Never-before-seen text messages between the late Anthony Bourdain and his girlfriend, actress Asia Argento illuminate the reported downward spiral he entered before his death.
Never-before-seen text messages between the late Anthony Bourdain and his girlfriend, actress Asia Argento, illuminate the reported downward spiral he entered before his death, according to a new book on the life of the beloved chef.
Just days before Bourdain's shocking suicide, Argento was photographed in an embrace with a French journalist, sending Bourdain into a downward spiral.
“I am not jealous that you have been with another man,” Bourdain texted Argento. “I do not own you. You are free. As I said. As I promised. As I truly meant. But you were careless. You were reckless with my heart. My life.”
Author Charles Leerhsen reveals the explosive texts his new book, “Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain.”
“I think that had everything to do with his despair and his feeling what I call that exquisite misery that he got in the end,” Leerhsen said of Bourdain’s unrequited love for Argento.
Just hours before the celebrity chef took his own life in a French hotel in 2018, he reached out to Argento one last time.
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.
“Stop busting my b****,” Argento wrote.
“OK,” Bourdain texted back.
“Why someone goes from that point, from despair to self-destruction is a mystery I don't think we'll ever know. that was his decision not hers,” Leerhsen said.
Leerhsen writes that at the time of his death, Bourdain, who had struggled with drugs and alcohol, had becoming increasingly exhausted from traveling the globe.
“On top of that, he was ingesting huge amounts of alcohol, which is a substance that will tire you out further, so he was in an exhausted state,” he said. “He thought his life was hopeless and he chose what's often known as a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
An excerpt from Leerhsen’s book can be read below:
"He was arguably one of the most famous people in the world. Yet over his last two years, Bourdain pushed people away or let long-running relationships lapse until in the end there was no one left in his life to play
the role of Person Who Plans Your Funeral--or at least no one except a woman whom none of his friends or family would speak to, or even speak about, and who would in any case not be up to the task of organizing a proper send-off. Meanwhile, because he was after all, Tony Bourdain, he still had the respect, at least, of all who knew him and the love of almost a whole wide world full of people who felt like they did. 'There was chaos swirling around him at all times,’ a member of TV crew said, referring to his 250-days-a-year-on-the-road lifestyle. 'But on and off camera Tony lived a magical journey.’"
If you or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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