“Paula Yates died from the use of non-addictive drugs,” said a spokeswoman for Westminster Coroner’s Court. “Traces of morphine, which is a derivative of heroin, were found in his blood.”
Yates, 41, was found dead at her London home on 17 September.
Coroner Paul Knapman told the inquest that Yates did not commit suicide, BBC Radio reported. His death was the result of a “simple heroin user” using drugs, he said.
The court heard that 0.3 milligrams of morphine per liter of blood was found in her body, which would not have been enough to kill her if she had been addicted to heroin.
A close friend of Yates’, Belinda Brewin, said the inquest found Yates had not used illegal drugs for nearly two years but resumed the day before her death, the BBC said.
Yates had fought a long and very public battle with drugs and alcohol.
She rose to fame in the 1980s as co-host of Channel Four’s music program The Tube and later The Big Breakfast, where she hosted celebrities for breakfast interviews.
Yates had four children: Fifi Trixibelle, 17; peaches, 11; and Pixie, 10 – from Ireland’s Geldof and Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, 4, from Hutchence, lead singer of Australian band INXS.
He has suffered from depression since Hutchence was found hanged in his Sydney hotel room in November 1997.
Yates, who had said Hutchence was the love of his life, refused to accept a coroner’s verdict that he committed suicide, claiming instead that he died accidentally during a sex game.
Hutchence’s mother, Patricia Glassop, and half-sister, Tina Hutchence, said Michael was driven to suicide last month by constant clashes with Yates. They said Hutchence was not in love with Yates and did not want to marry him.
Yates’ body was found by a family friend in the bedroom of their home in London’s Notting Hill.
Tiger Lily was put on trial after her mother’s death and is currently being assisted by Geldof, who already had custody of her three children. Geldof and Yates divorced in 1996.
