The past few years were a busy time for pop singer and former Disney star Demi Lovato, both professionally and personally. In 2018, she was wrapping up her “Tell Me You Love Me” World Tour and filming a new documentary about life on the road.
Filming was cut short on July 24, 2018 when Lovato suffered from a heroin overdose. Almost three years later, she partnered with YouTube for a three-part documentary to share exclusively the insane details of the overdose, sexual assault and the process of overcoming this ordeal. Here are the biggest takeaways from the documentary.
Her 2018 overdose was worse than the world knew
Lovato was found unconscious by her assistant Jordan Jackson. According to Jackson, she found Lovato laying in her bed unconscious and lifeless.
“There was one point where her whole body turned blue…I thought she was dead,” Jackson told interviewers.
Lovato revealed later in the documentary that she had suffered a heart attack, brain damage, pneumonia, organ failure, and blind spots in her vision.
Her drug dealer sexually assaulted her the night of the overdose
Lovato opened up about her drug dealer Brandon Johnson, and the role he played that night. Lovato claims that the night Johnson came to her house, he also sexually assaulted her and left her for dead.
“That type of trauma doesn’t go away overnight,” Lovato recounted. “It doesn’t go away a couple of months after rehab either.”
People attacked Demi’s friends in the midst of her struggles
Fans quickly stormed social media to condemn the people closest to Demi. Dani Vitale, her choreographer and close friend who she was with the night of the overdose, revealed that the blame caused her to lose a lot of different jobs because of the negative backlash.
“No one wanted to bring their kid to an apparent heroin dealer teacher,” Vitale explained. “No one.”
She used heroin again after rehab
The 28-year-old songstress admitted that she used heroin again shortly after her overdose.
After a week-long rehab retreat, she decided to call Johnson back to her house, to give her heroin again. The exchange took place a month after her hospitalization, and she stated she’s mortified by the decisions made.
She was sexually assaulted during her time at Disney
When she was 15, she was an active member of the popular Disney crowd that included Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. During the time when she starred in hit television series and films like “Camp Rock” and “Sonny with a Chance” she stated that she was also sexually assaulted.
She said it was a real struggle for her because she was a part of this crowd that was abstinent until marriage and felt revealing the assault would ruin her image.
“My #MeToo story is saying someone did this to me and they never got in trouble for it,” she revealed. “They never got taken out of the movie they were in.”
Featured photo “Demi lovato” by DOUGLASHIGHH FÃ CLUB MILEY DEMI JONAS is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.