A new unauthorized biography titled Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain includes a final text message before his death revealing Bourdain had hated being famous.
In the book, Charles Leerhsen, a journalist, adds a text by the late celebrity US chef in his final days that gives insight into his mindset justifying Bourdain’s struggle with fame and heartbreak in the days leading up to his suicide.
“I hate my fans, too,” Bourdain wrote to his estranged wife Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, who had become one of his close confidants although they had separated in 2016. “I hate being famous. I hate my job. I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”
Fits of jealousy between Bourdain and former girlfriend
In the book due for release on October 11th, Leerhsen also notes that Bourdain and his former girlfriend of two years, Asia Argento, often had fits of jealousy.
Five days before his death in June 2018, Bourdain saw photos of Argento, 47, dancing with French reporter Hugo Clément in a restaurant in Rome that they both used to frequent together as a couple.
Bourdain was “incensed” over the images and searched the Land of the Dead star’s name online “hundreds of times,” causing them to argue over the phone and via text, according to the book.
“I am okay,” the Parts Unknown star reportedly texted Argento a day prior to his death. “I am not spiteful. I am not jealous that you have been with another man. I do not own you. You are free. As I said. As I promised. As I truly meant.”
“But you were careless,” he wrote. “You were reckless with my heart. My life.”
“I hate being famous,” Bourdain reportedly once said via text. “I hate my job.”
Bourdain noted in the same conversation that he was most hurt by the fact that the Italian actress’ alleged tryst took place at a hotel in Rome that they loved.
Argento then reportedly wrote back to him, “I can’t take this” and proceeded to break up with Bourdain over his “possessiveness,” according to the book.
Bourdain hanged himself after chatting with Argento
After a full day of filming followed by a night of drinking, the next day, Bourdain, the beloved chef, reached out to Argento once more.
“Is there anything I can do?” he reportedly asked, to which Argento replied, “Stop busting my balls.”
According to the book, Bourdain, simply wrote back, “OK” and then hanged himself.
When Argento was reached for comment, she told reporters that she had not read the book but had told Leerhsen, “that he could not publish anything I said.”
Argento’s infidelity not to blame
In the past, Argento has unceasingly said that her infidelity was not to blame for Bourdain’s death.
In September 2018, Argento said, “People say I murdered him. They say I killed him. I understand that the world needs to find a reason. I would like to find a reason, too.”
“People need to think that he killed himself for something like this,” she said. “He cheated on me, too. It wasn’t a problem for us.”
“He was a man who traveled 265 days a year,” she added. “When we saw each other, we took really great pleasure in each other’s presence, but we are not children. We are grown-ups.”
The book also reports that Bourdain paid $380,000 to musician-actor Jimmy Bennett, who claimed that he’d had a sexual relationship with Argento when she was thirty-seven and he was still a minor at seventeen.
According to the book, Bennett had sought $3.5 million.
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