Asia Argento, left, accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, a claim her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, supported before his death earlier this year. (Reuters)
In her first interview since the celebrity chef’s death, Asia Argento tearfully recalled the series of emotions she felt following Anthony Bourdain’s suicide.
Argento told DailyMailTV she first felt anger immediately after the death of Bourdain, whom she dated for two years. The “Parts Unknown” host was found dead in the bathroom of his French hotel room in June.
“Now, the anger kept me alive because otherwise this desperation has no end, there's no end,” Argento recalled while wiping away tears.
“And then I was angry [at Bourdain], yes, for abandoning my kids,” Argento said, referencing her son and daughter from previous relationships.
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The 43-year-old Italian actress added that the anger has since subsided.
“Now it's been replaced, just by this loss, this hole that cannot be filled by anything,” she said.
Argento also reacted to the hateful comments she endured after Bourdain's death.
"I understand that the world needs to find a reason. I would like to find a reason, too. He was so deeply loved," said Argento, who went on to address allegations that she had cheated on Bourdain.
"People need to think that he killed himself for something like this. He cheated on me, too," Argento claimed.
"It wasn't a problem with us," she continued. "He was a man who traveled 265 days a year. When we saw each other, we took really great pleasure in each other's presence. We are not children. I cannot think of Anthony as somebody who would do an extreme gesture like this for something like that. What I do feel terrible about is that he had so much pain inside of him and I didn't see it. I did not see it. And for that, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life."
Argento’s interview comes a day after CNN premiered the first of the final episodes of “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.” The season premiere featured Bourdain in Kenya talking about how lucky he feels to be in the country that he could "f---ing pinch” himself.
Argento’s interview with DailyMailTV, which is set to air Monday and Tuesday, is also expected to address the sexual assault allegations made against her by actor Jimmy Bennett, the $380,000 payment arranged by Bourdain and her fallout with Rose McGowan.
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Last week, Argento said on Twitter she was suing McGowan for the “horrendous lies” the “Charmed” actress made in her Aug. 27 statement following the bombshell New York Times report on the Bennett sex assault case. Argento has denied the allegations.
The actresses became close friends after they became prominent figures in the downfall of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and the rise of the #MeToo movement. McGowan previously referred to Argento as her “ride or die.”
On Sunday, Bennett faced questions from an Italian journalist about the allegations he made against Argento. Bennett accused Argento of setting up a sexual encounter with him in California in 2013, when he was 17 – below the state's age of consent – and she was 37. (The legal age of consent in California is 18.)
The former child star accused Argento – who had worked with him 10 years earlier on the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things" when he was 7 years old – of starting the whole thing, according to The Daily Beast.
“She started kissing me longer and longer... and it started to feel to me that it was less of just a friendly thing and more of something she was trying to push or explore,” he said. “It turned into her placing her hands on me and following that was when she pushed me onto the bed and took my pants off.”
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