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The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I'd love Keanu to read it': Ione Skye on bisexuality, infidelity and her wild tell-all memoir
In person, as in her new tell-all memoir, 90s Hollywood 'It' girl Ione Skye doesn't hold back. Whether she's discussing menopausal hormone treatment (she's on it), her libido ('It's not what it was but [musician husband Ben Lee] and I have a really nice sex life') or her ex Anthony Kiedis's fondness for dating teenagers ('Why can't you be with a grown-up?' she sighs), for 54-year-old Skye, there's no such thing as too much information too early in the morning. Skye's aptly named memoir, Say Everything, has been praised as raw, revealing, disarming and horny. 'I definitely didn't want to hurt people,' the actor says when we meet over breakfast at a cafe near her Sydney home. It's just that between recounting her sexcapades with both male and female celebrities – 'Writing a sex scene is so funny because I didn't want it to be cringy, sleazy or too crass,' she laughs – Skye had a lot of past to surrender and guilt to process. It is, she says, also a cautionary tale for her two daughters. Her droll and self-aware memoir, which dishes on the private lives of heavyweights from Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow to Robert Downey Jr, has captured the attention of everyone from Miranda July ('I gobbled it up,' she gushed) to 90s-curious gen Zers: 'People are fascinated with what life was like out in the world without [smart]phones.' Name-dropping comes naturally to this OG nepo baby. Skye, named for the island where she was conceived, is the daughter of Scottish flower power singer Donovan, who left her mother, US model Enid Karl, and Skye's older brother Dono, before Ione was born. Her mother's previous boyfriends included Jim Morrison, Keith Richards and Dudley Moore, but it was Donovan and his desertion that Karl never really got over as she struggled as a single mother (and occasional pot dealer) in Los Angeles. Skye didn't meet her famous father until she was 17, in an awkward encounter her book recounts in farcical detail. Father and daughter have since reconciled, but she is nervous about him reading the book, in which Donovan's absence looms large. 'I would always be an abandoned daughter, always searching for proof of love,' Skye writes – while explaining how she blew up her first marriage to Beastie Boys rapper Adam Horovitz (AKA Ad-Rock) by cheating on him repeatedly. Growing up, Skye gravitated towards other daughters of famous fathers, including Karis Jagger, Amelia Fleetwood and the Zappa children. At 15 she quit school and became legally 'emancipated', taking up her first film role opposite Keanu Reeves in the 1986 teen thriller River's Edge. Skye always kept detailed personal journals, and she has mined the juiciest material for her memoir. Some of her teenage antics read like a gen X schoolgirl's wildest fantasies: there's her (ultimately fruitless) pursuit of Reeves, who politely turns her down in his LA apartment one night after filming: 'When I reached for his belt buckle, Keanu took my wrist, stopping me.' She canoodles with her good friend River Phoenix, develops a crush on her Say Anything co-star John Cusack (it won't be consummated until years later), has a fling with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, then shacks up at 16 with his heroin-addicted bandmate, Anthony Kiedis, eight years her senior. While Skye didn't consider their age gap problematic at the time, she does now. The self-confessed 'helicopter mum' says her 'hackles rise' just imagining her 15-year-old daughter Goldie in her shoes. She also finds it curious that Kiedis continues to date much younger women. 'If someone never has a relationship with a woman their own age, that I do not understand,' she says. Neither Goldie nor Skye's 23-year-old daughter, Kate, have read Say Everything yet, 'but they know about my life,' she assures me, 'and my destructive way I had sex.' The intense, unprotected sex she had with Kiedis 'freaked' her out, as did the rock star's serial unfaithfulness and jealous rages; she also claims there was a HIV scare, an abortion Kiedis didn't accompany her to, and many fearful nights driving around LA searching for the singer when he disappeared on drug binges. 