We have an update on the tragic suicide of Anthony Bourdain.
The celebrity chef and author, as you likely know by now, was hanged himself in his hotel room in Kaysersberg, France on June 8.
He was in the country filming an upcoming episode of CNN’s Parts Unknown at the time and his corpse was discovered by his close friend, French-born chef Eric Ripert.
Bourdain left behind one daughter and was 61 years old.
With the entertainment and culinary world still in mourning over this shocking development, a new and critical piece of information has been made official.
A completed toxicology report for Bourdain has revealed that he had no narcotics in his system at the time of his death, a French judicial official told the New York Times on Friday afternoon.
The report states that the only thing found in the Peabody Award winner’s body was a trace of a non-narcotic medicine in a therapeutic dose.
Will this be comforting to those who knew Bourdain best? It’s hard to say.
On one hand, it may be helpful to know that he didn’t take his life due to some sort of drug-induced impulse.
On the other hand, this basically means he truly, legitimately, consciously wanted to die.
Earlier this week, Bourdain’s body was cremated in France, with this same newspaper writing that his remains and travel belongings were sent to Christopher, his younger brother and only sibling.
“He would want as little fuss as possible,” Bourdain’s mother, Gladys, said, adding that Bourdain’s relatives will likely gather together for a smaller, more private ceremony of their own at some point.
Gladys had previously revealed that she learned of Anthony’s death via a phone call from Christopher.
The late star had been open over the years about his history with substance abuse.
In the 1980s, Bourdain went from job to job at restaurants in New York City while struggling with a serious drug addiction, at one point even skimming his carpet for paint chips and smoking them, hoping they were remnants of crack, he told The New Yorker in a famous profile.
Bourdain entered rehab and eventually got clean in the early 1990s, yet continued to drink alcohol both on and off screen with no issues, he said.
“I was a heroin addict, for sure, and I was a cocaine addict, for sure, but I never stopped drinking,” he told People Magazine just this past February, adding:
“I never was a person who needed a drink. I’ve never felt the urge to. When I’m home it would never occur to me to sit at my house and drink beer, or pour myself a cocktail.”
Bourdain is survived by his girlfriend, Asia Argento, and his 11-year-old daughter, Ariane, whom he shared with his first ex-wife, Ottavia Busia.
Both Argento and Busia have issued statements in the wake of Bourdain’s suicide.
“Anthony gave all of himself in everything that he did,” said Asia on Twitter, concluding:
“His brilliant, fearless spirit touched and inspired so many, and his generosity knew no bounds. He was my love, my rock, my protector. I am beyond devastated.
“My thoughts are with his family. I would ask that you respect their privacy and mine.”
