Anthony Bourdain Texts Published In New Biography Reveal Grim Final Days: “I Hate My Fans…I Hate Being Famous…I Hate My Job” – Report

deadline.com:

A new unauthorized biography of Anthony Bourdain, which includes for the first time the celebrity chef’s text messages from the days leading up to his death by suicide in 2018, reveals Bourdain’s anguish over his career, his estranged marriage and his troubled romantic relationship with actor Asia Argento.Selections from the book Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, written by journalist Charles Leerhsen, were published in today’s The New York Times.

The Simon & Schuster book will be released on Oct. 11.“I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job,” Bourdain wrote to his estranged wife Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, with whom he remained a close confidant even after their separation in 2016. “I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”Although the article doesn’t specifically say that Busia-Bourdain provided the texts, Bourdain’s widow controls his estate, which includes the messages.Perhaps most indicative of Bourdain’s troubled state of mind when he took his life at a French hotel were the exchanges with Argento.

Leerhsen’s book chronicles the couple’s turbulent relationship, with both sides expressing displeasure at social media photos that depicted each with another partner: Bourdain spending time with his estranged wife and daughter, and Argento dancing with a French reporter in the lobby of Rome’s Hotel de Russie.“I am okay,” Bourdain texted Argento after seeing the photo. “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.