David Bowie's daughter has clarified her comments earlier this month, claiming her father was diagnosed with liver cancer when she was young and was forced to go to a treatment center.
Alexandria “Lexi” Zahra Jones, daughter of the late singer and supermodel Iman, released a statement on Instagram explaining that her previous posts were aimed at helping others who have gone through natural therapy programs and battled drug addiction and mental health issues.
“There have been many interpretations of what I have shared, so I would like to clarify something important,” Jones, 25, began. “My story is in no way meant to blame my parents. I love them deeply and I don't hate them.”
“They were trying to help a suffering child in a way none of us could fully understand at the time. I never shared this to create a story of family conflict,” she wrote.
She said she tries to talk about “the experience of being a young person in the teen treatment system and what it feels like while it's happening.”
“Those feelings can exist at the same time as love for the people who were trying to help you. Both can be true,” she added. “I shared my story because so many people who have gone through similar programs have confusion and silence about it. Hearing from other stakeholders has already shown that the message has reached the people it was meant to reach.”
Jones said she doesn't want anyone to “speculate about my family or hold anyone in my life responsible.”
“My purpose is conversation and understanding about systems, not criticism of individuals. I spoke about what shaped me in hopes that someone will feel less alone,” her post concluded.
In a video posted to her Instagram on February 18, Jones revealed that her late father was diagnosed with cancer when she was 14 years old, and that she had been struggling with drugs and alcohol around the same time.
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“When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, that was my breaking point. I was only 14 years old, so I could already see what the future held for my family and all of us. I was heartbroken even before it happened,” Jones explained.
“I was a freshman in high school and everyone around me was experimenting, but it wasn't fun for me,” she continued. “I wasn't experimenting. I was running away. I was running away from my complicated mind, my complicated family, my complicated school. When everyone else had finished partying, I continued to drink and get high by myself.”
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She said her mental health began to decline as her drug use continued to increase and she became an “abuser”.
Jones claimed that after her father was diagnosed with cancer, he was removed from his parents' home, sent to a naturopathic program, and lived outdoors.
She said her father read her a letter that ended with, “I'm sorry you have to go through this.”
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Once the naturopathic program was finished, Jones thought she could go home. Instead, she was sent to a residential treatment center in Utah for 13 months.
“A few months after I joined the program, my father passed away. I wasn't there. I had a chance to talk to him on his birthday two days ago. I told him I loved him, and he said it back, and we both knew it,” she said.
Just before she turned 16, Jones was able to leave the treatment center and return home, but there she “fell into old patterns.”
She revealed that she was soon “legally kidnapped again” and deported.
In January 2016, Bowie, who produced hits such as “Space Oddity,'' “Fame,'' “Heroes,'' and “Let's Dance,'' died of cancer at the age of 69.
Bowie has been married twice, first to actor and model Mary Angela “Angie” Barnett from 1970 to 1980, and then to Iman in 1992. He had two children, Duncan Jones and Alexandria “Lexi” Zahra Jones, one with each wife.
— With files from The Associated Press
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