The sibling relationship between Julia Roberts and half-sister Nancy Motes was complex and toxic.
Nancy Motes was found dead in a water filled bathtub in a Los Angeles home on Sunday, February 9, 2014. She was only 37 years old and is the younger sister of famous movie star, Julia Roberts. The death is a believed suicide, as Nancy was found surrounded by prescription and non-prescription drugs. There is allegedly a multiple page suicide note in which Nancy apologizes to her mother and fiance, but blames Julia for her emotional turmoil.
Nancy Motes was only 13 years old when her half sister Julia shot to fame for her lead role in Pretty Woman. Nancy claims this was the turning point in their relationship, when it really began to sour. According to an interview Motes gave in 2013, this is when Julia began to make overtly mean comments about Nancy’s weight issues. Motes claimed that the intentionally callous remarks about her weight continued to come from Julia through adulthood.
In the same interview, Nancy revealed that she elected to have gastric bypass surgery, so that she could finally win her weight gain battle and maybe be accepted by her older sister.
Nancy did attempt to follow in her older sister’s footsteps by moving to Los Angeles after graduating high school in 1995, but she had to return home to Georgia when she could no longer afford the high cost of living in California. Although Nancy was never able to break into acting, Julia supposedly did help her snag a role as production assistant on the set of Glee.
Even after it seemed that Julia was helping her half sister, Nancy continued to say the opposite on Twitter. Motes wrote multiple Tweets about how horrible her older sister was, that Julia was a horrible mean person and the public should not be fooled by her.
Last year rumors swirled that Julia was boycotting the planned wedding of her half sister to John Dilbeck on the account that he was not good enough for Nancy. Another nasty rumor arouse that Julia feared she would be asked to help pay for the wedding, which she would not do.
New rumors and accusations continue to arise surrounding the half sisters’ torrid relationship. Regardless of what one believes, the death of any family member no matter how estranged is a tragic event. It may never truly be known if Julia bullied Nancy to this alleged suicide. However, many siblings relentlessly bully each other and it does not always lead to suicide; there were monsters that Nancy sadly couldn’t fight off any more. Julia has cancelled multiple appearances to be with her grieving family.
