Music, Love and Struggles: 12 Revelations From Demi Lovato’s Tell-All Interview After Overdose

Living With Her Beau

Demi is currently renting a house with her actor-boyfriend, Max. After leaving her high-rise apartment in Los Angeles amid the coronavirus pandemic, she went to stay with her mom and stepdad. However, the starlet admits it was was “a little difficult to be in a new relationship at your family’s house.”

She’s Come a Long Way

“I used to have people watching me the night before a photo shoot to make sure that I didn’t binge or eat and be swollen the next day,” Demi, who has openly struggled with an eating disorder throughout her life, said. “It’s just a totally different world now … I don’t prepare for photo shoots, even. I can eat Subway for breakfast.”

Behind the Scenes Horror

The “Stone Cold” singer developed an eating disorder before she was thrust into the spotlight via Disney Channel, but her environment there was not healthy. “I kind of looked around and had a moment where I was like, ‘Wow. This is so terrifyingly normalized,’” she recalled.

Why She Spoke Out

“When I went to treatment in 2010, I came out of the experience with the choice of talking about my struggles or my journey with the possibility of helping people or keeping my mouth shut and going back to Disney Channel,” the Grammy nominee said. “I was like that doesn’t feel authentic to me. So I chose to tell my story. And I had this, like, savior complex, where I thought, ‘Oh, I made this pact with God when I was young and now I have to save people.’”

New Management, New Start

Demi asked Scooter to manage her after she decided it was time to move on from Phil McIntyre, who had managed her since she was just a teen. “What do I want my relationship with my manager to look like without enmeshing my own father issues onto him?” she pondered before taking a meeting with Scooter, who also manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. 
“I was nervous because I wanted him to manage me so [badly], and I was terrified of rejection,” Demi explained. “Also, having gone through such a public overdose, I didn’t know if anyone would want to manage me after that.” 
Scooter admitted he originally was going to decline the offer because of his already stacked client list but knew taking her on was the right move. “What I saw is that she needed someone who didn’t need her,” the A-list manager said. 

Her ‘Comeback Year’

After incredible performances of “Anyone” at the 2020 Grammys and the national anthem at the Super Bowl, Demi was gearing up for a big year. She planned to release a new album and go on tour, which has been postponed in light of COVID-19. The “Confident” singer also has a four-part YouTube docuseries in the works that will “show fans her personal and musical journey over the past three years.” We can’t wait!

A New Hobby

Demi has been spending her downtime painting everything from eucalyptus trees to powerful art inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd.

Her spiritual advisors and coaches warned her about her life slowing down during quarantine. “So, I was kind of prepared in a weird way, and I just adapted. I think the universe — God — shifted that to happen in my life,” she noted.

A Different Type of Downtime

In the past, Demi’s pauses have come in the form of rehab. However, it’s been a different experience since the circumstances are out of her control. “I was given this opportunity, and I was like, I’m going to adapt,” she said about quarantining. “I’m going to shift to this. I’m going to learn from it.”

“It’s very common for people to only really work on themselves when crisis happens or when they notice that they’re slipping into old patterns or behaviors,” the Eurovision star continued. “So to be able to walk into this experience without a personal crisis and just be like, I can do the work on myself now because I have the time. … It was a beautiful thing.”

Back in Touch With Her Emotions

“Before quarantine, it was very difficult for me to cry. I had programmed the thought into my head when I was 16 that I’m only going to cry if people pay me to,” the former Sonny With a Chance star explained. “I started doing all this work, allowing myself to feel the pains of all the losses that I’ve had or the adversities or traumas that I’ve faced. I think my ability to be vulnerable and be more intimate with people has really heightened.”

Experiencing Growth

The “Sorry Not Sorry” artist was estranged from her birth father when he died in 2013. The singer has previously opened up about his abusive behavior and had mental health issues and recently wrote a letter to him during her time in quarantine.
“I am who I am because of you,” her candid note said. “And I’m grateful for that. Because of your absence, I am an independent woman now. Because you were a pathological liar, I am honest to a fault.”

Hindsight

The “I Love Me” artist has been reflecting on her past and acknowledged that “earning praise” for her recovery was “fueling those patterns that I had and that were bringing me to destruction.”
She added, “I binged on recovery, where I switched my addiction from the actual addictions to the recovery … I have to set boundaries in interviews so I don’t treat them like therapy sessions, but I’m able to hear my progress through the words that I’m saying when I read them back.”

What the Future Holds

“I want a career that has nothing to do with my body. I want it to be about my music and my lyrics and my message. And I want a long-lasting career that I don’t have to change myself for,” the “Skyscraper” songstress said. “Music brought me so much joy when I was younger, and I lost that joy throughout the hustle and bustle of the music industry. I got miserable. And I don’t ever want it to be like that again. That’s what I want.”