'The need to save [Anthony] was an addiction in itself,' she writes. Then at 18, Skye met 'the first great love of my life': Adam Horovitz, a man she describes as 'a sweetie pie'. They soon moved in together, and for a while, life was 'one long daydream'. The pair tied the knot when Skye was 21, just as the Beastie Boys' star was rising, pulling Horovitz away on months-long tours. Skye 'felt abandoned by his protracted absences'. Alone in LA, she began joyfully – but guiltily – exploring her bisexuality, first with British model Alice Temple, then with two of Madonna's exes, Ingrid Casares and Jenny Shimizu. (Strap-on sex with Shimizu, she writes, 'made me needy and devoted. I wanted to be her dog, like in that Stooges song.') Skye's infidelities became more indiscreet. One day Horovitz arrived home from a tour to find her in flagrante in their back yard pool. Her anguish at hurting Horovitz is still apparent three decades on. 'I secretly hope [reading my memoir] helps him and his family but I kind of know their personalities and I almost think it might be doing the opposite, unfortunately,' she says. Despite its promise to say everything, Skye's memoir ends surprisingly early: in 2006, when she was in the throes of new lust with another 'short king', the Australian singer Ben Lee. They had first met a decade before when Lee's band signed to the Beastie Boys' record label. Skye describes the first time they had sex as 'the best sex I'd had since Jenny' – but Lee, who had previously been in a long-term relationship with actor Claire Danes, felt Skye was coming on too strong. 'Whatever you're feeling, I am not,' he tells her, curtly, after their first night together. Skye and Lee married in 2008 in a Hindu wedding ceremony in India; they had daughter Goldie nine months later. 'The way you father the girls has practically healed me,' she writes of Lee. Skye has been faithful throughout their marriage – something she felt necessary to include, because 'people are going to wonder'. 'I don't feel I'm missing out,' she says. 'I think I'm a little more straight than gay, but anyway, all I know is I'm happy and I'm not distracted and looking around.' The fact her memoir speeds over her last two decades with Lee was not due to any demands from him for privacy but because her publisher wanted it to end on 'a bit of a cliffhanger', leaving the door open for a sequel. And anyone craving a closer look at the couple's life can tune into their weekly podcast, Weirder Together, in which they banter about family life, famous friends and their creative pursuits – from Lee's music to Skye's latest film roles. Midway through our conversation, Skye's megawatt smile lights up. She waves to someone across the courtyard. 'Oh Ben!' she exclaims. 'You saw my location!' Lee walks over beaming, trailing the couple's miniature long-haired dachshund, Gus, who is six months old today. 'It's his half birthday,' Lee coos as Skye scoops up her 'baby boy'. Later, I ask Skye if Lee's rigorous touring schedule has ever brought up the same insecurities she felt with Horovitz. 'Oh my god, yes!' she says. 'When [Ben] would [leave LA and tour Australia] and especially when Goldie was little, I almost would have a full breakdown inside. It triggered so much for me. Luckily at that point I had emotional maturity and I knew to go to therapy and I knew to get help, and to communicate with Ben and other people about my feelings.' Another challenge early in their relationship was Lee's enmeshment in spiritual cults. There was an Indian guru ('I was really trying my hardest to be supportive, but it was like having a whole other person [in the relationship],' recalls Skye), then a 'more rigid' group involving a Peruvian leader and ayahuasca ceremonies. 'That was scary, because I was just like: 'Oh my god, I might lose him' … not physically – but losing his mind into something.' There were parallels, Skye says, in trying to extricate Kiedis from heroin addiction and Lee from 'fanaticism'. She was relieved when internal ructions in the ayahuasca group finally 'snapped' her husband out of it. The couple currently reside in Australia, where their daughters are studying. Sydney's natural beauty inspires Skye to paint, and she likes that the 'ghosts' of her Hollywood past aren't 'in my face all the time'. But Hollywood hasn't moved on just yet. Her friends are having fun imagining who might play Ione in a film adaptation of Say Everything, with Sofia Coppola suggesting Saltburn actor Alison Oliver. I ponder, half-jokingly, whether the film would pass the Bechdel test. 'Maybe not,' Skye muses. 'Even when I'm in my big lesbian phase, I'm always thinking about Adam [Horovitz].' And nearly 40 years after he turned her down, there is one Hollywood ghost Skye hopes her memoir resurrects. 'I would love for Keanu to [read it] and think it's great,' she grins. Say Everything by Ione Skye is out now in Australia (A$24.99 HarperCollins Australia), the UK (£22.00, HarperCollins) and the US (US$29.99 Simon & Schuster)
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
More enjoyable sex, less enjoyable sleep. Ione Skye, 54, gets candid about intimacy, insecurities and menopause.
