Anthony Bourdain’s sad last days filled with steroids, prostitutes and booze: Book

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Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s sad, final days were filled with booze, steroids, prostitutes and despair, according to an explosive new book on the tragic raconteur.

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In addition, Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by reporter Charles Leerhsen details the final text messages between Bourdain and his ex-girlfriend, Italian actress Asia Argento.

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Excerpts from the book were published on Tuesday in The New York Times and the book will be released on Oct. 11.

The book describes Bourdain’s downward spiral in the months before his June 18, 2018 suicide in a French hotel.

Leerhsen writes that the 61-year-old chef was “isolated” in the days before his shocking death and he spent his time “injecting steroids, drinking to the point of blackout and visiting prostitutes, and had all but vanished from his 11-year-old daughter’s life.”

In the days before he died, the Parts Unknown star was deeply troubled after seeing photos of the 47-year-old Argento dancing with a journalist in a Rome hotel. Bourdain and Argento had been dating since 2016.

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He texted her after seeing the photos: “I’m okay.”

Bourdain added: “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.”

According to the book, Bourdain had searched Argento’s name countless times after seeing the photos.

Argento messaged him back: “I can’t take this.”

Bourdain replied: “Is there anything I can do?”

Argento responded: “Stop busting my balls.”

He finished with: “OK.”

In those dark hours, Bourdain also texted his ex-wife Ottavia Busia-Bourdain: “I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job. I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”

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Hours later he hung himself in the shower of his hotel.

The book paints a “controlling” Argento as the villain. She hated photos of the celebrity chef with his ex-wife and family.

The Times reported that friends, family and Argento are deeply unhappy with the book.

Bourdain’s 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.”

Argento has denied being the reason Bourdain killed himself. In an interview with the Daily Mail two months after his death, she defended herself.

“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,” she told the newspaper.

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“People need to think that he killed himself for something like this. He cheated on me too. It wasn’t a problem for us.”

The book says that Bourdain had overcome his demons by the time he met Argento, was on good terms with his ex-wife, and had a loving daughter.

But the Layover star — whose Kitchen Confidential book made him a celebrity — fell “hopelessly” in love with Argento.

Author Charles Leerhsen said Bourdain soured on himself in the end.

“I think at the very end, in the last days and hours, he realized what he had become,” Leerhsen told the Times. “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.”

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