Inside David Blaine's Life Today
The following article includes mentions of sexual assault allegations.
David Blaine spent much of the late '90s and early aughts doing things like burying himself alive, freezing himself in a giant block of ice, and drowning on purpose — and he did all this in front of an audience. The magician became such an enigma that he spawned his own YouTube parody called "David Blaine Street Magic," which has since racked up more than 40 million views. That's millions more than some of his actual stunt specials, which proved him to be ABC's biggest draw in one week in 2013.
A magician never tells his secrets, and Blaine takes this to a much deeper level. He rarely gives interviews, not much is known about his personal life, and he pretty much stays out of the tabloids when he's not making all of Google's top employees gag by regurgitating a live frog or mysteriously appearing at events like a solar eclipse party. One of the few threads of evidence that Blaine is an actual living human being stems from a 1997 Black Book interview, where ex-girlfriend Fiona Apple claimed (via InStyle) that he once inexplicably emerged from the bedroom after a brutal fight wearing "seven blazers, one on top of the other, and a white top hat with glow stickers on it." If that's not all, he was rapping. Why? That's apparently just David Blaine.
In more recent years, this performer has kept up with his tricks as rumors of his dark side made way. Here's a look inside David Blaine's life today.
David Blaine became a dad during a blizzard
Over a decade ago, David Blaine added a new job title to his resume alongside winning the Guinness World Record for breath-holding. In 2008, he held his breath for 17 minutes and four seconds and somehow managed not to die, but becoming a father three years later might have actually been a far greater feat. That's all because Blaine's pregnant then-fiancée, Alizee Guinochet, went into labor in the middle of a blizzard that blanketed New York City in 19 inches of snow.
According to Page Six, Blaine tried to hail a cab when the French model started having contractions, but it was to no avail. "The doorman and people on the street tried to help him flag down a taxi. But there were absolutely no cars on the road," a source told the tabloid. After that, Blaine — who's well versed in testing his own endurance — tried to call various car services, but none of them would come out in the storm. He eventually managed to flag down a snowplow driven by a private contractor, who gave them a ride to the hospital.
While part of us definitely wanted Blaine to deliver his own child during a weather emergency like it's some kind of televised stunt, the illusionist is apparently much more cautious when it comes to the lives of his loved ones. Guinochet delivered a healthy baby girl named Dessa in the hospital later that night.
Make those cheating rumors disappear
We're not quite sure what caused the end of David Blaine and Alizee Guinochet's relationship, but the cheating rumors probably didn't help. According to Daily Mail, the magician was first accused of cheating in 2008 — but that was cheating during a stunt. In 2013, he was accused of cheating on his fiancée. Early that year, Blaine was spotted in a New Jersey club getting cozy with another woman. TMZ claimed his hands were "in some very interesting places," and we know they're not talking about a block of ice or giant sphere of water. So, what went down?
A representative from Blaine's camp told the tabloid that everything was all good. He wasn't cheating because he was on a break from Guinochet. "He and his fiancée have been on and off," Blaine's rep revealed, adding, "But nevertheless he regrets his actions and is sorry if he caused her any embarrassment."
Let's hope the couple was clearer about their break than Ross and Rachel on "Friends," but it doesn't seem likely. They appear to have since split up, though neither has publicly addressed it. Nonetheless, the father has remained dedicated to his daughter.
He's been doing FaceTime magic during the pandemic
In a year that seemed so astronomically unbelievable, what's a little magic trick? In 2020, David Blaine used the novel coronavirus pandemic to give back to patients, medical workers, and first responders. According to the New York Post, the illusionist started performing for hospitals when he was 18 years old, but decades later, the pandemic has forced him to rethink how to do magic tricks via FaceTime.
"I tell [hospital personnel] to call me whenever it works for them and I'll make the time," he told the New York Post. "I was driving once, got a call and pulled over immediately. I took out a deck of cards and did FaceTime magic as best I could. I jump to it because you don't know what will be going on, and who will be where, if you call back 10 minutes later. But what I do is easy. The real challenge is what nurses and doctors and patients are going through on the front lines."
