Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, has made a high-profile return to the Los Angeles red carpet after an eight-year absence.
The 34-year-old attended the premiere of The Deputy, a new crime comedy starring William H. Macy and former Kanye West partner Julia Fox.
Frances was joined at the event by her husband, Riley Hawk, the son of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and another member of Hollywood’s so-called “nepo baby” generation.
She had largely stepped away from red carpet appearances after 2018. That year, she was photographed with her mother at the opening of the Los Angeles boutique Other People’s Children.
Later that year, Frances was seen alongside Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris Jackson, at the Moschino x H&M runway show during New York Fashion Week.
After years out of the spotlight, Frances returned to the red carpet on Tuesday, drawing attention for her strong resemblance to her father, the Nirvana frontman whose 1994 suicide has recently become the subject of renewed mystery.
Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, returned to the Los Angeles red carpet at the premiere of the crime comedy The Deputy
Frances Bean Cobain attended the premiere with her husband, Riley Hawk, the son of skateboarding icon Tony Hawk
Frances Bean Cobain is pictured as a baby with her parents at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, one year before Kurt Cobain’s death
For her latest public appearance, Frances chose a stylishly faded graphic T-shirt that recalled the alternative-rock aesthetic associated with her parents during the 1990s.
Her long, straight blonde hair fell loosely over her shoulders, further highlighting the physical resemblance she shares with her father.
The Daily Mail has contacted Frances’ representative for comment.
Following her 2018 appearances, Frances largely disappeared from public showbiz events. Her last known appearance before this week came when she sat in the front row at a Moschino show at Universal Studios Hollywood in June 2019.
During her years away from the red carpet, she began dating Riley in 2021. The couple married two years later in a private ceremony in the San Diego area.
The secret wedding was officiated by Frances’ godfather, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, who had been a close friend of Kurt Cobain.
Following Kurt’s death, Stipe wrote the R.E.M. song “Let Me In,” inspired by his efforts to help his friend confront his personal demons.
Kurt Cobain was found dead from a shotgun wound in Seattle in April 1994, after a prolonged struggle with depression and heroin addiction.
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Frances was nearly two years old when she lost her father. In September 2024, she and Riley welcomed a son, Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk.
Frances Bean Cobain’s faded graphic T-shirt at the premiere echoed the style of her parents’ 1990s heyday
Frances began dating Riley Hawk in 2021 and married him two years later in a private San Diego-area ceremony officiated by her godfather, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe
She withdrew from red carpet events after 2018, during which year she posed with her mother at the launch of Los Angeles boutique Other People’s Children (pictured)
Later in 2018, she could be seen mingling with Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson at a Moschino x H&M runway show during New York Fashion Week
She stopped appearing at showbiz events for years after the Moschino show at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2019; pictured there with Nikia Provenzano (left) and Eli Roth (right)
Riley raved last year about the life he and Frances lead as a ‘a very quiet stay-at-home family’ with a son who was ‘learning every day,’ via People.
He reflected that he and his wife ‘don’t really think too much about’ their parents’ legacy in entertainment and prefer to ‘just do our own thing.’
Meanwhile, Tony Hawk shared a heartrending Instagram caption in February 2025 on the subject of Kurt’s absence from his baby grandson’s life.
Posting a ticket stub of a Nirvana concert he attended in 1991, Tony wrote: ‘I wish Kurt were here so he could see the incredible woman his daughter has become, meet her devoted, caring husband, and hold our wondrous grandchild.’
The day before Valentine’s Day 2018 – the year of her final profusion of red carpet appearances before her eight-year hiatus – Frances made a rare disclosure about her personal life by marking two years of sobriety.
Frances, who was nearly two years old when she lost her father, welcomed a son with Riley in September 2024 called Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk
‘It’s an interesting and kaleidoscopic decision to share my feelings about something so intimate in a public forum. The fact that I’m sober isn’t really public knowledge, decidedly and deliberately,’ she wrote. ‘But I think it’s more important to put aside my fear about being judged or misunderstood or typecast as one specific thing.’
Without clarifying what she had been addicted to, she wrote: ‘It is an everyday battle to be in attendance for all the painful, bazaar, uncomfortable, tragic, f***ed up things that have ever happened or will ever happen.’
Frances’ mother also abused cocaine, heroin and pills before announcing in February 2020 that she had achieved 18 months of sobriety.
Love lost custody of her daughter from 2003 until 2005 after a painkiller overdose, and in 2009 court documents revealed that the then 17-year-old Frances had been placed in her grandmother’s guardianship.