David Bowie’s Daughter Lexi Jones Recalls ‘Dehumanizing’ Wilderness Therapy in Candid Post

Alexandria Zahra Jones, known publicly as Lexi Jones, is stepping into her own voice while continuing to navigate life as the daughter of David Bowie. The 25-year-old, whose mother is supermodel Iman, has largely kept a low profile over the years, occasionally sharing glimpses of her artwork and personal reflections on social media. In February 2026, she opened up about her past with addiction and mental health difficulties. And she discussed her experience with wilderness therapy. Here’s what she told her Instagram followers in a candid video.

David Bowie’s daughter, Lexi Jones, got personal on social media regarding addictions and ‘dehumanizing’ treatment centers

David Bowie’s daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, 25, opened up on Instagram with a 20-minute video regarding what she experienced as a teen.

“There’s a part of me that most people don’t know — a set of experiences that shaped almost everything about who I am,” Jones explained. She noted that while she had numerous happy memories of her childhood, she also experienced deep pain and misunderstanding.

“I grew up mostly being treated like a normal kid in normal environments,” she continued. “And for a long time, I tried to keep it that way. … I was loved, I was cared for. I had opportunities most people never get, and I’m genuinely grateful for that, and I always will be. … I grew up being watched. … Very early on, I started to feel like I existed as an idea. Not Lexi the person, Lexi the daughter.”

Jones noted that she struggled to understand what “real relationships” felt like. Her mental health took a nosedive due to “years of confusion over identity and expectation and feeling watched but not understood.” This landed her in treatment “so many times.” Jones first went to a treatment program at just 14 years old.

“Whatever little freedom I had was taken even further away from me,” she noted. “I wanted to grow up, but not like that. Treatment made me realize how much I had to fast-forward my teenage years.”

Before this, she started seeing a therapist at age 10. That same year, she had her first anxiety attack. Jones then developed bulimia at 12, and she self-harmed at 11.

“When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was at my breaking point,” she explained. Jones turned to drugs and alcohol at 14. “I drank and got high alone. I was angry, I was scared, I was numb, but I felt free,” she continued. “… I became someone who lashed out. I was cruel to people who didn’t treat me the way I wanted to be treated.”

Lexi Jones described men dragging her to ‘wilderness therapy’ in her teen years

Following her struggles, Lexi Jones remembered when two men came “through the door” one morning to take her to “wilderness therapy.” Her parents, David Bowie and Iman, were present, as was her Godmother.

“They were crying, but they let it happen,” Jones noted of her parents. The men then looped a rope around her to further control her and shoved her into the back of a black SUV. Upon arrival, Jones described the strip-search process. The leaders then gave her winter clothing and a backpack.

“I didn’t know wilderness therapy existed,” she said. “… It felt like boot camp’s weird cousin, and it was disguised as something therapeutic.”

Jones spent 91 days in the wilderness with showers once per week, no mirrors, and no clocks. She could communicate with the outside world only once a week via letters. Despite the struggles she experienced, Jones connected with a “great group of girls” that felt like “community.”

“We made each other laugh; we made each other feel human, even in a place that was stripping that away from us,” she continued in her post. “But still, the entire experience felt dehumanizing, like the whole point was to take away every basic human comfort and need. No TV, no bed, no roof, no privacy, so that we’d ‘behave right’ ….”

David Bowie’s daughter attended a Utah therapeutic boarding school after wilderness therapy

Following wilderness therapy, Lexi Jones attended a therapeutic boarding school in Utah. She resided there for 13 months.

“All of this was happening while my dad was only getting more sick back at home,” she explained. “And, for the first time in a long time, I actually wanted to be there with him, with my family. A few months into the program, my dad passed away. I was not there. I had the luxury of speaking to him two days before. On his birthday, I told him I loved him, and he said it back, and we both knew.”

Sadly, Bowie died while she remained in Utah. Jones recalls feeling “physically ill” at the headlines that stated how Bowie passed away surrounded by his entire family.

Just before she turned 16, Jones left the Utah boarding school. However, she found herself slipping “back into old patterns,” and her family sent her away again. Jones recalled how this pattern continued through her teen years.

“The point is to show what this system does to a person,” she said. “… The point is that this happened to me and to a lot of other kids that deserved better.”