The rock star, Michael Hutchence (37), died by hanging but it remained unclear whether he committed suicide or choked to death by accident, the Sydney coroner announced yesterday.
The New South Wales state coroner, Mr Derrick Hand, said more tests were needed to determine whether the singer took his own life.
Police in Sydney hastily retracted a statement claiming it was a "straight case" of suicide after the coroner made his own doubts clear, refuelling speculation that the lead singer of INXS may have been the victim of a sex game.
Ms Paula Yates revealed that the bitter custody battle over her three children with her former husband, Bob Geldof, had driven her lover to despair shortly before he died. She said Hutchence was distraught after she told him by telephone that she could not travel to Sydney because Geldof had refused to allow any of his children to go with her.
Hutchence was found by a chambermaid on Saturday at lunchtime, hanging naked in his room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Sydney. A variety of prescription pills, including the anti-depressant, Prozac, were found nearby.
As doubts emerged over the manner of his death, New South Wales police yesterday distanced themselves from their earlier statement which claimed the singer had committed suicide, saying: "The only statement is the one from the coroner."
Hutchence's funeral is to be held on Thursday at Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral.
Detectives are still trying to reconstruct the final hours of his life. They want to question two actors, Kym Wilson and Christopher Stollery, who were drinking with the singer in the early hours of Saturday shortly before he died.
More Tests Ordered To Solve Hutchence Death Riddle
By PA News Reporters
Contrary to Hutchence's hellraising image, he was "sweet, innocent and sensitive" and a "wonderful father", Paula Ms Yates insisted. Miss Yates Ms Yates has said she was shopping for wedding shoes for the couple's planned marriage in January, when her lover was found dead. She added that she intended to dye black the wedding dress she had bought for that occasion to wear at Hutchence's funeral. "I'm going to wear it with pride," she said.
Ms Yates was immediately driven to the mortuary after arriving in Sydney to see Hutchence's body before the post-mortem.
She is understood to have spent some time at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Glebe before being driven to a secret hideaway, where she is believed to be with Hutchence's family and friends.
Ms Yates reportedly was distraught during the long-haul flight, despite having been sedated by a doctor before travelling and drinking champagne during the journey.
Meanwhile, British Airways said it was investigating allegations of a scuffle involving Ms Yates at Bangkok airport during a brief touchdown on the flight to Australia. She told a reporter, Martin Frizell of GMTV, that her journey to Sydney was made worse by an alleged violent run-in with ground staff during the stopover.
She was waiting in the airport's VIP lounge when her flight was called and a friend asked if she could be taken to the aircraft on a buggy because she was "out of the game", it was claimed.
Frizell said: "British Airways ground staff refused this. In fact, one member of staff went up to her face and said, `I don't care if your husband has been killed, if you want to catch that plane you better get down to that gate.'
"She then threw something in his face and he kicked her."
Speaking outside a four-storey terraced house in Chelsea, west London, Bob Geldof last night said it was not his habit to talk about private matters, but he understood that the death of the INXS star was "a big story".
He said: "I do not talk about these things at all. I have not talked about them for three years and I do not think I'll start now, I do not think I ever will.
"I am not being difficult but it's better for me if I do not just say anything at all. I can live with the whole situation a lot better, with myself.
"I do understand that it's a big story, but it's just better for me not to talk about it."