Tragic Details About Julia Fox

Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of domestic abuse, drug use, addiction, mental health issues, suicide, and sexual assault.

Julia Fox is a jack of all trades — and a master of many. The clothing designer, model, reality star, New York Times bestselling author, movie star, singer, fashion icon with daring eye makeup, and controversial public figure has made quite the name for herself in recent years. Since Fox starred alongside Adam Sandler in 2019's "Uncut Gems," everyone has wanted to know more about the Italian-American beauty.

Because of what she's gone through, the actor has also become a mental health advocate, telling Today in May 2024, "I feel like people are always kind of getting behind mental health until someone's having an episode and then they'd shame them and videotape it and put it online. It's like, no, you have to support mental health even if it doesn't look the way you want it to look." From a difficult childhood to her rebellious adolescence and fairly chaotic adulthood, here are the tragic details about Julia Fox.

Even from a young age, Julia Fox's life was disrupted. She was born in Italy and lived in a small town before heading to New York with her father at 5 years old, leaving her mother and younger brother behind. Unfortunately, her father wasn't very consistent, as she wrote in her 2023 memoir "Down the Drain" (via The Guardian), "I never really knew who I was going to get. He could be the best dad ever, or the literal worst."

Because of the tumultuous environment she was in, Fox relied on crutches like sucking her thumb or biting her nails, and would even sleep with the hair dryer on. "For the warmth and the white noise, and because I wouldn't have to hear whatever was happening, the fighting," she penned.

At one point, the model informed her mother that her dad had been unfaithful. Fox wrote (via The Daily Beast), "She backed my dad into a corner as she yanked every glass picture frame off the wall, one by one, and smashed it over his head. We were swimming in a sea of glass."

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Following Julia Fox's move to New York with her dad, money was scarce so she began shoplifting. "The only way to get what I wanted was to take it," she wrote (via People). Eventually, her father became the victim of her petty crimes, as she began to steal money directly from his wallet to save up enough for an iMac computer.

Fox is now known for wearing outrageous outfits and she's always had an eye for fashion, especially when it came to her increasingly serious criminal behavior that led to her being banned from Bloomingdale's at 15. In speaking with Vanity Fair during their lie detector segment in October 2023, she said, "I used to go to a very expensive clothing department store on Fifth Avenue when they would have sales specifically. There'd be a lot of people, and I used to wear a little Juicy Couture sweatsuit moment, and I would just shove the items in my pants. One of the items was an Oscar de la Renta snakeskin clutch, and I still have it somewhere."

Over the years, Julia Fox has been open about her prior issues with drugs. She even detailed her very first experience with substances as a kid in "Down the Drain," which would eventually spiral into a years-long dependence on narcotics. Fox wrote (via People) how she had gone to her best friend's house when she was only 11 years old, and they discovered the girl's mom having sex with a drug dealer on the sofa. The man gave them some marijuana and Fox got high for the first time, writing, "I feel warm and fuzzy and everything is so funny. My thoughts are more linear and I can finally hear myself think."

It was around this time that Fox's behavior became even more rebellious, as she got her first tattoo at 12, shoplifted more expensive merchandise, and found herself getting into trouble. Eventually, the model decided to give up smoking marijuana, as she told The Guardian in October 2023, "I stopped smoking weed, because I was such a pot head. I stay away from the things I know will derail my life and I have no control over."

Unfortunately, Julia Fox hasn't always been in the healthiest of relationships, and she was involved with some pretty dangerous men during her time spent between New York and Italy. In her memoir, Fox revealed all of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her romantic partners since the age of just 14, including verbal put-downs, stalking, sexual assault, physical violence, and more.

In an August 2018 Instagram post, Fox shared snaps of herself with her first boyfriend Giovanni, alongside a caption that read, "He was my first love. I was 14 when we met at a drug dealers house a few blocks away from where I grew up ... I never knew healthy love and wasn't even aware that I was in a f***ed up situation."

