Pete Doherty: the troubles and transformation of a rock star

A real artist, Pete Doherty has had three successful bands, including The Libertines. You may think he's simply been a rockstar with a bad drug habit, but there is so much more to this music lover. It includes supermodel girlfriends, drug abuse, and - can you believe it?! - 21 arrests over the years.

Along with his rollercoaster career, the rock star's physical appearance has changed dramatically. Let's have a look at his amazing transformation!

From Hexham in Northumberland, UK, Pete Doherty had a great start in life. Born in 1979, he had a regimented upbringing at army garrisons, due to his parents being military personnel. But had a stable home life with his two sisters, Amy Jo and Emily.

A brilliant student, Doherty was clearly a talent from a young age. He could play the guitar, write poetry, and get impressive exam results at both GCSE and A-Level. Doherty won a poetry competition when he was just 16.

He met his manager, Jai Stanley, back then at school in Coventry. When asked by The Guardian in an interview with Stanley about how Pete was in his younger years, he said Pete was “Utterly brilliant. He got top grades in everything.”

As he left school, the young Pete Doherty headed up to London and got his first job. The young talent would find himself filling graves in Willesden cemetery, until going on to study English Literature at Queen Mary University.

Despite the prestigious position he found himself in, university life wasn’t for Pete. He just wanted to get out there and make music - it was his burning passion. He quit University life after the first year and his story truly began.

Drama student Carl Barat came into Pete’s life when he was just 18 years old. They had everything in common - style, English culture and folklore, and, of course, making music. They formed the rock band, ‘The Libertines’.

The group had a few good hits and their first album was a great success. In fact, in their early days, NME even put them on the front cover of their magazine, calling them the "best new band in Britain."

Relationships within the band began to deteriorate. Pete found drugs and missed concerts. The band was slowly disintegrating.

Then Pete did something unimaginable that would lead to the beginning of the end of the band. In 2003, he broke into his Libertine bandmate's flat. Pete robbed his old friend, Carl Barat, and stole an antique guitar, video recorder, laptop, mouth organ and a CD player. He got caught and was convicted of robbery with a sentence of six months in prison.

As Consequence.net reports, the lawyers put it down to his ‘high emotional’ and ‘drug-addled state.’ His 6-month sentence was reduced to 2 months and Pete reconciled with Barat when he left prison. It didn’t last long, though, and the two had a very turbulent friendship, leading to the dissolution of The Libertines.

He was arrested again shortly after this ordeal: this time for violently demanding money from photographer Max Carlish after he sold photos of Pete to the tabloids. Carlish was hospitalized but all charges of battery were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

In the midst of all this controversy, Pete had a fling with singer/songwriter Lisa Moorish. Their brief relationship produced a son, Astile. The boy is now an adult and Pete has his name tattooed on his neck.

Lisa told Metro in 2009: "Peter has on-and-off problems with his recovery so it was a really difficult decision to make… But when he came out of rehab last year and started to get his life in order I thought the time was right. I want Astile to have a dad."

In 2004, Pete Doherty released a single that would make it to the top ten: ‘For Lovers’. Pete had continued to record single songs whilst with The Libertines and they earned him great critical acclaim.

Then, as one band dissolved, another was born. Babyshambles was a hit with Doherty fans and rock listeners alike. The Guardian readers left reviews of their concerts, stating that the "songs are excellent, very catchy, and they performed well as a group." One even said, "The singer really stood out to me, he has a lot of charisma."

In 2005, Pete met supermodel Kate Moss. Their time together was brief, but for the media and fans at the time, it seemed to go on a lifetime.

From arguments to physical fights, the British press were constantly reporting about one turmoil or another between the pair. Their wild partying and substance abuse was never far from the headlines.

One of these turbulent moments in their romance included Pete drawing a portrait of himself and Kate. He used crayons… and his own blood.

Digital Spy reported that Pete was arrested for having class-A substances in his tour bus. Then, according to Irish Examiner, he decided to check himself into rehab in Arizona. As he did this, Kate Moss decided she had ‘various issues to address’ and split with Pete. The rockstar would fail to complete the rehab. He left after six days inside.

The rest of 2005 and early 2006 saw Pete arrested for drug possession, driving under the influence, and even stealing a car. In one 24-hour period, he was arrested 3 times. He was given community orders, driving bans, fines, and ordered to go to drug rehabilitation.

Then in 2006, Mark Blanco fell to his death from a first-floor balcony in London. Pete Doherty and Johnny Headlock fled from the scene. The case was opened, then closed, and accusations were rife, but it remains unsolved to this day. Pete denies knowing anything about how Blanco fell and gets upset when people bring it up.

