Demi Lovato, the 28-year-old pop sensation releases her documentary series named ‘Dancing with the Devil’ and it seems that the singer is not holding it back this time, not a bit. Perhaps she is at her most authentic version. Over nine years, the singer has been peeling and unpacking her history of substance abuse and trauma layer by layer, in the form of her documentary. Demi has always been vocal about her struggles, her fight with depression, sobriety, self-harm, and also Eating Disorder that came recorded all together in MTV’s 2012 documentary named ‘Stay Strong’ and also YouTube’s 2017 documentary named ‘Simply Complicated’. The first one starred a sober Lovato where she detailed her rehab recovery at the age of 18 and the latter shows Demi stating an apology to her fans as she lays bare the truth of her addiction habits.
But neither of the documentary series has explored even a bit of what has been precisely documented in her latest documentary. The kind of vulnerability she has displayed in the YouTube docu-series is unmatched. ‘Dancing with the Devil’ is so far her most brutal autobiographical docu-series. In the series, she could be spotted reliving the fatal night of her near-to-death overdose in 2018 in a heartfelt detail as she speaks most honestly. Demi shares incidents when she was for the very first time abused of sexual abuse. She also reflected on all those moments and incidents that freed her from all those nightmares. There is sparse commentary from her loved ones that included her former assistant, head of security, doctor, caseworkers, and even Elton john that helps to bring out the ulfi8ltered truth in the series.
Below listed are all those life-turning moments that shaped Demi Lovato’s life.
EPISODE 1: ‘LOSING CONTROL’
- Demi filmed her unreleased documentary
After the much-anticipated release of ‘Tell me You Love Me’ and ‘Simply Complicated’, Lovato filmed a whole documentary in 2018 that captivated her life on a tour. Even though it was displayed onscreen, Demi was spotted not holding back on anything and there were moments when she almost choked. Demi recalled how she allowed the cameras to capture the tip of the iceberg. In the video, there’s a time when she was at her most vulnerable self that seemed to reflect the distress she was going through. It’s been 13 years since Demi has been working on the matter and trying to free herself from the incidents that pinned her down. There are certain clips from her unreleased documentary series that are included in the latest series after Lovato was being hospitalized for her fatal overdose. But the version that started in 2018 was completely shelved. The filming stopped until Demi began making her latest docu-series in 2020 spring.
- Demi’s restriction around her ED and sobriety made her feel miserable
Since the age of 8, Demi Lovato has battled the fear of an Eating Disorder and before her relapse in 2018, she had appointed a team of assistants, a dietician, a wellness coach, a nutritionist, and other therapists to assist her, but all in vain. Still her ED persistent to an extent that it started impacting her close friend’s circle and also the team members who said that even they needed to be careful about what they ate around Demi. Jordan Jackson, her former assistant recalled an incident when he had to spend a night around Demi because she had eaten a cookie. While Matthew Scott Montgomery, her friend said that there was a team formed to help her avoid relapsing, but it backfired. The kind of control she imposed on the ED was more than toxic for her, he added. Demi added that it felt as if the decisions were already been made for her, instead of her making them.
- On the 7th month of her ED recovery anniversary, Demi Lovato collapsed
On March 15, 2018, Demi Lovato celebrated her sixth year sober on stage with DJ Khaled at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But after a month, she picked up a bottle of red wine, and within half an hour, she knew that there were drugs on them. She recalled how one day she was at a photoshoot and all she was thinking to herself was that why she is sober anymore and why is her life so miserable because she is just not happy. Later that night, at a party, Demi ran into her six years prior drug dealer and did drugs that she’d never done before, she admitted. She recalls how she had never done meth before and mixed it with weed, coke, molly, alcohol, and oxycodone that alone could have possibly killed her. Additionally, Demi suffers and rather struggles with survivor’s guilt. In a recent statement, Demi has revealed that not a lot of artists and musicians make it and that she was close to being one of them.
- In 2018, Demi for the first time began doing heroin and cracked heroine
Not long after relapsing, Demi started using heroin for recreational purposes, but she soon realized that recreational use wouldn’t prove to be a long-term possibility for her. And, after she visited Bali on a trip that she wrote ‘Sober’ and revealed that she was no longer off drugs or alcohol. By then, Demi had figured that she was all dependent on heroin and crack, and her drug usage at that time was captured in the film through Demi Lovato’s private videos and photographs.
- The night when Demi overdosed, no one was aware that she was using hard drugs
Demi convinced the people in her life that she was being sober since the age of 19 and causally wanted to try smoking and drinking as a part of recreation. Moreover, Demi did not make anyone aware that she was on high drugs and admitted that she even manipulated her closest of friends so that they wouldn’t find out. It was July 24, 2018, when it was her friend Dani Vitale’s birthday party and a night of complete bar-hopping that Demi invited her friends back to her place to drag the night, but somehow they refused. While Demi told everyone that she was off to bed, she ended up ringing her drug dealer to come over. On the occasion of that night, Vitale recalled feeling uneasy about leaving Demi alone that night, and halfway after they left her house, they pulled over to check. Vitale and Janelle then discussed what Demi meant when she told that she’s going to bed, is it so?
