A new unauthorized biography of late celebrity chefAnthony Bourdainwill include, for the first time, text messages from the days leading up toBourdain’s deathby suicide in 2018, his anguish over his career, his estranged marriage to Ottavia Busia, and his troubled romantic relationship with actress Asia Argento. Selections from the book “Down and Out I Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain,” written by journalist Charles Leerhsen, were published in theNew York Times. TheSimon & Schuster bookwill be released on Jun 02, 2025. Although it is not clear who provided the Busia-Bourdain texts, Bourdain’s widow controls his estate, which includes the messages.
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. Bourdain texted Argento after seeing the photo.
“I am okay. 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. But you were careless. You were reckless with my heart. My life.”
According totheTimesdescriptionof the book’s content, Bourdain then wrote that he was hurt that “the tryst” took place in a hotel they had previously enjoyed together. Argento responded, “I can’t take this,” and said she could no longer stay in the relationship due to his possessiveness. In his final exchange with Argento, Bourdain wrote, “Is there anything I can do?” to which she replied, “Stop busting my balls.” The celebrity food writer responded with a simple, “OK,” and hanged himself later that day.
In an email to theTimes, Argento wrote that she had not read the book, adding:
“I wrote clearly to [Leerhsen] that he could not publish anything I said to him.”
Unauthorized Biography Has Drawn Fire from the Bourdain Family
As theTimeswrites, the book has “already drawn fire from Mr. Bourdain’s family, former co-workers and closest friends,” with brother Christopher Bourdain sending Simon & Schuster two emails in August calling the book “hurtful and defamatory fiction.” The publisher responded:
“With all due respect, we disagree that the material in the Book contains defamatory information, and we stand by our forthcoming publication.”
A couple of years before his suicide, Bourdain publicly visited a psychotherapist in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on an episode ofParts Unknown. While talking to the psychotherapist, he confessed that something as small as eating a bad hamburger at the airport could send him into “a spiral of depression that can last for days.” He also expressed a desire to be “happier.”
