Julia Fox's 'Down the Drain' Tells a Familiar Kanye Story

By Chris Revelle | Celebrity | October 12, 2023 |

By Chris Revelle | Celebrity | October 12, 2023 |

Last week, our very own Emily Richardson wrote about Kanye West’s reportedly controlling relationship with his wife Bianca Censori. After learning of the alleged rules Censori is bound to follow (including not being allowed to speak and surrendering control of her wardrobe to West), Julia Fox is quoted as saying, “I just felt like his little puppet” regarding her own relationship with West. Though she “went lightly” in her description of West and their relationship in her memoir Down the Drain, it’s impossible to ignore how similar her account is to that of Censori.

I eagerly await my own copy of the book to digest, but in the meantime, there are excerpts available to pore over. Down the Drain covers her life and times as a dominatrix, her work in Uncut Gems, and her struggles with substance addiction. It also covers her much-publicized relationship with West during his estrangement from Kim Kardashian, which eventually led to divorce. As noted before, Fox refused to sign an NDA once she and West broke up, so she’s theoretically free to go into as much detail as she wishes. West is referred to as “the Artist,” which to my eye is the light touch Fox referred to before. So what do these excerpts tell us?

In Fox’s telling, the Artist initiated their relationship over text and they eventually met in person in Miami on New Year’s Eve. The Artist very bluntly asked if she wanted to be his girlfriend as his photographer circled them. Fascinatingly, the account of their date appeared in Interview magazine, but Fox maintains that it’s not entirely truthful. She wrote up an account of the night according to her while the Artist and his team presented an entirely fabricated version of the events. A conference call was needed to agree to a version of the evening that lay somewhere in the middle of their two accounts. Similarly, the infamous Madonna dinner that was played publicly as the Artist introducing Fox to his very famous friends was actually Fox’s dinner to which the Artist tagged along. He took this opportunity to introduce Fox as his new girlfriend.

As seen in claims about his relationship with Censori, Fox’s choice of clothing was dictated by the Artist. Fox claims he called her stylist to bring new outfit options to Carbone where they were dining because he didn’t like what she was wearing. She had two stylists, Liana and Tammy, whom the Artist hired to his team to style Fox to his specifications. They remained in his employ to style his next girlfriend after Fox and the Artist broke up, which led to schisms in their friendships. The Artist also offered Fox a breast enhancement, something that felt uncomfortable and jarring to hear. When taken with how he would apparently show affection only when the cameras were rolling, we get a vision of West in a mode of constant performance. This included having “re-shoots” of otherwise candid moments, like when he gifted Fox and her friends Birkin bags. Many of their moments together were captured by the Artist’s personal photographer, a detail that furthers the controlling vibe.

These all seem to line up with the accounts we’ve seen of Censori’s experience. Whatever your thoughts about Fox may be, I applaud her writing her truth about an intense experience. Down the Drain is available for purchase at your favorite bookseller.