In the fall of 2022, she spoke with Highsnobiety about a brief relationship she had with an older man who had become possessive and controlling of her, going as far as to have her followed by a private investigator. "Something switched. I wanted to be independent for real, for real. I wanted to get out but didn't know how to leave. I was scared ... I did things to subconsciously try to get him to dump me. And then eventually, he did," Fox explained.

Many celebrities have come out about their rebellious childhood antics, including Madonna, but the tragic details around Julia Fox's adolescence seem to be in a league of their own. Despite the dysfunctional relationship she had with her high school boyfriend, Ace — who was a drug dealer and would often resort to violence — she wanted to be with him. So, after her move back to Italy tore them apart, she secretly bought herself a one-way ticket back to New York to run away with him. Fox hid out with Ace at his mother's home, avoiding the police who had issued a warrant for his arrest.

The model's parents put up missing person signs, and she later noted that they'd put in the wrong height and birthday for her. While speaking on "Zach Sang Show" in May 2024, Fox explained how she'd feel if her son Valentino ever got into the same kind of trouble she did when she was a kid, saying, "When you're in a city like New York and everything's at your fingertips, it's almost impossible to not get sucked into some weird s*** ... I know my son and he's very curious and he's a little too friendly, and I'm just afraid that he's going to f*** up and then I'm going to be devastated."

Julia Fox's whirlwind romance with her boyfriend at the time, Ace, soon became sour. Though she had run away to be with him, hiding from the police became tiresome and she made the decision to leave. "I decide that I've had enough. I'm going to end things with him," she wrote in "Down the Drain" (via The Guardian). Ace was eventually arrested and was serving his prison sentence at Rikers Island, however, he didn't take the rejection well and threatened to kill Fox's entire family.

In an attempt to get Ace to leave her alone, Fox made an attempt on her own life and found herself committed to a psychiatric hospital at 16 years old. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but her stay was brief and, at this point, Fox was still far from turning her life around.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

Like kids often do, Julia Fox fell in with the wrong crowd as a teenager, and many of her friends were drinking, partying, and doing drugs from a young age. However, what you might not know about Fox is that she was just 16 years old when she unknowingly tried heroin for the first time at a house party. A dealer had supplied the young actor with the drug and, unaware of what it was, she sprinkled some into a joint. Fox claimed in her memoir that she had enjoyed the feeling, but it soon after passed.

She also wrote (via Mamamia) about how her dependency on heroin grew, forming into an addiction. "Heroin had been such a major part of my life. I was in high school [when I first tried heroin]. None of my other friends were doing it, so I was doing it in secret. I didn't understand that I was playing with fire. I highly don't recommend it," Fox noted.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Just weeks after Julia Fox was released from the psychiatric hospital where she'd been receiving treatment, she experienced one of what would become many overdoses. Following the release of her memoir, the actor appeared on "The View" in October 2023, where she discussed how she'd overdosed so many times that she'd "lost count," pointing to one incident in particular where she truly believed she was going to die.

"The near-death experience was crazy because the whole tunnel thing and all of that is real ... There was this little voice in my head that was like, 'Wait a minute — you're dying.' And then I was just like, 'Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.' ... I always go back to that one instance of seeing that light and feeling so warm, almost too warm, and I just knew that I wasn't going to come back if I went to that place," Fox remarked. There was however a silver lining in it all, as she also explained that her near-death experience helped restore her faith, which she'd previously felt disconnected from.

Tragically, Julia Fox has experienced sexual assault many times in her life. Dating back to when she was 11 and had her first kiss with a 27-year-old man who pressured her in an attempt to sleep with her. There were always older men around, and Fox's first boyfriend, with whom she fell in love at 14 years old, was nine years older than her when he got her drunk to have sex with her in the street.

There were many more incidents, but despite everything she'd been through, it took Fox a while to realize that many of her sexual experiences weren't consensual. As she told The Guardian in October 2023, "There were ... a lot of pedophiles. I didn't even realize that's what they were until I was much older, or just how many. They were everywhere, and kids back then didn't have the information they do now. Now, kids know when someone is too old, whereas back then it was just like: hot older guy! The media didn't help, either. It was totally normal for a 17-year-old celebrity to be dating 30-year-old whoever. It was normalized."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Julia Fox met her best friend Gianna at Alcoholics Anonymous, and they remained close for many years. Fortunately, the actor was able to stop using heroin but her friend wasn't so lucky, and she tragically died at the end of 2019 from a fentanyl overdose. Around this time, Fox posted an Instagram tribute to Gianna, writing, "I feel like if I keep talking to you, eventually you'll hear me. 'I miss you' is an understatement. It's as if you were oxygen and I can't breathe anymore ... Nobody else can love me the way you did. I can't love anyone the same way either."

