Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend at the time of his death on June 8, 2018, was Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento. They had been together since 2016, and their relationship became inseparable from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the #MeToo movement, and the circumstances of Bourdain’s final weeks in Strasbourg, France.
But Argento was the third act. Bourdain married high school sweetheart Nancy Putkoski in 1985 and stayed with her for twenty years before fame pulled them apart. He married Ottavia Busia in 2007, had his only daughter Ariane, and separated amicably in 2016. Then came Argento — volatile, public, politically charged, and ultimately devastating. Each of Bourdain’s relationships shaped a different version of the man, and none of them ended gently.
Nancy Putkoski — Anthony Bourdain’s First Wife and High School Sweetheart
Nancy Putkoski was Anthony Bourdain’s first wife, married from 1985 to 2005, and she has never given a single public interview about their two-decade relationship. Everything known about their marriage comes from Bourdain himself.
They met as teenagers in Leonia, New Jersey — long before Bourdain ever appeared on a television screen. Putkoski was Bourdain’s first girlfriend who became his wife, and the two stayed together through his years at the Culinary Institute of America, through the grinding poverty of early kitchen work, and through the heroin addiction he would later write about with brutal honesty in Kitchen Confidential (2000). In Medium Raw (2010), Bourdain reflected on those years with a mix of affection and guilt, acknowledging that Putkoski endured the worst of his self-destruction while receiving none of the rewards that eventually followed.
The marriage survived addiction. It couldn’t survive fame. When Kitchen Confidential became a bestseller and Bourdain launched into constant travel at age 44, their settled domestic life collapsed under the weight of his new reality. The divorce was finalized in 2005. According to the biographical account in Charles Leerhsen’s Down and Out in Paradise (2022), Bourdain expressed genuine regret about the marriage’s end in private conversations, even years later.
| Detail | Nancy Putkoski |
|---|---|
| Relationship | First wife (high school sweetheart) |
| Met | Leonia, New Jersey — as teenagers |
| Married | 1985 |
| Divorced | 2005 |
| Duration | ~20 years |
| Public statements | None — has never given an interview |
Ottavia Busia — Bourdain’s Second Wife, Daughter Ariane, and the BJJ Connection
Ottavia Busia married Anthony Bourdain in April 2007, gave birth to their daughter Ariane that same year, and separated from him in 2016 while maintaining one of the most cooperative co-parenting arrangements in public life. She is also the person who connected Bourdain to Brazilian jiu-jitsu — a discipline that became central to his identity in his final years.
Italian-born Busia was working as a restaurant manager in New York when she met Bourdain in 2005, shortly after his divorce from Putkoski. They married in April 2007, and Ariane was born later that year. Bourdain became a father for the first time at 51 — a transformation he described as the most significant of his life in interviews with People and CNN.
Busia was a serious BJJ practitioner and mixed martial arts competitor. Bourdain took up jiu-jitsu himself around 2014, eventually earning a blue belt and speaking about the discipline with an intensity that surprised people who knew him only as the sardonic host of Parts Unknown. In interviews with GQ (2018) and Men’s Journal, he credited martial arts with providing physical and mental focus during a turbulent stretch of his life.
The couple announced their separation in 2016, but both consistently described it as loving and mutual. Bourdain told interviewers that Ariane was “the most important person in my life, period.” When he died, Busia posted a tribute on Instagram that reflected a bond that had changed shape but never really ended: “Our little girl had the best of you.”
Asia Argento — Anthony Bourdain’s Girlfriend at the Time of His Death
Asia Argento, the Italian actress and filmmaker born in Rome in 1975, was Anthony Bourdain’s last girlfriend. Their relationship began in 2016, lasted roughly two years, and became the most scrutinized chapter of his personal life — entangled with the Harvey Weinstein scandal, #MeToo activism, and Bourdain’s emotional unraveling in the months before his death.
How Bourdain Met Asia Argento in Rome
Bourdain met Argento while filming a Parts Unknown episode in Rome in 2016 — the famous episode with his girlfriend that fans still reference as the moment their on-screen chemistry became unmistakable. Argento, then 40, appeared as his guide through her city. Bourdain told People magazine he was “madly in love,” language he used without irony or qualification.
