30 years ago, on April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain, lead vocalist and composer of the band Nirvana, committed suicide, leaving behind a daughter who was only one and a half years old, Frances Bean Cobain. Now, the 32-year-old has welcomed, on September 17, 2024, her first child: Robin Walker Cobain Hawk; with his partner, Riley Hawk, son of the famous skater Californian, Tony Hawk, as announced by the mother on his Instagram account last Saturday, September 28. 11 days after the birth, the daughter of Nirvana and Hole stars, Courtney Love, posted: “Welcome to the world, you are the most beautiful child. “We love you more than anything.” The advertisement is accompanied by three black and white images in which the baby appears next to the mother’s hands and, in another photo, the father holding him in his arms. The paternal grandfather has shown his happiness at the birth of his grandson in the comments of the publication: “My favorite grandson!” the athlete joked. It was not known that the couple was expecting a baby, so the news came as a real surprise to fans.
Cobain and Hawk, 31, made their relationship public in 2022, when the artist and model first shared photos of them together on Instagram. A year later, the couple married on October 7, 2023 in an intimate, Victorian-inspired ceremony that was officiated by Michael Stipe, vocalist of the band REM, who is also the godfather of Cobain and Love’s daughter. , alongside actress Drew Barrymore. Of the wedding, the only photos that were shared were those published by the groom’s father, Tony Hawk, in a post on Instagram to celebrate, some time after the marriage, his son’s 31st birthday at the end of 2023.
Cobain is known for being the only descendant of Kurt Cobain and the lead singer of Hole. It is known that she is a visual artist, that she has worked as a model in several professional projects and that she is dedicated to safeguarding her father’s legacy. Previously, Cobain was married to musician Isaiah Jones Silva, between 2014 and 2016, who is only remembered because a judge granted him ownership of the guitar that Kurt Cobain played at the famous Unplugged in New York. Silva assured that the instrument was a wedding gift from his now ex-wife. In 2020 he sold the guitar at auction for $6 million. Cobain, being the only daughter of the couple, controls the publicity rights to her father’s name and image. On the other hand, Hawk is the eldest son of the legendary skater Tony Hawk and has followed in his father’s footsteps into the world of professional sports, forging his own career in the skateboarding.
The news of the birth has been received with enthusiasm by various figures around the couple. Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, commented on the post: “Ahhh! Congratulations!”. For her part, Harper Grohl, daughter of Dave Grohl—Kurt Cobain’s former bandmate in Nirvana—has also expressed her joy and emotion of the moment with heart and tear emojis. Comedian Kate Micucci has joined in the congratulations writing: “Welcome sweet Ronin! We love you.”
Last April, Cobain shared an emotional tribute to his father, on the 30th anniversary of his death, through a extensive and moving post on Instagram, where she reflected on her loss and shared unpublished photographs of her, when she was a baby, with her father. “I wish I had met my dad,” explained the visual artist. “I wish I knew the cadence of her voice, how she liked her coffee, or what it felt like to be tucked in after a bedtime story. “I always wondered if he had caught tadpoles with me during the humid Washington summers, or if he smelled like Camel Lights and strawberry Nesquik (his favorites, I’m told).”
In her message on Instagram, Cobain also shared the last line of a letter her father wrote to her before she was born: “Wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you.” And, in addition, he reflected on how he has felt the presence of the leader of Nirvana in many ways throughout his life and concluded his tribute with a universal and empathetic message for all people who are in a situation similar to his: “Anyone who has wondered what it would have been like to live alongside the people they have lost: I have them in my thoughts today. The meaning of our pain is the same.”
The arrival of Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk symbolizes a new chapter in the life of Cobain, whose history has been marked by both fame and tragedy. His father’s suicide is compounded by a complicated childhood marked by constant displacement – he has been through 27 different homes throughout his life – and by the forced separation from his mother on three occasions: in 1992 after Love publicly admitted that she had used heroin during her pregnancy, in 2003 after an arrest for attempted robbery, overdose and threats of suicide, and in 2009 for undisclosed reasons. Furthermore, although she now has stability with Hawk, she went through a tumultuous divorce with musician Isaiah Silva and, in 2018, in an interview for Rolling Stone, admitted her addiction to alcohol and drugs after two years sober.
