After the artist's revelations, she was met with accusations.
As a teenager, she ended up in rehab: two men took the schoolgirl from her home, handcuffed her, and then left her in the woods.
The daughter of singer David Bowie and supermodel Iman, singer Lexi Jones, unexpectedly confessed that she ended up in rehab as a child — the reason for her breakdowns was her father's fame and heightened expectations.
25-year-old Alexandria Zahra Jones (the girl's real name) shares on social media that from a young age she unconsciously felt the intense public attention, as people never treated her like an ordinary child. There was always a special interest tied to her father's figure.
"At some point, I thought I existed not as a person named Lexi, but as Lexi-Daughter," she shares.
At 10, Lexi faced her first panic attack, and by 11, she resorted to self-harm. By the age of 12, bulimia made itself known, and the peak of her emotional instability came in the mid-2010s, when David Bowie was diagnosed with cancer, and drugs and alcohol entered his daughter's life.
"I began to fall into depression. I had problems with my academic performance. Due to learning difficulties, it was hard for me, and I hated my appearance. At 12, I developed bulimia. At 11, I started to harm myself. I felt stupid, incompetent, unworthy, useless, unloved, and the fact that I had successful parents only exacerbated the situation. I felt like I could never live up to them. I couldn't understand how it happened that I was born into a family where everyone succeeded in everything, while I failed at everything," the artist recalls her childhood feelings.
Realizing that their daughter was heading for disaster, her parents decided to send her to rehab. At that moment, David Bowie said, "I'm sorry we have to do this." Then two tall men entered the room and said just one phrase: "You can go willingly or we will take you by force." Lexi chose the latter: she clung to a table leg, began to scream and resist.
"They grabbed me, put handcuffs on me, tore me away from everything I held dear, and I screamed with all my might. I screamed for someone to help me, but no one did..." she relives those emotions.
They put her in a black SUV, not even allowing her to say goodbye to her parents. She spent 91 days in a "wilderness therapy" program. She lived outdoors, without the possibility of privacy, and took a shower once a week.
"We made fires, stripping birch bark and striking sparks with flint and steel. We cooked food on these fires and learned to tie knots to stretch tarps, under which we slept on yoga mats and in sleeping bags," she describes the conditions of rehab.
To go to the bathroom, she had to count loudly so the staff could understand that she wouldn't do anything to herself during those moments. She evaluates her time in rehab as "being deprived of the right to manage my own life." The treatment bore fruit, although it was very difficult. After three months of wilderness therapy, she was sent to a rehabilitation center in Utah, where she spent another 13 months: there were again searches with undressing, humiliating counts, and life under constant supervision.
It was there that Lexi learned that her father died in January 2016, just two days after the release of his last album, Blackstar.
"I had the luxury of talking to him two days before that, on his birthday," she recalls. "I told him I loved him, and he reciprocated, and we both knew it was true. And then I saw a post that said something like: 'David Bowie passed away surrounded by his family.'"
After the artist's revelations, she was met with accusations that she was trying to blame her famous parents, but the girl immediately clarified that her post was about something else — it was not a complaint against the family, not an attempt to "draw attention to herself," but a desire to help those like her who cannot find their place in the world. And also a decision to show how harsh the world of rehabs is.
"My story has never been an attempt to blame my parents. I love my parents very much and hold no resentment against them. They tried to help a child who was struggling with difficulties that none of us understood at the time. I never shared this to create a picture of family conflict," Lexi reflects.
It was there that Lexi learned that her father died in January 2016, just two days after the release of his last album, Blackstar.
"I had the luxury of talking to him two days before that, on his birthday," she recalls. "I told him I loved him, and he reciprocated, and we both knew it was true. And then I saw a post that said something like: 'David Bowie passed away surrounded by his family.'"
After the artist's revelations, she was met with accusations that she was trying to blame her famous parents, but the girl immediately clarified that her post was about something else — it was not a complaint against the family, not an attempt to "draw attention to herself," but a desire to help those like her who cannot find their place in the world. And also a decision to show how harsh the world of rehabs is.
"My story has never been an attempt to blame my parents. I love my parents very much and hold no resentment against them. They tried to help a child who was struggling with difficulties that none of us understood at the time. I never shared this to create a picture of family conflict," Lexi reflects.
