Lexi Jones Reflects on Autism Diagnosis, Finds Relief After Years of Isolation

David Bowie’s daughter Lexi Jones has revealed she has been diagnosed with autism, after a ‘long and exhausting journey’ and years of struggling to fit in.

The daughter of the late musical legend and supermodel Iman, 25, took to Instagram to candidly open up on the ‘validating’ diagnosis and how she’d spent her whole life trying to pretend to be ‘normal’.

Lexi explained she’d spent thousands of dollars seeking professional help, before finally getting a formal diagnosis from an autism and ADHD specialist.

The artist first announced her diagnosis in June, admitting that learning she was autistic gave her ‘clarity and relief’, after spending years hiding it without realising, leaving her drained and alienated.

She took to her Instagram to write: ‘Autism does not have one look, one voice, or one way of showing up. It comes in many forms, and a lot of us learn to hide it without even realizing we are doing it. 

‘I was recently diagnosed as autistic, and it finally made sense of so much I have carried quietly my whole life.

‘It is very common for women and people socialized as female to be diagnosed later in life. We are often conditioned to mask, mirror, and internalize. That does not make it any less real.

‘This diagnosis does not change who I am, but it gives me language, clarity, and relief. I am sharing this because I know I am not the only one, and because stories like this deserve to be seen.’

Alongside, she posted a deeply personal essay entitled, The Quiet Effort: Neurodivergence through my lens, where she candidly opened up on how she’d ‘spent my whole life feeling like I was different’.

Lexi recalled growing up feeling ‘isolated’ and spent years mirroring those around her and ‘masking’ – referring to the conscious or unconscious effort by individuals to hide or suppress their natural autistic traits and behaviours to appear more neurotypical.

She wrote: ‘I never really felt like I belonged anywhere, and it ultimately left me exhausted from masking’.

Lexo – real name Alexandria Zahra Jones – confessed she had become good at ‘blending in’ but that it never came naturally to her and was something she had to work hard at ‘consciously constructing’.

She wrote: ‘It feels more like a performance I have built over time, not a reflection of how I truly think, feel, or function.’

She explained how she would get overwhelmed and ‘shut down or lash out’, while describing her lack of sense of self as a ‘sense of pain’ that ‘chips away at my confidence and sense of worth.’

While she also confessed being worried that she appeared too high-functioning that she was ‘overplaying things for attention’ or because she was desperate to be different.

She said: ‘I’ve had a history of being misread and labeled as anxious, intense, depressed, or dramatic, but none of those labels ever explained the full picture.’

However, Lexi went on: ‘I am not trying to be seen as different. I have always just felt different, and I have spent so much of my time trying to figure out why.’

She revealed she had been through a ‘long and exhausting process’ and spent ‘thousands of dollars’ on trying to find the answer, so she could ‘start building a life that actually fits who I am.’ 

She described finally getting her autism diagnosis as ‘validating’, as it made sense of all the things she had been feeling her whole life.

She concluded the lengthy piece by stressing that while she’s still the same person, she is now able to feel ‘more self-compassion and less shame’ about the way she is and thinks.

Lexi finished: ‘It is not about fitting into a category or chasing a label. It is about being able to see myself clearly for the first time. And I wanted to share that.

At the weekend, the budding musician did a Q&A on Instagram for her fans, where she answered questions about autism.

She quipped that those who were autistic that could ‘authentically mask’ should ‘go into acting’, joking: ‘Seriously that is some Jim Carrey method acting status and it’s impressive’.

Showing she had inherited her famous father’s embracing of ‘otherness’ and being different, Lexi urged others not to feel they also had to mask their autistic traits to appear more ‘normal’ to others.

Echoing dad David, she insisted: ‘But also hope u don’t feel the NEED to mask to make others feel more comfortable or to feel like you need to blend in or even to protect yourself since society is brutal. 

‘Please don’t let it strip down or take away from your authenticity. Know that even while masking, you can still be yourself and embrace your own personality. 

‘The mask shouldn’t make you unrecognizable, maybe just bedazzle everything you already possess :)’.

Despite her famous name, Lexi has spent most of her teenage years and early twenties shying away from the spotlight. 

She only recently began sharing more of her life with the public, posting her artwork and, more recently, followed in the footsteps of dad David by launching her music.

In April, she released her debut album Xandri, a Greek word meaning ‘defender of mankind’,  featuring tracks including Through All The Time, Moving On and Standing Alone.

But it appears that the pressure from the public to follow her father’s very successful legacy has taken a toll on the star. 

Taking to Instagram, Lexi previously posted a heartfelt poem which gave an insight into her emotions and the pressure of being David’s child. 

She penned: ‘David Bowie’s Daughter, that gets your attention, ay? I’m the daughter of a legend, but I’m more than just his name. They see the blood, they hear the sound, yet fail to see me, don’t feel the same.’

‘They compare me to his heights, like I’m supposed to reach his light. But I’m not here to chase what’s already been done. By loving what I do, I feel I’ve already won.’

To finish her verses, she reminded her followers that she is ‘not a copy’, and insisted: ‘I’m not trying to fill his shoes. I’m just trying to find my own peace.’   

Lexi was just 15 when David passed away after a long battle with liver cancer in 2016, just days after he turned 69 years old.

Last year, she described the anguish she felt after losing her father and how she struggled to cope in the years that followed.

‘I confused living life with surviving life’s days by filling my body’s bottomless void, drowning myself in toxins and poison,’ she wrote online last year. 

‘I involved myself in things I never expected to be part of. Situating myself in situations that contributed to the already crumbling foundation of my family eventually led to lonely isolation.

‘I’ve hurt the ones I loved most with hateful words to make them feel at least a little bit of the pain I went through every day.

‘It felt easier to label myself as a psychopath, rather than to have admitted to the lack of introspection in an effort to justify my harmful actions.

‘Growing to be such a violent and angry individual was unbelievably contradictory to the sweet and gentle little girl I used to be.’

On the anniversary of his death last year, Lexi shared a heartwarming video of her as a young girl playing the piano alongside the beaming rocker. 

The video appears to show father and daughter in the recording studio with young Lexi effortlessly displaying her talents on the keyboard.

She also shared a sweet photo of her cuddling up to David, who gazed at her adoringly, captioned: ‘7 years ago today. I miss you’.

After her birth, it was said that Lexi helped her father put his workaholic attitude ‘into perspective’ and give him the will to stay healthy after his first heart attack. 

She has a half-brother, the film director Duncan Jones, whose mother is the singer’s first wife, Angie Bowie.