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Anthony Bourdain: My Daughter’s Birth Stopped Me After I Contemplated Suicide

(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Katie Jerkovich Entertainment Reporter
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In one of Anthony Bourdain’s final interviews, he revealed that he had contemplated suicide several times, but the birth of his daughter gave him a reason to live.

The famous chef was found dead Friday in his hotel room in France of an apparent suicide. He was 61 years old.

In a People magazine interview in February, Bourdain explained that with the arrival of his daughter Ariane, who was born 11 years ago, he felt  “some responsibility” to “at least try to live.” (RELATED: CNN’s Anthony Bourdain Commits Suicide)

“I also do feel I have things to live for,” the star of “Parts Unknown” explained. “There have been times, honestly, in my life that I figured, ‘I’ve had a good run– why not just do this stupid thing, this selfish thing… jump off a cliff into water of indeterminate depth.'”

Bourdain also shared that before his daughter’s birth he traveled to dangerous places and that it was more of a “daredevil move.”

“In retrospect, I don’t know that I would do that today– now that I’m a dad or reasonably happy,” the chef explained.

Later, Bourdain said that he was “happy in ways that I have not been in memory” and “happy in ways I didn’t think I ever would be, for sure.” He explained that the good feelings were connected to “somebody really strong” that he had recently met.

The comment was most likely in reference to his girlfriend, actress Asia Argento.