The relationship went public in early 2017. Bourdain was 60; Argento was 41 — a roughly 19-year age gap that became a persistent topic of online discussion. Argento was already well-known in Europe as the daughter of Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento and as a director and actress with decades of credits. She was not a model by profession, despite some search queries — she was an established filmmaker from a rich and prominent Italian cinema family.
A Relationship Lived Entirely in Public
They traveled together across Europe and beyond, appeared at events, and posted openly on social media. Friends told Vanity Fair (July 2021) that Bourdain was more emotionally open and more vulnerable during this period than at any prior point. According to the documentary Roadrunner (2021), directed by Morgan Neville, the intensity of the connection consumed him in ways his previous relationships had not.
The roughly 19-year age difference between Bourdain (born June 1956) and Argento (born September 1975) drew persistent commentary, particularly on Reddit threads discussing Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend. Bourdain never publicly engaged with the age gap debate.
The Weinstein Controversy and Anthony Bourdain’s #MeToo Role
Anthony Bourdain became one of the most prominent male voices in the early #MeToo movement after Asia Argento publicly accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in Ronan Farrow’s October 2017 New Yorker investigation. Bourdain funded Argento’s legal representation and used his social media platform — reaching millions — to amplify her statements and condemn Weinstein.
The involvement went deeper than public advocacy. According to reporting by The New York Times (August 2018), Bourdain helped arrange a $380,000 settlement payment to actor Jimmy Bennett, who accused Argento of sexual assault when Bennett was 17 years old. This payment — what search queries call the “Anthony Bourdain girlfriend pay off” — surfaced publicly only after Bourdain’s death and added an explosive layer to the already intense controversy surrounding his relationship with Argento.
The Weinstein dimension transformed what might have been a private partnership into a politically charged public alliance. Bourdain was vocal, combative, and purposeful — but close friends told The New Yorker (2018) that the role also consumed him emotionally, blurring the line between personal devotion and public crusade in ways that worried the people closest to him.
Bourdain’s Final Days — Texts, Photos, and Last Words to His Girlfriend
Anthony Bourdain’s last texts to his girlfriend and the photographs that surfaced days before his death became the most discussed details of his final chapter. He died by suicide on June 8, 2018, in Strasbourg, France, while filming Parts Unknown for CNN. He was 61.
In early June 2018, photographs emerged showing Argento with French journalist Hugo Clement in Rome. According to Leerhsen’s Down and Out in Paradise (2022), Bourdain saw the images and exchanged a series of anguished messages with Argento. One widely reported exchange — sometimes described as Anthony Bourdain’s final letter to his girlfriend — showed Bourdain writing: “I am okay. I am not spiteful. I am not jealous that you have been seeing someone else.” The full text exchanges — Anthony Bourdain’s last words to his girlfriend in any documented form — generated intense public reaction when published posthumously.
The 2021 documentary Roadrunner addressed the final weeks and Bourdain’s deteriorating emotional state, though it drew its own controversy for using AI-generated audio of Bourdain’s voice. His close friend and chef Eric Ripert, who found Bourdain that morning, has consistently declined to discuss the private communications.
If you or someone you know is struggling, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
Where Is Anthony Bourdain’s Girlfriend Asia Argento Now
Asia Argento lives in Italy as of 2025 and continues to work as an actress, director, and public figure. She published her memoir Anatomy of a Wild Heart in 2021, writing at length about her relationship with Bourdain, her experiences with Weinstein, and the media firestorm that followed Bourdain’s death.
Argento has spoken about Bourdain in multiple interviews since 2018, consistently describing their bond as genuine and his loss as something she still carries. In a 2021 interview with Italian media, she pushed back against narratives portraying her as solely responsible for Bourdain’s emotional state, pointing to his long history of depression and addiction that predated their relationship by decades.
