Julia Roberts 'devastated' by drug death of her half-sister after body found in bathtub

 
Bereaved: actress Julia Roberts at the premiere of her new film August: Osage County last month
Getty
David Gardner11 February 2014

Julia Roberts was said to be devastated today after the death of her half-sister from a suspected drug overdose.

The Pretty Woman star’s family last night confirmed that Nancy Motes, 37, was found dead on Sunday in a bathtub of water at a home in Los Angeles.

Roberts, 46, pulled out of the Academy Awards nominees lunch yesterday to be with her grief-stricken family.

“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 said in a statement.

“There is no official report from the Coroner’s office yet. The family is both shocked and devastated.”

Her death comes weeks after she appeared to launch an extraordinary Twitter attack on Roberts, who is nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for August: Osage County.

Last month Miss Motes, who battled obesity and depression, tweeted: “She’s not even that good of an actress.”

Miss Motes was the half sister of Julia and Eric Roberts, 57, who is also an actor.

In an interview with the New York Daily News last summer, she claimed: “I think that growing up as Pretty Woman’s little sister has definitely made me try to see the person inside and not the person outside. A lot of my life I felt judged for my weight.”

After Miss Motes left school in  Georgia, she followed her sister to  Hollywood in 1995 with dreams of becoming a star herself.

Read More

Miss Motes underwent £20,000 gastric surgery three years ago and described her relationship with her famous sister in the interview as “a work in progress”.

Nevertheless, she insisted: “I love Julia absolutely, and I have no doubt she loves me.”

But she added: “I want to be known as more than Julia Roberts’s fat little sister.”

Miss Motes, who was a production assistant on the TV show Glee, was engaged to her boyfriend John Dilbeck and the couple planned to marry in May.

Police said prescription drugs were found near the body and it is thought that she left a suicide note.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in