Gen-X it girl Ione Skye starred in River's Edge with Keanu Reeves, Say Anything with John Cusack and Wayne's World with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. At just 16, she dated Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and married, cheated on and divorced the Beastie Boys' Adam Horowitz. For so much of her life, much of which has been covered by tabloids and chronicled in pop culture history has been notable for the men — and women — she's dated. But at 54, with the release of her memoir Say Everything, she's writing the story and taking center stage. So why tell all (and tell all she does) now? 'It's just that getting older, life doesn't get easier. But I feel I can handle getting through things a little better with the wisdom of age,' she tells Yahoo Life. With age comes wisdom, yes, but also new challenges and changes. Here she shares her refreshing thoughts on body image, exercise, menopause and more. Why was it the right time for you to write and release this book? I always love sharing myself with my close friends and family and just have that desire to be known, like all of us. But at this point, I felt I could trust myself to share and not overshare, believe it or not, even though it is unapologetically honest and disarming. It felt like there was a lot of interest in my life and I wanted to let people know who I am and share my experience. As I get older, I feel I can kind of take care of myself through things emotionally — ride the ups and downs and still stick with myself. When I was younger, I don't know if I would have had the same mind to edit parts. The older I get, the more I feel like life is just as hard in some ways, but this, too, shall pass. You touch on different sources of insecurity in your writing — your body being one of them. Has that changed as you've gotten older? The pressure I had put on myself to look like a friggin' model is insane. As I get older, I'm grateful when my body works. I'm always going to have that mind where I put pressure on myself thinking my stomach looks big in a picture or whatever it is. But I just appreciate superficially the parts of my body that I do like. In the book I write a list about the parts I like versus the parts I don't like, which is not a healthy thing. But also, it is, in the sense that I'm focusing on the good things. I'm just trying to remember all the healthy things that really matter. What does exercise look like for you in your 50s? I struggle with that and always have. As a little kid, I didn't like sports at first because I hated the feeling of competition. When it was light and just fun, it was great. I liked it when I could forget that I was exercising. It's about finding the thing that I feel good doing so I'm still doing something because I realize I have to and it makes me feel better, of course. But I'm inconsistent. Now I'm doing Pilates for just stretching. I'm not in a class — I found a place where you go on your own machine because I feel a lot of pressure in class sometimes. I'm 54 and most women in classes I've gone to were up to their 30s or 40s. So I'm a little older, they're seemingly having a much easier time and I get frustrated with myself that I don't have the same endurance. I was never highly athletic, but I'm giving myself a break. I don't want to push myself anymore as long as I'm doing something. Just being very gentle and taking it slow. How has your body evolved with aging? I'm getting older, my tummy is getting bigger and I'm gaining a little weight as I'm menopausal. Maybe that'll even out, but again, I'm giving myself grace for the changes of my body. As long as I'm being healthy and trying to be mobile and keep fit, that's more important than just worrying too much about what I look like in clothes. What has menopause been like for you otherwise? It's hard getting older. I guess you hear about that whole feeling of being invisible and all of that. I just didn't expect the anxiety and the mood changes. Obviously, your hormones are different, so all of a sudden I've got more anxiety. The part that's the hardest for me isn't even the hot flashes because I'm taking estrogen and that helps. It's the sleeplessness that's just the worst. I look at my 23-year-old and my teenager and I'm like, 'Oh, I loved when I was younger and could just sleep.' It's really good that more people are talking about it. I can't believe my mom didn't. I asked my mom about her experience and she's like, 'Oh, I don't remember. I just remember feeling sort of sad that I wouldn't be able to have a baby anymore.' And I'm like, 'That's it?' It's getting better. But I still feel sexy and beautiful. Intimacy and