Julia Roberts Breaks Silence on Sister's Death, Uses Meditation to Cope With Loss
Julia Roberts has finally broken her silence surrounding the death of her half-sister, Nancy Motes. Motes committed suicide at age 37 in early February, and there was plenty of insinuations that she felt abandoned by her family, including Roberts. The actress never mentioned a word about her sister's death until now and says she uses meditation to help her cope with the loss.
"Meditation or chanting or any of those things can be so joyous and also very quieting," Roberts told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. "We share and just say, 'This is a way I comfort myself.'"
"It's just heartbreak," Roberts said when initially asked about Motes' death. "It's only been 20 days. There aren't words to explain what any of us have been through in these last 20 days. It's hour by hour some days, but you just keep looking ahead. You don't want anything bad to happen to anyone, but there are so many tragic, painful, inexplicable things in the world. But [as with] any situation of challenge and despair, we must find a way, as a family. It's so hard to formulate a sentence about it outside the weepy huddle of my family."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Meditation is what seemingly helps Roberts and her children, Phinnaeus, Hazel, and Henry, through those harder moments. In 2010, Roberts went public with the news that she and husband Daniel Moder are practicing Hindus who regularly worship at temple. She was originally raised by Baptist and Catholic parents but made the conversion later in life.
In 2009, while filming Eat, Pray, Love, Roberts visited Swami Daram Dev of Ashram Hari Mandir in Pataudi. There, she received new names for her three children and learned more about the religion she practices.
"Julia came to see my blessings, and I told her to learn good things about Indian culture," Swami Dev told the Times of India. "I said that her children should have new names. I named her twins Hazel and Phinnaeus as Laxmi and Ganesh, while the two-year-old Henry will now be called Krishna Balram. She repeated the names after me and assured me that she will call them by their new names and said that she will try her best to learn about our culture."
