ABC/Pawel Kaminski (LOS ANGELES) — Rose McGowan has written a letter urging people not to blame her fellow #MeToo advocate, Asia [AH-see-ah] Argento for the suicide of Argento’s boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain.
“I write these truths because I have been asked to,” McGowan notes in the letter, released Monday, because the untimely death of Argento’s “lover and ally” could lead some to speculate as to a cause.
Calling her a “brave survivor,” McGowan said her friend, “stood up to her monster rapist and now she has to stand up to yet another monster, suicide.” The “rapist” to which McGowan refers is film producer Harvey Weinstein, who has denied sexually assaulting Argento, and, for that matter, McGowan, who’d also accused him.
McGowan wrote, “I know so many around the world thought of Anthony Bourdain as a friend and when a friend dies, it hurts. Many of these people who lost their ‘friend’ are wanting to lash out and blame. You must not sink to that level. Suicide is a horrible choice, but it is that person’s choice.”
“Anthony was 61, the same age my father was when he died,” McGowan continues. “My father also suffered from intermittent deep depression, and like Anthony, was part of…the…’strong man doesn’t ask for help’ generation. I know before Anthony died he reached out for help, and yet he did not take the doctor’s advice. And that has led us here, to this tragedy, to this loss, to this world of hurt.”
McGowan urged, “Do NOT do the sexist thing and burn a woman on the pyre of misplaced blame. Anthony’s internal war was his war, but now [Argento’s] been left on the battlefield to take the bullets. It is in no way fair or acceptable to blame her or anyone else, not even Anthony. We are asking you to be better, to look deeper, to read and learn about mental illness, suicide and depression before you make it worse for survivors by judging…that which can never fully be understood.”
“We must do more and be better. Anthony, our friend, would want it that way,” McGowan concludes, and then provides an international list of suicide prevention hotline telephone numbers.
(The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline us 1-800-273-8255.)
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