Julia Roberts’ sister Nancy Motes, 37, committed suicide a little over a week ago. She was found in a bathtub at the apartment of a client whose dog she was pet sitting. Officials said that prescription and illegal drugs were found at the scene, and that a suicide note was also there. Reports claimed that the suicide note had pages detailing Nancy’s strained relationship with Julia and blaming her for the suicide.
Nancy was engaged at the time of her death and had tweeted many happy photos with her fiance. Nancy’s fiance’s brother, Conner Dilbeck, claimed on Facebook and in print interviews that Nancy was despondent over how Julia had treated her over the years. A longterm friend of Nancy’s confirmed that version of events and said that Nancy was especially hurt at being rejected by her family over Christmas. Nancy’s friend, John Fraschetti, sort-of admitted that Nancy had drug problems, but said that her family’s rejection was unforgivable.
Connor Dilbeck has a new interview with Inside Edition that aired last night. Connor repeated his claims that Julia Roberts was awful to her sister, and denied that Nancy had a drug problem. He claimed that Nancy did only pot and prescription drugs that she took for Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and seizures. Dilbeck said that Nancy killed herself “to get her point across, because no one else would listen to how much she was abused. [Julia is] not a sweetheart… that’s a monster.”
Here’s some of what Dilbeck said, and a video of his interview is at this link:
Julia Roberts’ half-sister Nancy’s apparent suicide has one man pointing a finger at the superstar. Nancy Motes was engaged to Conner Dilbeck’s brother. He said, “The truth is she bullied her sister.”
In an exclusive interview with INSIDE EDITION ,Conner Dilbeck told Diane McInerney that Nancy was tormented by what he claims were “fat-shame” phone calls from Julia.
He said, “Julia Roberts didn’t want to have a fat sister.”
Conner says Nancy, who lived in a modest apartment building in Santa Monica, felt inadequate compared to the Pretty Woman icon. He says that’s why, in 2010, Nancy underwent gastric bypass surgery, going from 300 pounds to 155 pounds.
But 37-year-old Nancy was clearly still fighting demons. She was found dead of an apparent drug overdose in a bathtub at an upscale home in Brentwood, California where she had been dog sitting. Her fiancé John Dilbeck, discovered her body along with a five page suicide letter.
Conner said, “I can’t stop thinking of the horror of my brother having to pull her out of that bathtub and finding that letter and knowing she felt like she had no other option to escape this bullying than to take her life.”
McInerney asked, “What did she say in that letter about her sister, Julia?”
“She said, ‘My sisters drove me to do this,’” said Conner.
Nancy was referring to Julia and her other sister, Lisa, from whom she was also estranged. The sisters all share the same mother, Betty Lou Motes, who was hospitalized this weekend for an unknown ailment…
Julia Roberts has not publicly spoken about Nancy’s death and she has backed out of a number of pre-Oscar events over the past week.
There’s also no question that Julia tried to help her sister where she could. For instance, when Nancy moved to Hollywood, Julia used her connections to get Nancy a job as a production assistant on Glee.
Conner said, “Having the opportunity to work for Glee was like a dream come true for Nancy.”
Julia also reportedly tried to get Nancy into drug rehab.
McInerney asked, “Was Nancy battling a drug addiction?”
Conner replied, “No! She was battling depression. There was no drug addiction. She smoked pot on occasion. Everything else she was taking were prescription drugs, for her actual problems. She had lupus, she had seizures, she had rheumatoid arthritis.”
Inside Edition confirmed that Julia got Nancy the job at Glee. When Nancy killed herself, she was working as a pet sitter, so I guess we can assume that Nancy somehow lost that Glee job. Not that it was her fault or anything, I’m just trying to figure out what happened.
There are two possible scenarios here, with of course the truth probably being a sad gray area somewhere in between. One scenario is that Nancy was a prescription drug addict, that she spiraled into a depression when her family tried to get her to go to rehab, and that she was deep in denial that she had a problem. Another scenario is that Nancy was plagued by health problems, that she was misunderstood, blamed and rejected by her family, and that she couldn’t take it anymore.
Obviously Nancy’s fiance and his brother truly believe this second version. They were the closest to her and this is the side they are taking. They lost someone they loved and it’s truly sad, but they are not doing their version any favors by so vehemently going after Julia. I do not know what happened, I am not close to this situation, nor do I have a strong opinion either way. All I can see is that a woman has died and that she thought her family was to blame for her depression and ultimately for taking her own life. She had a famous sister and that’s why we’re talking about it.
One angle that a commenter mentioned that deserves repeating is the fact that the suicide rate among gastric bypass patients is abnormally high. Nancy Motes had gastric bypass surgery in June, 2010.
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