Blaine revealed that FaceTime magic has its own challenges. With the audience wearing masks, he can't read their facial expressions. He mostly sticks to simple card tricks and asks that viewers have a deck on-hand. Unlike his regular routines, which aim to freak out onlookers, Blaine just hopes to keep things calm, provide a distraction, and give his audience "a few seconds of laughter." The virus has been anxiety-inducing enough, we don't need to watch him almost drown.
David Blaine taught his daughter the ropes
In 2020, David Blaine introduced his daughter to the family business. According to USA Today, Dessa joined the star during his ABC special "David Blaine: The Magic Way." Though Blaine performed tricks for stars like Emily Blunt and John Krasinksi, who have been busy enjoying their reign as one of Hollywood's cutest celebrity couples, Dessa was the one who really stole the show.
During the hour-long special, the then-9-year-old wowed James Corden with a card trick. She somehow managed to guess the late-night TV host's card even though she was initially wrong because Corden tried to trip her up. Just like her dad, she was one step ahead. "Oh, you tried to confuse me," she admitted. "You went to a red, and then you went to a spade."
Dessa was even able to name every card that the comedian pulled. How? Like she'd tell us! Clearly, the girl has been spending a lot of time with her dad, but hopefully, we won't see her submerging herself in a sphere of water for a week anytime soon. Let's leave that to the adults — or just David Blaine and David Blaine alone.
He's sort of a family therapist for Madonna and her son
In David Blaine's "Vertigo" challenge, he stood on top of a 100-foot high, 22-inch wide pillar for 35 hours without a harness and emerged with little more than a concussion. It's safe to say, he can handle difficult things. He's a master of endurance, but an explosive feud between a mother and her child is a different beast entirely. Nonetheless, the illusionist was able to help Madonna, the Queen of Pop, reconcile with her eldest son, Rocco Ritchie.
In 2016, Madonna and ex-husband Guy Ritchie were in a grueling custody battle. According to the Daily Beast, it caused years of turmoil, particularly for Rocco, who was about 16 years old when he decided that he wanted to remain in London with his father rather than live in New York with his mom. Again, this is something that was rattling on since the pair's divorce in 2008, but at what age do you become old enough to choose? In any event, it was David Blaine who stepped in to smooth things over.
According to Page Six, the magician had a close relationship with Rocco and had been "helping Madonna mend her relationship" with her son. He even joined the pair on their annual ski trip to the Swiss Alps. David Blaine: full-time illusionist, part-time family therapist.
David Blaine's less-than-magical accusations
In 2016, David Blaine found himself in the middle of a Scotland Yard investigation. According to the Daily Beast, a model named Natasha Prince accused the illusionist of raping her in a private home in London's posh Chelsea neighborhood. The incident allegedly happened in June or July of 2004, months after she turned 21 years old. Blaine had been a household name in the UK since 2003, when he suspended himself in a glass box over the River Thames for 44 days without food.
Per the Daily Beast's report, Prince claimed that she met Blaine at a nightclub in Knightsbridge, where he had "a private table with about 10 other people." The model remembered him showering her with attention. Blaine allegedly didn't text her until the following day, when he invited her to his friend's home. She went but limited herself to a single drink at the gathering, where Blaine allegedly "asked to show her something in the adjacent bedroom." There, they allegedly kissed, he reportedly told her to finish her drink, and then she claimed she couldn't really remember anything else. She allegedly awoke naked and feeling "very stoned."
Prince reported the incident to police in 2016, and they requested that Blaine fly to the UK for an interview. His lawyer told the Daily Beast that he planned to "fully cooperate because he has nothing to hide." According to The U.S. Sun, Blaine claimed the interaction was "consensual," and police cleared him of wrongdoing in 2020.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
More women came forward
In 2019, David Blaine found himself under investigation yet again. This time, he was being investigated by the NYPD after two women claimed the illusionist sexually assaulted them in the 1990s. Though sources told the New York Post that the statute of limitations had passed for prosecuting such a crime and Blaine wasn't charged, police still considered it an active investigation.