sexuality were a big part of the book. What does that look like for you today? It's been this whole process of … having sex for myself. I thankfully never had any nightmarish experiences, but I was still doing it a lot without really being in my body or knowing what I wanted. It felt almost like an extension of being creative with somebody I was attracted to and I admired. But I was very unable to enjoy it or I felt insecure about my body. Now that I'm in this marriage, I feel so safe. I can really check in with myself and do it for myself. I've turned it more into like, this is something good for me to do, which sounds completely unsexy, but it isn't. I remind myself that this is for you, this is for your sexual health and to connect with yourself and with your husband. It's such a long road and it's still going. Tell me about your beauty routine. I feel like I've finally learned how to do my makeup properly. It's taken me a long time. I was naturally pretty and I didn't have a mom who encouraged me to get gussied up or to put on a face. So I just kind of went with it and brushed my hair, put on some cool clothes. I've always had rosacea, so I used to lean toward a natural look and products just because I was trying to avoid perfumes and stuff that would make my skin turn bright red. I have dry skin too, so just whatever I'm doing, I use a lot of moisturizer. I've never stuck to a routine, but I'm more and more open to learning about it these days, especially having daughters. They have like 20-step skincare routines. I'm going to try to do more facials because I think they do brighten up your skin. So I want to try to do a facial every three months or something if I can. You wrote about always feeling older than you were when you were a teenager, as a result of being in Hollywood. What age do you feel now? I feel a lot of different ages for different parts of me. I mean, sometimes I feel like a kid when I'm feeling emotional in a certain way. But I would say maybe early 40s, if I was going to land on like a more mature adult age.
Buzz Feed
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Ione Skye Claimed She Had An Abortion With Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis When She Was 17 Years Old
Warning: This post includes discusses substance abuse issues. Ione Skye opened up about her past relationship with the frontman of the six-time Grammy Award-winning Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis. Ione is known for her roles in Cameron Crowe's 1989 classic Say Anything... with John Cusack and Wayne's World (1992). In her new book, Say Everything, Ione revealed intimate details of her life, including an "intimidating" story about Gwyneth Paltrow dating her brother, actor and singer Donovan Leitch, in the '90s. In her memoir, Ione also talked about her relationship with RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis when he was 24 and she was only 16 years old. In the memoir, Ione revealed that her romance with the RHCP frontman was complicated by his heroin addiction. Once she became pregnant at 17, she ultimately made the painful decision not to keep the child. In Say Everything, Ione stated she was "the type of girl who'd wanted a baby since I was a baby, who used to fantasize about finding a swaddled infant on my doorstep or catching a flying ghost baby with a butterfly net." "But fantasizing was different from seeing," she wrote, "I couldn't see having a baby at this point." Ione had placed blame on herself for not being more cautious but doesn't regret her decision to have an abortion. "I was taking care of myself now, making a choice that felt good and important for my future," she wrote, according to the publication. "I would not have a baby at 17, with someone who didn't want to be a dad, wouldn't commit to me and had anger issues. Not to mention the heroin." Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic Anthony Kiedis has been open about his struggles with drug addiction in the past, including in his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue. He says he's been sober since 2000. Ione explained to People that she was nervous about revealing everything in the memoir but felt that taking control of the narrative was important. "These girls on TikTok were saying things like, 'How could my mom let me be with Anthony?'" she said. "And I sort of clapped back, not in an aggressive way, but I was like, 'Well, my mom was really upset that I was with a rockstar like Anthony Kiedis.' And I don't know, I kind of started feeling like I was able to tell my side of the story, and I had a lot to tell." If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.
