David Bowie's Daughter Breaks Silence On Dark Childhood Of Forceful Rehab

David Bowie's daughter really went through the worst a few months before her father lost the battle to cancer.

Alexandria "Lexi" Zahra Jones, whom Bowie shared with supermodel Iman, detailed the gory experience she went through at a treatment center she was taken to when she got addicted to alcohol and drugs as a means to escape the reality of her father's terminal illness.

David Bowie and the supermodel welcomed Alexandria "Lexi" Zahra Jones in 2000, 10 years after they met on a blind date in Los Angeles in 1990, and eventually tied the knot in Florence, Italy, in 1992. The duo was together for nearly 25 years before he passed away from cancer in 2016.

Lexi hopped on Instagram with a confession about a terrible period in her life, which began when she was a child dealing with mental health issues and subsequently saw a therapist at 10 years old.

Things got progressively worse from there as she recalled beginning to practice self-harm and sadly developed an eating disorder at the age of 12. The star added that she felt very little of herself, and being a child of famous, successful parents only made the feeling of incompetence and unlovable worse.

She reached her limit following news of Bowie's cancer diagnosis, turning to alcohol and drugs to ease the pain, and the next move from the singer was to enroll her in a rehab facility.

"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," she noted.

In the facility, which she tagged a wilderness camp, Lexi revealed that they were subjected to extreme forms of dehumanizing experience, which included bathing once a week and living without mirrors or any idea of their location.

She recalled digging holes in the ground as bathrooms, communicating once a week with people via letters, and sleeping under tarps on a yoga mat and sleeping bags.

Lexi added that their meals were made over fires to further drive home the whole point of them living with every basic human comfort and need taken away from them, and it all happened while Bowie's sickness got progressively worse at home.

In the midst of everything, Lexi was, however, grateful to be able to afford the luxury of speaking with Bowie two days before his birthday, which was not so far off from when he died.

She detailed how much she loved, and he gladly reciprocated, but they both knew he did not have much time around any longer, making the moment more emotional for the father/daughter duo.

Bowie stressed that she has since accepted her fate, gotten over the ill treatment, and tried not to internalize it or feel guilty. However, she still has moments where she wishes things were different.

Lexi revealed in the Instagram video that she progressed to entering a residential treatment center in Utah for over a year after her three-month stay at the wilderness camp was over.

She added that through the course of her treatments, she met people who changed her, and people who are being changed, emphasizing that most of her childhood was shaped by pain.

Lexi noted that, despite being the child of famous parents, she does not carry that knowledge into her everyday life, adding that she grew up with a very normal life, in the comment section.

The 25-year-old's confessions about dealing with unrealistic expectations, definitions, and projections spurred empathy and intense discussions.

Most of the commenters agreed that wilderness therapy is not a healthy way to approach addiction issues, with a sense of confusion as to why they are still legal.

Others thanked her for being so articulate with an intimate and vulnerable wisdom, wishing her healing from all the trauma she went through at such a young age.

The 25-year-old was born in New York City, with reports at the time sharing that Bowie was very involved in her delivery, assisting and cutting the umbilical cord. The artist and Iman explained to outlets after her birth that Lexi's name had been on her mind from the first time he met her.

As reported by PEOPLE, Bowie shared that the very first names they picked were Alexandria and Zahra, after which they went through a cycle of picking another 20 to 30 alternatives. Still, they settled on their initial choices a day before her birth. 

The singer continued that they named her Alexandria after the Greco-Egyptian city, and Zahra was Iman's original name, which was changed at the last minute. Bowie explained that the name has several definitions, including "inner light; luminous; fair and beautiful; blossoming; or even shining."

Lexi has grown to become an artist and shares some of her works on her personal Instagram account and has a separate account dedicated to her work, which consists of colors and abstract characters.

The singer's daughter described art as a rock in her life when she finally found her style in her mid-teens; she became unstoppable.

Unlike her mother, who was famous for her sophisticated talent, beauty, and status as a supermodel, the artist has expressed that she does not plan to follow in her footsteps, whether on the runway or in front of the camera.

However, Lexi is not Bowie and Iman's only child, as he already welcomed a son in 1971 from a previous marriage to Angie, and Iman, a daughter from her marriage to former NBA star Spencer Haywood.

In 2018, Lexi honored her father's memory by getting a moon tattoo with an intricate design carrying the words "Daddy xx," alongside the years of his birth and death. Iman also got a tattoo of a Bowie knife on her ankle, from which the late singer took his stage name.

The retired supermodel opened up in 2021 about dealing with Bowie's death from liver cancer and how she barely had the time to process her loss until lockdown.

As shared by The Blast, Iman explained that since Lexi was a teenager when Bowie died, he was very concentrated on helping her get through the grief, while paying less attention to how she felt.

Iman revealed that in 2020, she paid a visit to her late husband's estate to spend some time there for the first time since her husband passed away, and she was stuck there for a year, forced to deal with the grief that came knocking on the door.

The retired model emphasized that she indeed went through all the motions of grief, and now it is the joy in her life with Bowie that she remembers.

Describing how they met, Iman called it a blind date set up by a hairdresser she met at a photographer's dinner one night, where the four of them (a party of David, the hairdresser, the boyfriend, and herself) were the only ones in attendance.

Iman revealed that it was destiny in action for them because the hairdresser was Bowie's hairdresser, and Bowie had no idea they would meet at a birthday dinner.

Although it was love at first sight for Bowie, Iman confessed that it took her a few months to get there, and for what it was worth, she praised Destiny for propelling her to go to Los Angeles for "no obvious reason."

The former supermodel revealed to Hoda Kotb in 2022 that her connection with the late singer has remained despite his death. She registered her displeasure at Bowie being addressed as her "Late Husband," stressing that he will always remain her husband and the love of her life, whom she hopes to reunite with in the afterlife.

Iman claimed that meeting and falling in love with Bowie was a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, which she thinks about every day as being very lucky. The Blast noted that in the spirit of their love, Iman confessed that she had worn a memento of the singer every day since he lost the battle to cancer in 2016.

She described Bowie as a very kind and sensitive partner who paid close attention to her, and one time when they were walking on the street, her shoelace came undone, and he got on his knees to tie her shoes.

Iman noted that the act reminded her of her dad, and instantly struck a familiar chord in her; she knew he was the one for her.