Pete was trying to get himself clean. According to Spin, at a review of Pete Doherty’s community order, District Judge Jane McIvor said "It seems that his determination is increasing." His solicitor reported that doctors hoped to put Doherty on an opiate replacement.

An unlikely pairing, Pete Doherty found himself tied to Nikki Grahame, the 'Big Brother' star. They were reported to be having a ‘fling’ and were spotted in Nikki’s flat while Pete sang songs and played the guitar to her. Nikki told MailOnline that Pete had been one of her clients when she worked briefly as a £500-per-hour escort. "He was my first booking. He often used the agency. I went round to a flat in London. It was a complete s*** hole full of other druggies playing guitars and just hanging out."

Pete Doherty had a history with Irina, having previously proposed to her in 2004. They had met in London when Irina was at ballet school and she joined Pete on tour. They reignited their fling in 2007 but it was much more than that.

Was Irina what Pete needed to free himself from his struggle with substance abuse? The Guardian wrote of his 2007 concert: "Sweaty and blotchy, Doherty does a fair amount of staggering around but he is with it, chatting to the audience, dodging treasure thrown at him by fans ('You could have someone's eye out with that!'), lobbing shoes back into the crowd. 'It's a bit confusing, doing these gigs sober,' he mutters at one point, and gets a big cheer."

The Guardian reports that a judge said in a court review that Doherty was "more than cooperating" in his battle to "beat his addiction" and Pete even checked himself back into rehab.

That same year, it seemed Pete was on the straight and narrow, producing great music and art. They even featured 14 of his paintings at an exhibition at London's Bankrobber Gallery. Following that, he showcased another exhibition titled, 'Art of the Albion' at Galerie Chappe in Paris.

Doherty wrote 'The Books of Albion: The Collected Writings' in 2007, a wonderful memoir of his personal journals from his struggling days in London. It is an intimate collection of lyrics, photo collages, poems, personal reflections, thoughts, and drawings. The same year he was even the face of a designer brand, Roberto Cavalli.

Pete proposed to Irina Lăzăreanu for the second time in 2007, but Lăzăreanu wasn’t into the life with Babyshambles. She told Square Mile, "Every day was a new drama: some press scandal, a band member’s arrest, a missed gig here, a band feud there, someone going MIA or losing their passport on the day they were supposed to travel." The relationship didn’t last.

Not only did it not last, but Pete took a step back in his road to recovery. He was arrested for attacking photographer Cath Mead after she had taken photographs of him and Irina. Doherty pleaded guilty and was fined $2,000.

Finally, he was caught by the tabloids while he was clearly using substances. He vowed he would go back into rehabilitation. In an interview with NME magazine, Doherty admitted that staying off drugs is "hard work."

In 2011, Doherty was jailed for six months after Robin Whitehead, who wanted to make a film about Doherty, was found dead. Damning evidence was produced of Doherty smoking a most addictive substance with Whitehead days before she died.

Pete fathered a daughter in 2011 with model Lindi Hingston. The little girl, Aisling, was born premature and Pete’s comment to the press was: "The little girl was two months premature. I said I'd try to be there for the birth... Yeah, she's mine."

A year after Amy Winehouse’s death, Pete revealed they had had a secret romance. The Daily Mail was the first to get the confession. Pete said that they had begun their relationship in August 2010 after one of Doherty's London gigs.

As time passed, Doherty was trying to find a pure life, clean of drugs. But he struggled to keep himself from the addiction. In 2015 he went back into rehab in Thailand and told the world he had cured his addictions. When The Guardian asked how long he was clean for, he said, "Honestly? For about 10 minutes after I got back to Margate."

Doherty was happily in the news for polishing off a huge mega-breakfast, containing an estimated 4,000 calories. You eat it all, you get it for free. Doherty finished the mega-meal and was glad he did as he confessed he was broke. But he felt "accepted in the community" of Margate, according to the Guardian.

Pete Doherty created his own band and released a new self-titled album in 2019. Little would people have thought that at 40 Pete Doherty would still be as passionate about music as his first day in the business. Little would people have thought that Pete Doherty would still be alive at 40…

Doherty still continued writing music, alongside his bandmate Katia De Vidas. They even took their relationship one step further. The couple is not married but in a long-term relationship that could have begun all the way back in 2012.

The pair have been living a quiet life in Etretat, according to The Guardian, a coastal town in Normandy, after the rocker quit his drug habit. Both of them live a peaceful and substance-free life, but Pete is still singing and playing. He even graced the stage at Glastonbury in 2022. He has finally come out of his drug-inflicted nightmare.

Even when times were really tough for the singer, he was always optimistic and, despite being self-destructive, he never wanted to take his own life. To The Guardian, he said: "[people] always think I’m ill or dying because I’m out with the pipe. But I love it. I love life. I squeeze everything I can out of the day."