According to Daily Beast, one of the women claimed that she was sexually assaulted by the illusionist in his Manhattan apartment in 1998. The New York Post reports that the other woman claimed "Blaine hypnotized her and made her masturbate him while she was in a hypnotic state." The pair had reportedly met through friends in 1997 before she went to his apartment.
Page Six reports that Blaine denied the accusations and planned to cooperate with the police. At the time of this writing, the illusionist has not been charged with a crime. When the Daily Beast published their report in April 2019, he hadn't yet been approached by police.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
David Blaine's apparently still swallowing frogs
There's one major fact everyone needs to know about David Blaine's life today. He's never stopped swallowing reptiles, as much as PETA probably resents him for it. Seriously, the frogs don't look harmed, but emotional trauma doesn't leave physical scars.
According to Page Six, the signature trick sees him regurgitating a live frog into a glass, swallowing it for a second time, then regurgitating it again. In a past life, perhaps he was a mother bird who needed to feed her children. We don't know. No one really knows why Blaine likes the trick so much, but probably because it grosses out just about everyone.
He first performed the trick in 2016 at Google's Camp, and sources told Page Six that guests were totally "grossed out" (in the worlds of Billie Eilish, duh). According to TMZ, he performed it a second time later that year for Drake and the guests of the rapper's All-Star weekend party, which included Dave Chappelle, Shay Mitchell, and Steph Curry. Drake was reportedly "absolutely floored" — probably because he's used to drinking Virginia Black and not live amphibians. Two years later, the party trick remained a favorite, and Blaine reportedly made Alicia Keys scream when he swallowed the frog during the Yellow Ball at the Brooklyn Museum. Leave the frogs alone, dude.
He had a rumored romance with Naomi Campbell
David Blaine appears to have a thing for models. Years after the illusionist split from his French model fiancée, Alizee Guinochet, rumors swirled that he was involved with supermodel Naomi Campbell. According to Page Six, the pair had been "casually hooking up" when they were snapped on a yacht by TMZ in Saint-Tropez looking cozy.
"They've known each other for a long time, but there is a mutual attraction, because they are both as charismatic and as crazy intense as the other," a source told the tabloid. Yes, indeed, they are both intense. The model's biggest scandals involve allegedly throwing phones at a couple of people through the late '90s and early aughts, and Blaine is Blaine. The dude voluntarily starved himself for 44 days and spent a weekend inside of an ice cube.
Unfortunately, this unlikely couple may have not actually been a couple at all. A rep for the model told Page Six that they're nothing more than "great friends." The Blast noted that they've been friends for more than 20 years. The gossip site also claimed the angle of TMZ's saucy yacht photos was "misleading," and the pair wasn't even alone on the boat. How unromantic.
David Blaine accidentally shot himself in the throat
Just because David Blaine appears fearless and is definitely some sort of glutton for punishment, it doesn't mean that the star is never afraid. At one point, he worried for his life when a 2016 stunt went disastrously wrong.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the stunt — where he planned to catch a bullet in his mouth — was part of his ABC special "Beyond Magic," which was taped live in Las Vegas. As it was supposed to go, he'd pull a string and fire a rifle before catching the bullet with a metal cup in his mouth. The only problem was that the cup "slipped off the grooves" that attached it to the mouth guard protecting his gums.
"Time just started to move really slow," Blaine said in the special (via Entertainment Weekly). "When the bullet struck the cup, there was a high-pitched ringing in my ears and I felt an impact on the back of my throat. I was sure the bullet went right through my head and that I was dead. Suddenly I became aware of the pain and it brought me back. At that moment I realized that the mouth guard had shattered again, and I was alive."
Somehow, Blaine escaped with no more than a laceration in his throat. He was transported to the hospital and healed up just fine.
He finally explained that bizarre GMTV interview
Joaquin Phoenix's disastrous 2010 David Letterman interview may have been supremely uncomfortable, but David Blaine actually set the standard almost a decade before. In 2001, the illusionist delivered a truly bizarre interview to UK presenter Eamonn Holmes on "GMTV." The star was promoting his special "Frozen In Time" (yes, the ice cube one) and basically spent the entire interview staring blankly and mumbling. The weirdest part was when he lifted his hand to reveal that he'd drawn an eye on his palm for "protection." If only we had been protected from ever seeing this in the first place.