The Jimmy Bennett sexual assault allegations, which surfaced two months after Bourdain’s death via The New York Times reporting, significantly damaged Argento’s public standing. She initially denied the claims before acknowledging a payment was made. Argento maintains a public profile in European film and media, though her career trajectory has been markedly affected by the controversies of 2018.
| Relationship | Years | Key Context |
|---|---|---|
| Nancy Putkoski (first wife) | 1985–2005 | High school sweethearts; 20-year marriage ended by fame |
| Ottavia Busia (second wife) | 2007–2016 | Daughter Ariane; amicable separation; BJJ connection |
| Asia Argento (girlfriend) | 2016–2018 | #MeToo era; Weinstein controversy; final relationship |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend?
Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend at the time of his death was Asia Argento, an Italian actress and filmmaker born in Rome in 1975. They began dating in 2016 after meeting during the filming of a Parts Unknown episode in Rome. Before Argento, Bourdain’s former girlfriend turned first wife was Nancy Putkoski (married 1985–2005), and his second wife was Ottavia Busia (2007–2016).
What was Anthony Bourdain’s last girlfriend’s name?
Asia Argento — born Anna Maria Louisa Argento on September 20, 1975, in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of Italian horror director Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi. She was Bourdain’s partner from 2016 until his death in June 2018.
How old was Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend when he died?
Asia Argento was 42 years old when Anthony Bourdain died on June 8, 2018. Bourdain was 61. The age gap between them was approximately 19 years — he was born in June 1956, she in September 1975. The age difference was a frequent topic in online discussions about their relationship. Some tabloid characterizations of Argento as Bourdain’s “crazy girlfriend” stem from this coverage, though people close to both have pushed back against that framing as reductive and unfair.
Where did Anthony Bourdain meet his girlfriend?
Bourdain met Asia Argento in Rome, Italy, in 2016 while filming an episode of CNN’s Parts Unknown. Argento appeared as his local guide for the episode, and Bourdain later described the connection as immediate and overwhelming.
Did Anthony Bourdain have a girlfriend when he died?
Yes. Anthony Bourdain was in a relationship with Asia Argento when he died in Strasbourg, France, in June 2018, though reporting suggests the relationship had become strained in the preceding weeks. He had separated from second wife Ottavia Busia in 2016 but they remained close co-parents to daughter Ariane.
What did Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend look like?
Asia Argento is an Italian woman with dark hair and a striking, distinctive appearance well-documented across her decades-long film career. Any picture of Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend from their 2017–2018 public appearances is widely available through Getty Images, People, and major news outlets — a simple image search returns hundreds of results.
Did Bourdain have a French, British, Brazilian, or Asian girlfriend?
No. Anthony Bourdain’s three documented significant partners were all either American or Italian: Nancy Putkoski (American), Ottavia Busia (Italian-born), and Asia Argento (Italian). Search queries about a “French girlfriend” or “British girlfriend” appear to stem from geographical confusion. The name “Asia” in Asia Argento is a given name, not a reference to the continent — Argento is Italian, born and raised in Rome.
What happened to Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend after his death?
After Bourdain’s death in June 2018, Asia Argento faced the public exposure of sexual assault allegations from actor Jimmy Bennett, including a $380,000 settlement partially funded by Bourdain. She initially denied the claims before acknowledging the payment. Argento published her memoir Anatomy of a Wild Heart in 2021, continued working in European film and media, and has spoken publicly in multiple interviews about her grief over losing Bourdain and her perspective on the controversies that followed.
What was the Anthony Bourdain girlfriend Weinstein pay off?
This refers to two connected financial matters. First, Bourdain funded Asia Argento’s legal representation during the Harvey Weinstein accusation process in 2017. Second, according to The New York Times (August 2018), Bourdain helped arrange a $380,000 payment to actor Jimmy Bennett, who accused Argento of sexual assault. Both payments became public knowledge only after Bourdain’s death.
What is Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend doing now?
As of 2025, Asia Argento lives in Rome, Italy, and continues working in film as both an actress and director. She published her memoir in 2021 and has given interviews discussing her relationship with Bourdain, her #MeToo experiences, and the aftermath of the public controversies. She maintains an active social media presence and remains a recognized figure in European entertainment. For another look at how a celebrity’s romantic history unfolds across a decade, explore Sam Heughan’s complete relationship timeline.
