Lexi Jones, daughter of the late David Bowie and supermodel Iman, publicly revealed this week that her parents enrolled her in a “naturalistic therapy” program as a teenager, a decision that involved being forcibly removed from her home. The account, shared in a lengthy video posted to Instagram, details a harrowing experience that began with an abrupt departure and continued with weeks spent in a wilderness setting, learning survival skills.
Jones, now 25, described the intervention as a response to years of struggling with anxiety, depression, and self-destructive behaviors. According to her account, the program involved being stripped of everyday comforts – “weeks spent sleeping under tarps, digging shelters, making fires with flint, without a daily shower or personal space” – in an attempt to recreate a “wild” environment conducive to survival and self-discovery. “They ripped me away from everything I knew,” Jones said in the video. “I screamed for help, but no one came.”
The intervention occurred in 2014, coinciding with David Bowie’s diagnosis of liver cancer, a period Jones described as particularly fragile. Whereas peers were experimenting with alcohol and drugs recreationally, she stated her substance use stemmed from a desire to escape. “It wasn’t about fun for me,” she explained. “I wasn’t experimenting, I was escaping. When the party was over for everyone else, I kept going.”
Following the three-month wilderness program, Jones was transferred to a care center in Utah for a year, where she began to study art. It was there, she revealed, that she learned of her father’s passing in January 2016. “I had the luxury of talking to him two days before, on his birthday. I told him I loved him, and he told me. And we both knew,” she said.
Jones’s struggles did not conclude with her father’s death. Upon returning home at age 16, she experienced a relapse and was subsequently sent to another treatment center. Despite the difficulty of these experiences, Jones expressed gratitude for her parents’ choices. “I don’t reckon I would be as emotionally attuned as I am if I hadn’t been forced to look inside myself so closely so early on,” she stated. “I wish it had happened under better circumstances, but I can’t pretend it didn’t shape me into a person who sees people deeply, who feels things deeply, who creates from that place.”
Jones has since pursued a career in music, releasing her debut album, Xandri, on April 2, 2025. The 12-track album was entirely written, composed, and produced by Jones herself.
