Nick Cave’s son Jethro Lazenby has died aged 30, the musician said today – seven years after the star’s 15-year-old son Arthur fell to his death from a cliff in Brighton.
Jethro, who lived in Melbourne, had been released from prison on bail two days before he died, having been jailed for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’.
‘With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away,’ Cave said in a statement this afternoon. ‘We would be grateful for family privacy at this time.’
The Australian singer, best known as the frontman of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, was first struck by tragedy in July 2015 when Arthur fell 60ft to his death from a cliff in Ovingdean, near Brighton.
The 15-year-old – who was a twin to Earl Cave and described by his family as a ‘beautiful, happy, loving boy’ – had been taking the hallucinogenic drug LSD, an inquest later heard.
Jethro was born to his Melbourne-based model mother Beau Lazenby in 1991, who was in a relationship with Cave at the time. He himself largely worked as a model, while also taking on a number of acting roles.
He was released on bail from Melbourne Remand Centre on Thursday after a magistrate ordered he undergo substance abuse treatment and avoid contact with her for two years.
‘I do say to you that it’s entirely in your best interests to participate with all support services that I’ve set-up for you,’ Magistrate Donna Bakos said.
‘It’s very very important that your path to rehabilitation will be a much more positive one and therefore you will be less of a risk to the community at large and in particular to your mother.’
Jethro’s lawyer, Sean Ghattas, said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement.
According to the BBC, in 2018 Jethro spent time in jail for several violent attacks on his then-girlfriend.
Cave has two other sons, Luke, 30, from his first marriage to Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro, and Earl, 21, from his marriage to Susie Bick, who he wed in 1999.
Nick Cave today confirmed the death of his son, Jethro Lazenby, who he is seen with in 2006. He said: ‘With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away. We would be grateful for family privacy at this time’
Jethro was born to his Melbourne-based model mother Beau Lazenby in 1991, who was in a relationship with Cave at the time
The Australian singer, best known as the frontman of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, was first struck by tragedy in July 2015 when Arthur (pictured) fell 60ft to his death from a cliff in Ovingdean, near Brighton
Jethro had roles in 2007 film Corroboree and 2011’s My Little Princess – starring Isabelle Huppert – but suffered from personal problems for some years after struggling with his mental health.
Despite using his father’s name to drive his own modelling career, Jethro has said in the past he didn’t meet Cave until he was seven. The BBC reported that he was not aware that Cave was his father until that time.
The 30-year-old was jailed earlier this year following an assault on his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Melbourne.
She had found her troubled son at her front door just after midnight on March 7, before he convinced her to allow him to stay the night.
The following morning the pair got into an argument where Jethro kneed his mother in the face, causing bleeding and bruising. She fled to a nearby pub and asked people there to call the police, the court heard.
He admitted one count of unlawful assault and breaching court orders after other charges were struck out following a deal with prosecutors, the Herald Sun reported.
Jethro’s lawyer Mr Ghattas asked his sentence be time served and for him to be released from prison, but Magistrate Donna Bakos replied: ‘I’m not sure I agree with you.’
She noted his ‘considerable criminal history’, which includes a series of violent assaults on his girlfriend in 2018 which saw him spend time in jail.
The court heard Cave’s son had screamed: ‘I’m going to murder you’ three times while holding the woman down.
In 2012, Lazenby told the Evening Standard that his relationship with his father was strained.
He had been born just 10 days before Cave’s second son Luke, and he did not meet his father until be was ‘about seven, eight’ years old, he told the newspaper at the time.
In 2008, Cave hinted at the complicated relationship he had with his son, but went on to say that it had improved.
‘It was a difficult time, but it turned out great in the end,’ he said, according to Rolling Stone magazine. ‘To my eternal regret, I didn’t make much contact with Jethro in the early years, but I now have a great relationship with him.’
Jethro was jailed earlier this year following an assault on his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Melbourne
Cave with his wife, Susie, at the UK Premiere of ‘True History Of The Kelly Gang’ at the Picturehouse Central on February 17, 2020 in London
Cave and his wife, Susie, relocated from Brighton to Los Angeles in the wake of Arthur’s death, before returning to England.
The musician, who lived with his family in palatial seafront Regency mansion in Brighton for 15 years, told GQ magazine in 2017: ‘Grief and illness and tiredness feed off each other in a kind of feeding frenzy.
‘Mostly we just find it too difficult to live here. Everyone here has just been so great, and that’s in a way half the problem. When I go out in Brighton these days, there’s a sort of feeling that we’re all in this together. And it’s just a little bit too intense for me.
‘It’s too many memories, really. We’ve really tried. But it’s just beyond us, in a way, to remain.’
Last year, the rocker was asked on fan Q&A site Red Hand Files why he had decided to move from Brighton.
In response, the star spoke of his Bad Seeds track Heart That Kills You, which he said was ‘clearly written’ while he was grieving for Arthur.
‘The words of the song go someway toward articulating why Susie [his wife] and I moved from Brighton to L.A.,’ Cave explained. ‘Brighton had just become too sad.
‘We did, however, return once we realised that, regardless of where we lived, we just took our sadness with us.
‘These days, though, we spend much of our time in London, in a tiny, secret, pink house, where we are mostly happy.’
Cave’s son Arthur in 2015 died after taking hallucinogenic drugs and stumbling off a cliff top near his home, plummeting 60ft to the ground.
Motorists rushed to help Arthur when they saw him zigzagging across the top of a cliff in bare feet.
But they were unable to reach the confused teenager, who then fell down Ovingdean Gap.
He suffered catastrophic injuries and despite being rushed to the nearby Royal Sussex Hospital he later died.
A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death at an inquest later in 2015, after which Cave said the grief was ‘unimaginable’. The family also spoke of their heartbreak after the death of their ‘beautiful, happy loving boy’.
Meanwhile, in a heartbreaking note left alongside a floral tribute at the cliffs, Earl Cave called his brother Arthur a ‘joy to be around’, adding: ‘You were the best brother I could ever ask for’.
The note read: ‘Arthur – I love you so much. You were a joy to be around. I will never forget you.’
Cave with Arthur (right) in 2012 and his other son, Earl, during a premiere of the Hobbit in London in 2012
Cave with his wife, Susie, at a London dinner to raise money for a charity campaigning against HIV. They currently live in London
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