it for the rest of our lives even if we should have. There aren't many people who would hold a candle to their deceased partner decades after they are gone. But, Courtney Love is one of those rare individuals who have kept the flames of love alive in their hearts long after the lover is gone.
Singer Courtney Love remembered her husband Kurt Cobain, who died at the age of 27 in 1994, on what would have been their 28th wedding anniversary on February 24, 2020. They had been married for a little more than two years when he decided to take his life. His wife and close friends had tried hard to give him hope but he couldn't find it when he was in pain.
The couple met in a nightclub in Portland, Seattle, on January 12, 1990, but Love, now 55, had liked the Nirvana frontman for more than a year after seeing him perform at a gig. Initially, he dismissed her interest in him. "I was determined to be a bachelor for a few months [...] but I knew I liked Courtney so much right away that it was a really hard struggle to stay away from her for so many months," he had said, according to Radiox.co.uk.
Not long after, the couple married at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, on February 24, 1992. The Smells Like Teen Spirit singer wore pajamas to the wedding ceremony while Love, the frontwoman of Hole, wore a white lace and satin gown. Only eight people were invited to the wedding, which included Cobain's Nirvana bandmate and now Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.
Two years after they married, the Polly singer was at the end of his tethers. On March 25, 1994, Nirvana’s former manager Danny Goldberg and a few others tried to speak to the singer about getting better and getting help. "The main memory I have is feeling so shitty about how hard it was for me to get through to him and how deeply depressed he seemed to be. It was not a great situation in terms of connecting with him personally because there were so many other people there and I’m sure he felt under siege in his own house. But Courtney was scared. She’d witnessed that he was going through a very tough time and thought maybe other people talking to him would get him to get some help," said Goldberg to the Independent UK.
Five days later, he agreed to go to rehab to discuss the problems he was facing, one of which was addiction. However, he escaped from there without informing his family where he was going. His body was found three days after he had died. At the time, Cobain and Love were parents to 1.5 years old daughter Frances Bean Cobain, who never got to truly know her father except through stories told to her.
Love never remarried and in 2020, she paid a tribute to the man she still calls "husband." In an Instagram post, she shared a photo from their wedding day when the couple looks happy and giddy with love. "28 years ago, we got married, in Honolulu, on Waikiki beach. tonight spoke to sponsor, I lit some candles, chanted, diamoku, walked my dog. Went to sushi with my best friend, the closest I have to another one," she said.
"28 years ago I recall feeling, deeply, delighted, dizzy, so in love, and knowing how lucky I was. This man was an angel. I thank him for looking out for me, many parts of the last 28 years have been torturous chaotic and uphill, and in public? That is the darkest shit imaginable, it almost tapped my resilience, almost but between Kurt’s strange amazing divinity, and the honor of a few true friends, the gift of desperation and sobriety. Of a Higher power and of love, and of empathy, I’m here now. It’ll be ok, fuck, I see him on the shore. Rocking in the free world. My husband."
References:
https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/nirvana/kurt-cobain-death-wife-courtney-love-wedding/