David Bowie and Iman’s Daughter Shares Her Experience With Rehab Amidst Her Father’s Cancer Battle
Lexi Jones, the daughter of Iman and the late singer David Bowie, opened up about the crushing weight of legacy and her struggles that led her to rehab.
Jones posted an Instagram clip where she candidly spoke about her childhood insecurities, her substance abuse, and her experience with rehab at fourteen. Having famous parents, Jones thought, worsened her self-perception. When Bowie was diagnosed with cancer, Jones “turned to drugs and alcohol” to escape the complications of her personal life.
Jones recalls two men, over six feet tall, entering her home—with her parents and godmother present. The men dragged her out of her home, tied her up, and shoved her into a black SUV. This would be the beginning of ‘wilderness therapy’ for Jones. She was strip-searched and kept at the facility for 91 days.
The camp taught them how to start a bonfire and cook, tie knots, and set up their own tarp tents. But the experience doesn’t resemble a camping trip. Jones describes the experience as “bootcamp’s weird cousin, and it was disguised as something therapeutic.”
A dehumanizing experience
The children in the camp were forced to dig holes in the ground to use as bathrooms. Staff limited communication with the outside world to writing, and the facility dictated who Jones could communicate with. Jones received therapy in the facility and acknowledged the group of girls she made friends with in the camp.
“But still, the entire experience felt dehumanizing.” She adds that “every basic human comfort and need” had been stripped from her and the other children in the facility. She left the wilderness camp, but she was not able to go home. Instead, she was forced to go to a residential treatment center in Utah. Jones stayed for a total of thirteen months.
She claims she was not allowed to speak to other children in the center for two weeks after kissing a girl in the house. Despite the restrictive and harsh experience, Jones says that she met one of her best friends and her favorite teacher in Utah.
Jones was not home when David Bowie passed away
Two days before his death, Jones was able to speak to Bowie.
“I told him I loved him, and he said it back, and we both knew.” Then, she saw a post that said David Bowie passed away with his whole family—something that made her feel uncomfortable because she was not home when it happened.
When Jones came home from the Utah facility, she gradually spiraled. The excessive restriction made her go above the limits of her freedom to “cram” the time she lost in her teenage years. She would later be “legally kidnapped” and sent to another facility again.
The experience of being sent away made her feel “like a problem being passed off.” Jones claims she made the video to make her experience known to others—to acknowledge that it’s not simply a phase she grew out of. Despite the traumatic experience, Jones says she became someone she’s proud of.
(featured image: Instagram)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