Our questions — and there were a lot of questions — were finally answered almost two decades later when Blaine reunited with Holmes on "This Morning." The illusionist admitted that he purposely made the interview awkward to prove a point. "Everybody was in the green room, and we were all talking, and the show was going on ... and these are all family and friends of everybody, and nobody was watching their friends go on," he said. "So I was like, I'm going to make sure that they watch. So I was thinking a card trick would be too boring. It's not going to stop the people in the green room from chatting. So I last minute came up with that idea." Mission accomplished?
The performer revealed the truth behind his biggest stunts
Outside of the world of "Harry Potter," magic doesn't exactly exist. Though David Blaine has never revealed the sleight of hand behind some of his stunts, he did give us a sliver of truth in 2017. As it turns out, some of Blaine's most anxiety-inducing tricks aren't illusions at all. They're tests of human endurance, and he's worked his way up to surviving when the odds are against him.
In an interview with "Thought Economics," the star admitted he first realized endurance was his skill when he became the fastest runner in his school even though he had asthma and was "born with [his] legs turned in." He started researching magicians and realized that Houdini was an escape artist, and he wanted to do magic, too. "My first stunt was to be buried alive for seven days," he said. "My best friend [who is also a magician] said I should go in, sneak out, and come back at the end. I said, 'No, it's just a week in a coffin. I can do that for real.' He didn't think it was possible but I realized it was simple. ... It was just lying there, not eating and keeping hydrated. ... I put a coffin in my living room, started to practice, and then I did it for real."
In short: Blaine is far more an athlete than he is a magician, though we're still not sure about those card tricks.
David Blaine's Ascension stunt broke YouTube records
David Blaine can now add flying to his list of abilities since that's exactly what he did over the Arizona desert in September 2020, while strapped to several giant helium balloons. During the stunt, which Blaine called "Ascension," the magician managed to reach heights close to 24,900 feet, an altitude that required him to even wear an oxygen mask, considering it's where airplanes usually travel, per Reuters. Blaine eventually used a parachute to land after a successful 30 minutes in the air.
If you're wondering why Blaine chose to hang from balloons in the first place, he revealed in a YouTube video, "Ever since I was a kid I've dreamed of flying," adding that it was specifically "a movie about a boy that floats away on a bunch of balloons" that inspired his love for levitation. During "Ascension," Blaine was apparently able to accomplish what he always dreamt of, telling his daughter through his radio while in flight, "It's like magic. ... It feels like I'm floating in the air. It's amazing."
As of February 2022, "Ascension" was Blaine's latest stunt to date, but it's safe to say he left things on a good note. That's because when the event live-streamed on YouTube, it became the platform's "most-watched" Originals live event at the time, according to Reuters, as more than 770,000 people tuned in. Over a year later, "Ascension" had more than 24 million views, proving that Blaine still knows how to wow an audience, as well as himself, in this case.
The illusionist is doing a TV travel series
David Blaine is returning to the small screen on Disney+. According to The Wrap, National Geographic announced several projects with the streaming service in early 2022 that appear to focus on travel and the environment, and will feature an array of stars like Will Smith and Jon Favreau. Blaine, in particular, is set to get his own series entitled, "Beyond Belief With David Blaine."
While the illusionist is no stranger to TV, this one will be quite different from what he's done in the past, in that it doesn't focus on his magic tricks or stunts. Instead, the show is reportedly more of a documentary that, per The Wrap, follows Blaine as he "goes on a global odyssey across remote cultures." Of course, there will be magical elements, as he'll work with "shamans, fakirs and magicians," who like him, do things beyond what people "think is possible."
