Bob Geldof blames the U.K. family court system for the emotional suffering his children endured following his separation from their mother Paula Yates, branding custody rulings "state-sanctioned kidnapping".

The Boomtown Rats frontman had three children during his relationship and subsequent marriage to journalist Yates, and he fought for custody rights when she left him in 1995 for Inxs rocker Michael Hutchence.

He believes the court battle has had a lasting affect on his children, including his late daughter Peaches, who died in April (14) at the age of 25 from a heroin overdose.

Geldof tells Saga Magazine, "Peaches I don't really want to talk about as it's too raw, but I will say I blame the entire family court system for so much of their subsequent pain... All I wanted was to see my kids 50 per cent of the time. I wouldn't have had children if I didn't want the privilege of bringing them up, and I wanted to keep my kids away from this decadent world Paula had fallen into.

"The courts, of course, prevented that as much as possible and I got them every two weeks, having been with them every day since they were born.

"If I'd walked out with my kids, I would have been arrested for kidnap, but if a woman walks out with the kids the father is allowed to see them only every other weekend. It's state-sanctioned kidnapping."

Geldof became the full-time parent of his three children after Yates died from a heroin overdose in 2000, and he later adopted her daughter with Hutchence, Tiger-Lily.