How Frances Bean Cobain Lost Her Treasured Family Heirloom In Divorce Settlement

Frances Bean Cobain split from her husband, Isaiah Silva, in March 2016. This was less than two years after their nuptials. The marriage took place so privately that even Cobain's mother didn't know about it.

“Getting to spend the rest of my life loving my best friend makes me the luckiest woman in the world,” she posted on Facebook, according to the HuffPost.

Silva was the lead singer for "The Eeries'' and was compared to Cobain's father in terms of style and looks.

The couple seemed like a match made in heaven until March 2016 when Cobain filed for divorce. Although the pair chalked it up to "irreconcilable differences," what followed after was a court battle over spousal support and a famous family heirloom.

It also spawned several lawsuits and threats. There was even an alleged plot to have Sliva killed.

Per TMZ, the couple has now finally reached a property agreement; Cobain would now have to give her ex-spouse one of her father's famous guitars.

The guitar in question was the iconic 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar. It was used by her late father, Nirvana singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain, in a November 1993 edition of "MTV Unplugged."

According to Biography, Cobain's early childhood consisted of custody battles and drama which surrounded her parent's drug use.

After the loss of her dad to suicide in 1994, she grew closer to her paternal grandmother, Wendy O'Connor. Cobain called her "the most constant thing I've ever had."

Cobain was only 17 and newly separated from her drug-addicted mother, Courtney Love when she met Silva.

In a podcast for RuPaul, she mentioned that;

“The idea of securing a family very early on was the opposite of what my mom did. She only had a family life for like two years, and then she never remarried or anything, so I wasn’t ever provided with any kind of stability. So I met this guy, who at the time, presented himself to be stable and normal, but that mutated later on.”

Similarly, the divorce left Silva very bitter. According to TMZ, he alleged that there was no nuptial agreement between them.

He also admitted that Cobain left him high and dry after promising to pay for all his expenses. This included the cost of private schooling for a child from his previous relationship.

At the moment, the bone of contention lies with the guitar. Silva claimed his wife gave him the guitar as a gift.

However, Cobain refuted this and insisted that she would never have handed over a "priceless family heirloom."

Nonetheless, the daughter of Kurt and Love was keen to move on, so she gave up the fight. He also asked for $25,000 a month in spousal support.

After the divorce was finalized, Silva got the guitar and nothing else.

TMZ reported that “there’s one major condition to Silva getting Kurt’s guitar — Silva’s baby mama has to quickly vacate the couple’s L.A. house, which is now strictly Cobain’s under the property settlement.” This house was estimated at $450million.

While Cobain lost the instrument, she had some success in that she didn't have to pay spousal support.

Silva would also have to pay for his own legal bills, despite hoping his ex would pay for them.

Cobain and Silva have no media representatives, and neither Cobain nor her mother have commented on the marriage dispute on social media.

Silva appears to have no social media, and no comments were posted on those of his band.

In May 2020, Page Six announced that the guitar used by the iconic Kurt Cobain would be auctioned off by an unknown seller. Although no one is certain on who the seller is, all fingers point to Silva.

A month after, BBC reported that the guitar went up for sale with a starting bid of $1million.

It was eventually sold to Peter Freedman, an Australian businessman and founder of Rode Microphones, for $6.01million.

Freedman admitted that this was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and planned to take the guitar on a world tour. This was in a bid to raise money for the performing arts.

In November 1993, Kurt Cobain and the rest of his band took to the MTV stage for a performance that would be one of their last appearances.

In hindsight, the stage looked more suited for a funeral than a concert. This oddly foreshadowed his tragic death just five months later.

On stage, Cobain seemed tired and subdued but warmed up to the audience as the set progressed. David Grohl, who was Nirvana's drummer and vocalist, admitted that "the show was meant to be a disaster."

He mentioned how they had few rehearsals and it was terrible. Then when they got to the stage, "the cameras started rolling and something clicked." It became one of the band’s most memorable performances.