Alexandra “Lexi” Jones, daughter of David Bowie and Iman, opens up about her time in a wilderness therapy program that kept her from her father’s deathbed in 2016. The 25-year-old details on Instagram how struggles with depression, substance abuse, and an eating disorder led to her forced removal from home at age 14.
Spiraling After Father’s Cancer Diagnosis
Following David Bowie’s 2014 liver cancer diagnosis, Lexi began drinking excessively. “For me, it wasn’t about fun,” she explains. “I wasn’t experimenting, I was escaping—from my complicated mind, my complicated family, my complicated school. When the party ended for everyone else, I kept going. And I drank and got high alone.”
She describes becoming someone who lashed out and was cruel to others. David Bowie then read her a letter outlining the decision to send her to treatment. Two men entered the home, struggled with her, and took her away in a black SUV. “I felt stripped of any right to stay in my own life,” Lexi recalls. “By the time the door shut, my parents were already gone.”
91 Days in the Wilderness and Beyond
Lexi endured 91 days in a wilderness program, living outdoors and learning survival skills, before transfer to a Utah treatment center. She remained there for over a year and never saw her father again. Their last contact came two days before his death, on his birthday. “I told him I loved him and he said it back, and we both knew,” she shares.
The death announcement noted Bowie died surrounded by family, prompting Lexi’s heartbreak: “Yeah, the whole family was there. Except for me.” At his side were son Duncan Jones, from Bowie’s marriage to Angie Bowie, and wife Iman.
Relapse and Ongoing Trauma
Upon returning home, Lexi fell back into old patterns and faced another removal. “The mental and emotional manipulation I experienced is something I will not forget,” she states. “I won’t pretend it didn’t happen because that is abuse too.”
Scrutiny on Troubled Teen Industry
The troubled teen industry encompasses various youth programs for struggling teens, but these underregulated facilities face growing criticism. Paris Hilton has shared similar allegations from 1990s facilities, claiming force-fed medications, violent restraints, being dragged through hallways, and solitary confinement. She testified that these programs promised healing and support but restricted speech, movement, and even window views for two years.
