Asia Argento told Anthony Bourdain to ‘stop busting her balls’ in final text, new book claims

Anthony Bourdain complained to his ex-wife that he ‘hated’ his fans and no longer wanted to be famous in the weeks and months leading up to his 2018 suicide. 

The TV star took his own life in a French hotel room in June 2018 while he was on location filming his CNN show, Parts Unknown. 

His death stunned friends and family. He had been open about his past struggles with addiction but seemed to have overcome most of his demons, and had a loving daughter. 

Bourdain was also ‘hopelessly’ in love with Asia Argento, who had just dumped him in an argument over photos of her with a French journalist in Rome. 

Now, an explosive new biography claims that he’d been struggling with alcohol and steroids, and that he’d also been sleeping with prostitutes. 

The book –  Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain – will be released on October 11. Its author Charles Leershen is the former executive editor of Sports Illustrated, a former Rolling Stone writer and a known biographer. 

The book challenges that picture of Bourdain as the people’s hero. 

In one text to his ex-wife, Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, he complained: ‘I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job. 

‘I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.’

Bourdain, just days before he killed himself in France in June 2018. He was filming for Parts Unknown, his popular CNN show

The biography pays close attention to Bourdain’s troubled romance with Asia Argento. In her final text to him, she told him to stop ‘busting her balls’ over being photographed with another man 

The book also includes text messages, emails and the search history of Bourdain’s computer, all of which reveal his pained his relationship with Argento.

She had broken up with him, citing his ‘possessiveness’ over her. 

Bourdain had been left heartbroken by photographs of the Italian actress dancing with journalist Hugo Clement in the lobby of Hotel de Russie in Rome, where she and Bourdain shared special memories. 

The book reveals that he searched her name online ‘hundreds’ of times afterwards.  

In their final text exchange, he asked: ‘Is there anything I can do?’

She replied: ‘Stop busting my balls’. 

He responded: ‘OK’ and killed himself hours later. 

Bourdain’s family and Asia Argento have already challenged the book, accusing Leershen of multiple inaccuracies. Simon and Schuster is standing by it. 

‘Every single thing he writes about relationships and interactions within our family as kids and as adults he fabricated or got totally wrong,’ Christopher, Bourdain’s brother, told the Times. 

Argento declined to comment for the book. In an email to the journalist that she says she forbid him from publishing, she said: ‘It is always Judas who writes the biography.’ 

Bourdain confided in his ex-wife that he was ‘hopelessly in love’ with Asia. He had quietly paid off Jimmy Bennett for her, after the younger actor demanded $3.5million and revealed he’d slept with Argento when she was 37 and he was 17. They are shown above together at the time

Argento with her current boyfriend Michele Titi Martignoni 

JOURNALIST BEHIND AUNAUTHORIZED BOURDAIN BIOGRAPHY SAYS TV CHEF HAD BECOME ‘WHAT HE’D BECOME’ 

Charles Leerhsen, the author behind the book, has previously written for Rolling Stone. He is also the former executive editor of Sports Illustrated. 

He told The New York Times that he wanted to offer a side of Bourdain that didn’t have the varnish of ‘an official Bourdain product.’ 

By the end of his life, he said he believes the chef ‘knew what he had become’. 

Charles Leerhsen’s book, Down And Out In Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain is due to be published on October 11 

‘I think at the very end, in the last days and hours, he realized what he had become.

‘I don’t respect him killing himself, but he did realize and he did ultimately know he didn’t want to be that person he had become,’ he said. 

He added that he had no trouble finding enough people to speak to him, despite the protestations of Bourdain’s brother. Leerhsen also claims Bourdain’s agent, Kim Witherspoon, told others not to speak to him. 

‘A lot of people were willing to talk to me because they were left behind by Tony and by the Tony train,’  he said. 

Leershen’s past biographies include works about Butch Cassidy, Ty Cobb and TV executive Brandon Tartikoff.

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Despite Bourdain’s brother’s attempts to have the book blocked, it is due to be released on October 11.

Busia-Bourdain is not fighting its publication. 

The author claims she had become his confidante, and includes texts and emails between the pair. 

In one, Bourdain told his ex that he’d spent two years ‘hopelessly in love’ with Argento. 

The biography claims that Argento ‘became so controlling that she scrutinized the social media accounts of Mr. Bourdain and his wife, blowing up when she saw images of him with his family.’

‘You didn’t want me to put a pic that you had in it because Asia would freak out and I have a feeling that will not change anytime soon. 

‘I’m tired of pretending I don’t know you. Or that we are never in the same place,’ Busia-Bourdain told him. 

He replied: ‘I feel you. But I was being honest. The pap [arazzi] situation is horrendous. 

‘Since I left you guys, though, she’s freaking out.’ 

Bourdain with his ex-wife, Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, and their daughter, Ariane. She was 11 when he died in 2018 

Bourdain’s ex-wife, Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, told him that Argento was possessive and controlling. She had become his confidante in the final days of his life, the book claims. She is in support of its publication, while Argento and Bourdain’s brother have tried to fight it 

He defended her publicly and privately, quietly paying off Jimmy Bennett, a man who’d demanded $3.5million from her, claiming she’d molested him by sleeping with him when he was 17 and she was 37. 

Bourdain came forward after seeing Argento speak publicly about being one of Harvey Weinstein’s victims. Leershen claims he is being met with resistance because the portrait he paints of Bourdain is unflattering. 

‘A lot of people were willing to talk to me because they were left behind by Tony and by the Tony train,’ he said. 

Argento has spoken publicly of her grief. In September 2018, she broke her silence in exclusive an interview with DailyMail.com and DailyMailTV. 

She sobbed that people accused her of murdering him by cavorting publicly with Clement in Rome in the days before Bourdain’s death. 

‘He cheated on me too. It wasn’t a problem for us. But I understand that the world needs to find a reason. I would like to find a reason too. I don’t have it. 

‘Maybe I would feel some solace in thinking there was something that happened.’ 

Bourdain killed himself in the Hotel Chambard in France in June 2018