David Bowie and Iman’s daughter Lexi Jones breaks silence on rehab at 14

Lexi Jones, the daughter of late music icon David Bowie and supermodel Iman, has opened up about a deeply difficult chapter from her teenage years.

In a candid 20-minute Instagram video posted on February 18, the 25-year-old detailed her struggles with drugs and alcohol, revealing she was sent to a wilderness therapy programme at just 14 while her father was battling cancer.

“I wasn’t experimenting. I was escaping,” Jones said, recalling her first year of high school. She explained that while many of her peers were partying socially, her substance use quickly became isolating.

“When the party ended for everybody else, I kept going and I drank and got high alone,” she said.

Jones shared that as her mental health declined, she became “someone who lashed out”, which ultimately led to her being removed from her family home and placed in a wilderness therapy programme.

The experience, she said, was far from typical camping.

“I was born and raised in the city,” Jones explained. “I had been camping before, but nothing like this. This was not camping. It felt like boot camp’s weird cousin.”

After completing the 91-day outdoor programme, Jones revealed she spent a further 13 months at a residential treatment centre in Utah, where she continued therapy and began developing her artistic interests.

One of the most painful moments came during her time at the boarding school, when she learned of Bowie’s death in January 2016. Jones said she had spoken to her father just two days earlier on his birthday.

“I told him I loved him, and he said it back,” she recalled. “And we both knew.”

Despite the turmoil of those years, Jones said the experience ultimately shaped her emotional depth and creative voice.

“I don’t think I’d be this emotionally tuned if I hadn’t been forced to look so closely at myself so early,” she said. “I wish it had happened under better circumstances, but I can’t pretend it didn’t shape me into someone who sees people deeply, who feels things deeply, who creates from that place.”