Julia blamed for suicide – report
Julia Roberts has been blamed for driving her half-sister Nancy Motes to suicide.
According to the New York Daily News, a five-page suicide letter was found by a paramedic on the scene. A source claimed: "There were three pages of rantings that [Roberts] drove her to do this. There was one page to her mom, telling her how much she loved her, and one page apologising to (her fiancé John Dilbeck)," the source said.
Motes – the daughter of Roberts’ mother Betty Lou and stepfather Michael Motes – had a falling out with the 46-year-old Roberts after giving a tell-all interview about the star last year, accusing her of blocking access to their sick mother.
In the interview, Motes also revealed that Roberts criticised her appearance as a teenager.
"When I was in high school and she was an adult, she would just let me know that I was definitely overweight," Motes revealed.
Motes – who weighed over 135kg before deciding to undergo gastric bypass surgery in June 2010 – said she was hopeful that her transformation would help to repair their fractured relationship, but added that it wouldn’t "be fixed overnight, nor do I think it’s going to be fixed at this point by me just getting skinny".
In the weeks leading up to Motes’ death, she posted emotional tweets – now removed – directed at her Oscar-winning sister. "So my ‘sister’ said that with all her friends & fans she doesn’t need any more love. Just so you all know ‘America’s Sweetheart’ is a B—-!!" she tweeted on 20 January.
"Do you want to be a fan of someone so cruel? She’s not even that good of an actress. Happy you totally F—ed with me?" she added.
A source revealed to the publication that Motes death "looks like a pill overdose" and said that Motes’ body could have been in the bathtub for up to 12 hours before she was discovered.
Craig Harvey, chief of coroner investigations for Los Angeles County, confirmed to the New York Daily News that Motes "was found in a bathtub that contained water. There were prescription and non-prescription drugs found at the scene. The role the drugs may or may not have played is not yet known."
While an autopsy on Motes has been completed, cause of death has been deferred until additional toxicology tests are completed, coroner spokesman Ed Winter said.
Winter confirmed the suicide note – but said that he did not believe it was five pages long.
Meanwhile, Roberts cancelled her public appearances in the wake of her half-sister’s suicide, and released a statement through her rep saying: "It is with deep sadness that the family of Nancy Motes … confirms that she was found dead in Los Angeles yesterday of an apparent drug overdose.
"The family is both shocked and devastated."
According to the Daily Mail, John Fraschetti – who has been friends with Motes’ fiancé Dilbeck since he was 13 – claimed that Roberts and her family are "crying crocodile tears".
He labelled Roberts’ family as a "family that drove [Motes] to death", and claimed that they "never cared for her when she was alive".
Fraschetti added that Motes "couldn’t stand the rejection of her mom, who in the last six months had cut her off entirely.
"It hurt her that none of her family wanted to be with her. She had a miserable Christmas, truly awful, and I think she just couldn’t handle it anymore."
