New book claims to reveal details of Anthony Bourdain's final days

The late Anthony Bourdain died in 2018. Photo / Getty Images

It’s been just over four years since the tragic suicide of food writer and television host Anthony Bourdain who, to his fans, presented as a profanity-inclined man obsessed with creating and discovering food.

But a new book about the late star’s life is said to include a series of messages revealing Bourdain’s hatred for his fame and his work, his strained relationship with his ex-girlfriend and details of his online search history before his death.

Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, is an unauthorised biography by reporter Charles Leerhsen.

Excerpts have been published in the New York Times and include Leerhsen’s claim of a final text message sent from Bourdain’s ex, Asia Argento, who had been photographed dancing with another man at a hotel in Rome days before Bourdain died.

Anthony Bourdain with his ex-girlfriend Asia Argento. Photo / Getty Images

Leerhsen alleges that after seeing photos of Argento and searching her name “hundreds” of times, Bourdain sent a message to his girlfriend of two years which read: “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,” wrote the star, who is said to have broken up with Argento over issues around his “possessiveness”.

The book claims that Argento replied: “I can’t take this.” And when Bourdain asked if there was anything he could do, the actress told him: “Stop busting my balls.”

According to Leerhsen, Bourdain then sent his last message: “Okay,” he typed.

The new book detailing his final days is “drawing criticism from many of his friends and family,” reports the Times.

Leerhsen also alleges Bourdain sent messages to his ex-wife, Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, telling her how he hated his fans, hated being famous and hated his job. “... I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty,” it is claimed he wrote to her.

But the New York Post reports that both Bourdain’s family and Argento are slamming the book as inaccurate.

His brother, Christopher, told the Times: “Every single thing he writes about relationships and interactions within our family as kids and as adults he fabricated or got totally wrong.”

Emails were also sent to the book’s publisher Simon & Schuster labelling the book as “hurtful and defamatory fiction”.

But the publishing company’s response was that: “With all due respect, we disagree that the material in the book contains defamatory information, and we stand by our forthcoming publication.”

Argento, who was blamed by many for Bourdain’s death, told the Times while she’s yet to read Leerhsen’s account, she had written to the author imploring him to refrain from publishing “anything I said to him”.

In an interview with the Daily Mail just two months after the celebrity chef’s death, Argento said: “People say I murdered him. They say I killed him. I understand that the world needs to find a reason. I would like to find a reason too.”

Where to get help:

• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 (available 24/7)• Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)• Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (12pm to 11pm)• Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)• Anxiety helpline: 0800 269 4389 (0800 ANXIETY) (available 24/7)• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.