Demi Lovato is revealing some shocking details about her past in her new YouTube Originals docuseries, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil. The series premiered at SXSW on Tuesday night ahead of its March 23 premiere on YouTube.
In the third episode of the Michael D. Ratner-directed series, Lovato reveals why she never came forward about allegedly being sexually assaulted by the man who she referred to as her drug dealer who she claims got her high the night of her 2018 overdose. She says she was afraid of not being believed, a feeling she had experienced in the past after losing her virginity in a traumatic way.
“When I was a teenager, I was in a very similar situation. I lost my virginity in a rape,” Lovato says. “I called that person back a month later and tried to make it right by being in control and all it did was just make me feel worse.”
The former Disney Channel star adds, “I really beat myself up for years, which is also why I had a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that it was a rape when it happened. We were hooking up but I said, ‘Hey, this is not going any further. I’m a virgin and I don’t want to lose it this way.’ And that didn’t matter to them, they did it anyways. And I internalized it, and I told myself it was my fault because I still went in the room with him. I still hooked up with him.”
Noting that she was a part of the group of Disney stars who publicly declared they were saving themselves until marriage, Lovato adds that she had to see the man in question “all the time” after the alleged rape.
“So I stopped eating and coped in other ways — cutting, throwing up, whatever. My bulimia got so bad I started throwing up blood for the first time,” she shares. “I’m coming forward about what happened to me because everyone that that happens to should absolutely speak their voice if they can and feel comfortable.”
Lovato also reveals that she told someone what happened to her at the time and that the man in question was not punished for his actions.
“F**k it, I’m just going to say it. My ‘Me Too’ story is me telling somebody that someone did this to me and they never got in trouble for it,” she says. “They never got taken out of the movie they were in. But I’ve just kept it quiet because I’ve always had something to say and it’s like, I don’t know. I’m tired of opening my mouth. So there’s the tea.”
Lovato did not share any other details in the docuseries about the man who allegedly raped her. She did have several high-profile romances as a teenager during her Disney days, but did not directly name or reference anyone.
Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil premieres March 23 on YouTube.
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