Heroin, Cocaine & Divorce: Inside Anthony Bourdain’s Dark Past Before Suicide

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Jan. 4 2019, Updated 10:19 a.m. ET

Anthony Bourdain’s unexpected passing shocked the nation on June 8, when the celebrity chef was found hanged in his hotel room in France. While his death was ruled as a suicide, RadarOnline.com readers know the star suffered from a heavy drug addiction years before his early demise.

"I was a complete a**hole. Selfish, larcenous, druggy, loud, stupid, insensitive and someone you would not want to have known," Bourdain, 61, said of his early twenties on Reddit's Ask Me Anything in 2013. "I would have robbed your medicine cabinet had I been invited to your house."

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After being candid about his past drug addiction, the Parts Unknown star also admitted that he was a “rare” kind of recovered addict because he still drank alcohol.

"Most people who kick heroin and cocaine have to give up on everything. Maybe 'cause my experiences were so awful in the end, I've never been tempted to relapse," he said at the time.

He even described a time when he found himself "combing the shag carpet for paint chips in the hope that they were fallen crack bits," and "smoking them anyway."

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Bourdain also suggested that he still smoked weed during a visit to Amsterdam.

As The National ENQUIRER reported in 2013, Bourdain previously came clean about his recreational use of pot, LSD, cocaine, "magic mushrooms," meth, amphetamines, codeine and heroin. In his final years, however, he enjoyed wine and the occasional hard liquor.

In 2017, The ENQUIRER caught Bourdain and girlfriend Asia Argento on a steamy beach vacation—just one year after he split from longtime wife Ottavia Busia. The two went through a nasty divorce after nine years of marriage.