David Bowie‘s daughter made startling claims about how she was forcefully taken to rehab at 14 ahead of her dad’s death.
Lexi Jones, whom Bowie shared with model Iman, took to Instagram earlier this month with a video detailing the “dehumanizing” experience. Jones, now 25, revealed she struggled with mental health issues as a child, which led to her seeing a therapist at 10 years old. She started to self-harm one year later and ultimately developed bulimia by age 12.
“I don’t know why I felt the way I felt,” she admitted. “I just knew I was miserable. I felt stupid, incompetent, unworthy, useless, unlovable. And having successful parents kind of only made it worse.”
Jones said her “breaking point” came after Bowie was diagnosed with cancer. After she tried coping with alcohol and drugs, Bowie allegedly made the decision to enroll his daughter in a rehab facility.
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“Then two men came through the door, and they were both well over six feet tall,” she recalled. “They told me I could do this the easy way or the hard way. I chose the hard way. I resisted. I screamed. I held onto the table leg. They grabbed me. They put their hands on me. They pulled me away from everything I knew, and I was screaming bloody murder.”
Jones was allegedly taken to a wilderness camp. She was only allowed to shower once a week, had no mirrors and wasn’t allowed to know any details about her location.
“We dug holes in the ground to use as bathrooms far away from the site,” she claimed in the emotional video. “And every time we used the bathroom, we had to count out loud so that staff would keep track of us.”
Jones recalled only being able to communicate with people once a week via letters. She also slept under tarps on a yoga mat and a sleeping bag and said her meals were made over fires.
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“The whole experience felt dehumanizing, like the whole point was to take away every basic human comfort and need,” she said about the three-month stay at wilderness camp, which led to her entering a residential treatment center in Utah for over a year. “All of this was happening while my dad was only getting more sick back at home.”
Bowie died at age 69 in 2016 following a battle with liver cancer.
“I was not there,” Jones noted. “I had the luxury of speaking with him two days before on his birthday. I told him I loved him, he said it back, and we both knew.”
She continued: “I’ve accepted it. I’ve tried not to internalize it or feel guilty. But sometimes I still have those moments where I wish things were to be different.”