Buzz Feed
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Ione Sky Revealed The Gwyneth Paltrow Interaction That Left Her Thinking Gwyneth Was "Mean"
Ione Sky is reflecting on a not-so-pleasant interaction with Gwyneth Paltrow. If you're unfamiliar, Ione is a British actor known for movies like Say Anything with John Cusack and Wayne's World. In the '90s, her brother, Donovan Leitch, dated Gwyneth, and in Ione's new book, Say Everything, she reflected on the time she joined the two of them on a trip to Mexico. According to People, Ione places the time after Gwyneth starred in 1994's Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, one of her first acting roles. Ione and her then-husband, Adam Horovitz, went on the trip to escape LA, which had just been rocked by an earthquake. "Vacationing with Dono and his intimidating new girlfriend (yes, that Gwyneth) did not exactly sound relaxing, but anything was more relaxing than living in fear of the next earthquake," Ione wrote. She said it was an enjoyable trip, recalling that Gwyneth spent much of her time reading scripts. Unfortunately, Donovan got sick, and according to Ione, Gwyneth wasn't the most doting towards him. "At breakfast, Dono had distractedly tipped his water glass (he was one of the world's most distracted people). A few drops had splashed Gwyneth, and she'd snapped, 'Idiot.' With a laugh, but still," she said. Ione later asked Donovan, "Is Gwyneth always mean to you like that?" According to her, Donovan laughed it off. "My brother was smitten," she shared. "He was 27 and looking toward the future, to marriage and kids. Gwyneth was only 21 and wasn't ready for anything too serious." "Well, at least not yet," Ione clarified. "Six months later, she'd get a part in Se7en and fly to Reno to meet Brad Pitt — and we all know how that turned out." Yep — Gwyneth and Brad went on to date from 1994 to 1997. They were engaged in 1996, but Gwyneth ended it because she was "not ready" to get married. Today, she's married to TV writer Brad Falchuk and shares two kids, Apple and Moses, with her ex-husband Chris Martin. Meanwhile, Donovan is married to Habit actor Libby Mintz.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ione Skye Reveals Gwyneth Paltrow Was Mean to Her Brother Donovan Leitch — But Doesn't Hold It Against Her (Exclusive)
Actress Ione Skye's memoir Say Everything, out now, continues to reveal fun tidbits from her storied life — including the time she went to Mexico on vacation with Gwyneth Paltrow, who was dating Skye's brother, Donovan Leitch, at the time. In the book, Skye, 54, writes that the decision for her and her then-husband Adam Horovitz to join her brother and Gwyneth, now 52, on vacation happened after an earthquake rattled L.A. "Vacationing with Dono and his intimidating new girlfriend (yes, that Gwyneth) did not exactly sound relaxing, but anything was more relaxing than living in fear of the next earthquake," Skye writes in Say Everything, adding that Paltrow was new to acting at the time and had only starred in one or two films, most recently Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. She also notes that Paltrow spent the week reading scripts, and while they had fun together, she was surprised at how snappy Paltrow was toward her brother, who spent most of the vacation sick in bed. Skye writes, "At breakfast, Dono had distractedly tipped his water glass (he was one of the world's most distracted people). A few drops had splashed Gwyneth, and she'd snapped, 'Idiot.' With a laugh, but still." Skye says the interaction didn't sit well with her. 'Is Gwyneth always mean to you like that?' Skye recalls asking him. "Dono laughed ... My brother was smitten. He was 27 and looking toward the future, to marriage and kids. Gwyneth was only 21 and wasn't ready for anything too serious. Well, at least not yet. Six months later, she'd get a part in Seven and fly to Reno to meet Brad Pitt — and we all know how that turned out." While Skye writes about her life experiences with abandon in the book, she recently told PEOPLE she was slightly anxious how some people would react to being name-checked. Related: Ione Skye, 54, Reveals She Slept with Costar John Cusack — and Other Juicy Revelations from Her Memoir (Exclusive) "I'm a little nervous," Skye admitted. "I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings." That said, she has no worries about her recollections bothering Paltrow. "She has an awareness of who she is, and I feel like that's one of her superpowers," Skye says of the Goop founder. "She's amazing in that she understands her world, and she always has a good reaction to people coming after her for things she says." Skye also wants to be clear: she isn't dragging Paltrow. "We were what, 21 at the time? We were so young," she says. "At the time, we thought we were so grown-up!" The author adds that she loved writing her life story and can't believe it's finally out in the world after three years in the making. "It's almost like motherhood, in that you know it's going to be a huge experience, but you don't know how big until you get there," she says. "But it's one of my favorite projects I've ever done. And yes, I do care about what others will think. But I also have the feeling that everything will be okay." Say Everything is available now, wherever books are sold. Read the original article on People