It appears the Disney+ series is the latest way for Blaine to get more eyes on his magic, as of this writing. He seemingly was never interested in just performing live on stage for small audiences and knew how TV could lead to him reaching millions. Street Magic Training Center reports that Blaine even got on TV in the first place by boldly bringing his own footage to executives at ABC, despite not having a formal meeting scheduled. Since then, Blaine has had several popular TV specials over the years, proving when it comes to entertainment, he knows what he's doing.
His magic went viral because of Harrison Ford
In the spring of 2021, a video of one David Blaine's older magic segments from 2013 went viral on social media thanks to actor Harrison Ford's hilarious reaction to Blaine doing a card trick. The "Star Wars" actor had been a hot topic at the time after bizarrely reading critical editing notes when introducing the "Best Film Editing" category at the 2021 Oscars.
In the resurfaced clip, Blaine is shown asking Ford to think of any card while the "Indiana Jones" star holds the deck. He then tells Ford his card has "left the deck" before having him randomly choose a piece of fruit from his kitchen counter to open. Before the duo slices open the orange Ford chose, he tells Blaine he was thinking of the nine of hearts, which is then revealed to be rolled up in that exact piece of fruit. A stunned Ford jokingly tells the magician to "get the f*** out of my house," clearly shocked and impressed by Blaine's abilities.
Whether it's because a lot of social media users had never seen the almost decade-old trick or whether it was because of the usually serious Ford's amusing response, the clip showed up everywhere from Twitter to TikTok. One person tweeted, "Please enjoy Harrison Ford watching a magic trick & then reacting in the only way Harrison Ford reacts to anything," while another commented, "I wouldn't care if had never done a single film until this point, I'll forever love him for this clip."
Other stars have tried to mess with the performer
Harrison Ford wasn't the only celebrity whose actions got David Blaine some extra attention. In the fall of 2021, another video of one of Blaine's card tricks surfaced online because basketball legend Michael Jordan admittedly tried to pull one over on him. In the clip, Blaine asks Jordan to shuffle a deck of cards behind his back before having him say any card out loud, with Jordan choosing three of hearts. Jordan's friend then randomly chooses the number 27, so Blaine has Jordan get rid of 27 cards from the deck to then reveal Jordan's card.
While fans are accustomed to Blaine wowing celebrities with magic, what made this video grab people's attention online was that near the end of the trick, the former NBA star admitted to Blaine, "I didn't really shuffle, I tried to trick you." The video not only hit YouTube but also several sports blogs that joked about Jordan's competitiveness.
Although most people can't outsmart Blaine, others have confused him, specifically "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. According to ShowBiz CheatSheet, Blaine called up the duo after a 2001 episode featured him repeatedly using the made-up word "Twaaa," and promoting a fake book called "Blainetology." Parker recalled, "David Blaine was like, 'What is twaaa?'" adding, "He said people were asking him for his 'Blainetology' book and not joking." It seems for Blaine, any awareness on his magic, even if it's from other stars messing with him, is presumedly good for business.
David Blaine hangs out with actors
When David Blaine isn't impressing celebrities with his illusions, he's apparently just hanging with them. According to Page Six, Blaine is part of Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio's friend group, which also includes actors Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas, and Kevin Connolly. Despite being grown men, the crew's rumored to even call themselves the "p**** posse," inferring that together they usually manage to score a lot of dates. While it's unclear if Blaine is still single since spitting with his fiancée, French model Alizee Guinochet, back in 2014, he was notably missing from DiCaprio and Maguire's boys' night in Hollywood in February 2022.
Outside of his fellow heartbreakers, it appears that Blaine is also good friends with Morgan Spector, one of the stars of HBO's hit series "The Gilded Age." Us Weekly reports that not only was Blaine present at Spector's 2015 wedding to "The Town" actor Rebecca Hall, but he also entertained his fellow guests by performing magic tricks.
While Blaine is clearly capable of impressive card tricks and death-defying stunts, it seems he also just enjoys entertaining people. When he's not planning his next TV special or going viral for his past street magic, he apparently spends his life today hanging out with his celebrity friends or his daughter, Dessa Blaine. Yet, if these days are anything like the past few years, then we imagine that David Blaine is also probably preparing his next major magical feat to remind people that he's still one the best in the game.