While on the "Call Her Daddy" (34:58) podcast in February 2022, Fox explained how her friend's death has helped keep her away from drugs ever since. "If I even have a thought [of using again] it's very quickly wiped out ... I just think of her and it's over. I just know in my heart I'm just never going to do that again," she remarked.

Sadly, Julia Fox's luck in love didn't get much better as she grew up. She dated private pilot Peter Artemiev for only a month before they tied the knot in Las Vegas in November 2018. The couple were together for a couple of years until they separated in February 2020, with Fox telling GQ the following month, "We're friendly, but we're not together. He's still my friend. I'm sure he would like it to be more, but it's not happening."

They welcomed their son Valentino in January 2021, and although they remained separated, it seemed like Fox was making an effort to co-parent with Artemiev. However, when she let off some steam in an Instagram story in December 2021, the public got some insight into the pilot's relationship with his son. Alongside a picture of her ex, Fox wrote, "Have you seen this deadbeat dad?" She went on to describe Artemiev as a "dead beat alcoholic drug addict dad," adding, "This man left me with a 5 month old and a dog and a home and ALL THE BILLS. It's wrong!!! It's not fair."

Julia Fox has often spoken about her son with gratitude and adoration, and in "Down the Drain," she wrote (via People) about his delivery. "Valentino has come a few weeks early, but he's absolutely perfect. He is the most beautiful little boy I have ever laid my eyes on. When I see him using every bit of strength to inch his body close to mine, I am filled with a love so visceral, it could shatter the earth. I am his. And he is mine," Fox wrote.

However, with the birth of her son came more difficulties with her mental health, including postpartum depression, which she revealed to her followers in a September 2022 TikTok video. Fox went on to explain how motherhood is unfair because women are told from a young age that having children is the best thing they can do, but, she added, "It's just such a reality check when you finally have a kid and you're like, 'Holy f***, this has just drastically made my entire life worse. This is not at all the fairy tale that I was f***ing promised. But how do we say that out loud?"

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Julia Fox's appearance in "Uncut Gems" in 2019 brought her a lot of attention, but if there was something that catapulted her into the public eye more than anything else, it was her shocking connection to the Kardashians. Fox was in a relationship in 2022 with Kanye West, now known as Ye, for about a month while the rapper was going through his divorce from Kim Kardashian. In her memoir, Fox referred to West as "the artist" and was selective about the details she revealed concerning their relationship, but it was unstable to say the least.

From insisting on choosing her outfits to offering to pay for her to get breast implants, the actor wrote (via Fox 11 Los Angeles) that West's "controlling" behavior became hurtful. "His words stick to me like a piece of lint on my clothes. I can't shake off the uncomfortable feeling," she penned.

Later, in speaking with the Los Angeles Times in September 2023, Fox claimed that she'd been blacklisted since her relationship with West ended, saying, "I know for a fact I've been up for certain things and couldn't do it because of dating Kanye. It's kind of wild."

Like many people, it's taken Julia Fox a little bit of time to figure out her sexuality. In a November 2022 interview with Ziwe Fumudoh, Fox explained, "I have a gay bone and I need to explore that a little bit more. Like maybe my ex-boyfriends weren't wrong when they were calling me a lesbian."

In her memoir, Fox explained how her best friend Gianna had made her romantic feelings for her known, but the model was in denial. She spoke with the Los Angeles Times in September 2023 about how she'd denied her feelings for women for years, explaining, "If I were to have been open with my sexuality, I would've been with Gianna. We were low-key in love. There were times when we would do sexual things, and then never talk about it ... She died, and I was never the same again."