David Bowie’s Daughter Recalls Being Forcefully Taken to Rehab at 14

David Bowie‘s daughter, Alexandria “Lexi” Zahra Jones, recently revealed that she was forcefully taken to rehab at 14 and was at a treatment center when her famous father died in 2016.

On February 18, Lexi — the daughter of the “Starman” singer and supermodel Iman — took to Instagram with a vulnerable video about the “dehumanizing” experience.

By 10, Lexi said she was seeing a therapist and that her parents and teacher had noticed something was “off.” She started self-harming by 11 and developed bulimia by 12.

“I don’t know why I felt the way I felt,” she admitted. “I just knew I was miserable. I felt stupid, incompetent, like unworthy, useless, unlovable. And having successful parents kind of only made it worse.”

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A post shared by Lexi Jones (@_p0odle_)

Lexi said she hit a “breaking point” after David was diagnosed with cancer, turning to alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism. Ultimately, her dad read her a letter that ended with, “I’m sorry that we have to do this.”

“Then two men came through the door, and they were both well over six feet tall,” she recalled. “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.”

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A post shared by Lexi Jones (@_p0odle_)

The men took Lexi to a wilderness camp, where she was only allowed to shower once a week, had no mirrors, and wasn’t allowed to know the time.

“We dug holes in the ground to use as bathrooms far away from the site,” she shared. “And every time we used the bathroom, we had to count out loud so that staff would keep track of us.”

Additionally, she was only allowed to communicate with people from outside the camp once a week through letters. They also slept under tarps on a yoga mat and a sleeping bag and made their meals over fires. “The whole experience felt dehumanizing, like the whole point was to take away every basic human comfort and need,” she shared.

After three months at the wilderness camp, Lexi was sent to a residential treatment center in Utah for over a year. “All of this was happening while my dad was only getting more sick back at home,” she explained.

Ultimately, David died at 69 after a battle with liver cancer on January 10, 2016. “I was not there,” Lexi lamented. “I had the luxury of speaking with him two days before on his birthday. I told him I loved him, he said it back, and we both knew.”

“I’ve accepted it,” she added. “I’ve tried not to internalize it or feel guilty. But sometimes I still have those moments where I wish things were to be different.”