Julia Roberts, describing the death of her estranged half-sister in February as a "heartbreak," broke her silence on
Nancy Motes to Wall Street Journal magazine on Monday.
The Academy Award-winning actress talked about her career, her Oscar nomination earlier this year for her role in "August: Osage County" and her upcoming HBO movie "The Normal Heart." When the subject changed from her professional life to Motes, Roberts became tearful.
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"It's just heartbreak," Roberts told the magazine. "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," Roberts continued.
Motes, 37, had been a production assistant for the Fox television series "Glee" before she died of a suspected drug overdose. Motes had written disparaging tweets about Roberts on Twitter before her death. She also wrote that her family had abandoned her. The tweets were taken down after Motes died.
In a Jan. 19 tweet, Motes wrote: "So my 'sister' said with all of her friends & fans she doesn't need anymore love. Just so you all know 'America's Sweetheart' is a b—,"
according to the New York Daily News.
Another Jan. 19 tweet read: "Do you want to be a fan of someone so cruel? She's not even that good of an actress. Happy you totally F— with me?"
"(M)y own family has abandoned me," Motes tweeted on Jan. 22 using the handle @Dabbs76.
Motes had plans to marry her fiancé John Dilbeck, a film and TV locations manager, in May, according to the Daily News.
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