EPISODE 2: ‘5 MINUTES FROM DEATH’
- Demi’s then-assistant spotted her on the morning of her overdose
Jordan Jackson, Demi’s assistant claimed that it was one of the craziest things she had witnessed in her life. The morning, after they all left Demi’s house Jordan, visited to take Demi to her doctor’s appointment and when Demi didn’t answer several knocks on the door, Jordan entered the room only to find Lovato naked on the back with vomit spread all around her. Jackson thought that Demi was either drunk or had a hung-over, only to find later that her whole body turned blue. She quickly called Demi’s head security, Max Lea, and other team members to assist in the situation where all of them believed for a moment that Demi had died. Eventually, Jordan rang 9-1-1 fearing that she might get in fuss for calling, and to curb media attention she requested the cops to come with ‘no sirens, which couldn’t be guaranteed. It didn’t take much time to see Demi’s condition on the national headlines.
- Demi Lovato was on the verge of her death
Post the drug overdose, Demi suffered from three strokes, brain damage, and a heart attack, because she was asphyxiated, and had pneumonia, and other multiple organ failures. After all of these Demi said that she was just lucky to be alive. The doctors stated that she had barely five to ten minutes, and had her assistant not come in that morning, she wouldn’t be living today.
- Demi woke up blind in the hospital bed
Demi’s brain damage due to the three strokes was so severe that it primarily affected her vision center, to an extent that she woke up in the bed blind, legally blind. She remained that way for the next two months. Even though Demi’s younger sister Madison De La Garza was right beside her, Demi was unable to recognize her and she revealed that since the overdose she still experiences blind spots in her vision and can no longer drive. She also revealed that there are times when she goes to fetch a glass of water for herself but misses the cup.
- Demi was allegedly assaulted on the night of her drug overdose
Lovato says that the night when she overdosed, her drug dealer had supplied her with what she believes were counterfeit drugs that were laced with fentanyl. The dealer however remains unnamed in the documentary but the security footage showed the man leaving the scene after he ended up getting Demi high and left her for death, said Demi’s friend and musician, Sirah. Aside from giving her drugs, Lovato claims that that the dealer took physical advantage of her as there was one flash where she could recall when he was on top of her. When Demi was interviewed by the hospital staff in the immediate moment of her overdose and was questioned whether or not she had consensual sex that night, Lovato recalled that one flash and said yes. But it was not until a month when Demi realized that she wasn’t in any state of mind to make a consensual decision. The dealer has had so far been charged for his possession of ketamine and heroin.
EPISODE 3: ‘RECLAIMING HER POWER’
- Few fans started threatening Demi Lovato’s loved ones after the overdose incident
Demi’s matter of overdose was not just traumatizing for her but had severe implications on her loved ones and the people around her, in the aftermath. Fans started attacking her close friend’s circle, accusing them of either having enabled her or not having supported her the time when she was struggling. Sirah recalled that there was a time when she was all around, spotted in the photos next to her when she was having a tough time. She even received a death threat, she added. Some people showed up at her apartment to threaten her life. Demi Vitale recalled the time when she not only received death threats about 4000-5000 per day but also suffered a major blow in her livelihood because people around her assumed that she had something to do with the night when Demi had her overdose. She lost all her dance teaching jobs as no one wanted to bring their kids to the named heroin dealer teacher. She also had TMZ following her to the studio and there were times when she recalled that she had to rethink her future, all because of someone else’s decision and it was terrifying. After much introspection, Lovato encouraged all her friends to use the docu-series to clear their names, and also encourage everyone to say anything they wanted.
- Scooter Braun intended to turn her down as a client
Following the case of her overdose, Demi Lovato went out to look for new management with the perspective that she might she from now on be viewed as a liability. The only team that Demi wanted to meet with was Scooter Braun Projects that was led by the music executive, who also counts Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber among his clients, and Taylor Swift amongst his rivals. When Braun got aware of Demi’s intention, he had initially planned to turn her down. Braun confessed that he had every intention of telling Demi a no, as he felt overwhelmed at that time. They not only made a plan on how to refuse her but also knew who they were going to recommend. But once Lovato detailed her story, Braun knew that he had to manage her and that the job was certainly very private. Demi added that she didn’t need a manager but a friend instead. She needed someone who knew what to do but also didn’t need her to work, and that Braun made her feel safe for that instance.
- It wasn’t the end of Demi Lovato doing drugs or seeing her drug dealer
After Demi’s release from a week-long intensive trauma retreat in 2018, and also two weeks following her not-so-fruitful speech to Braun, Demi contacted her drug dealer for her first night out. She explained that she wanted to rewrite the drug dealer’s choice of violating her and wanted to know that whether or not it was her choice. And, she also wanted him because she knew that he possessed drugs. Demi was petrified by her choice to use heroin again and thought to herself how she could pick up the same drugs that led her to the hospital bed. On deciding to have consensual sex with the drug dealer this time, Demi thought that was no other way to take the power back. However, things went different and all it did was to bring her back to her knees begging God for help.
- Demi Lovato was sexually assaulted as a teenager
Demi Lovato has made an exclusive reveal in her latest documentary series stating that the night of her drug overdose was not the first time when she was being sexually assaulted. Demi added that she was 15-years-old when she lost her virginity in rape. According to Demi’s statement, the incident took place around 2008 0r 2009 while she was still acting on the Disney Channel. When she and the person, whom she denied naming in the docu-series, were hooking up, she had informed him that she was still a virgin and didn’t intend to take things further. After which, he started ignoring her. Lovato revealed that she then tried to regain control by seeing him again as she did with her drug dealer. It was then she called back the person a month later and tried to fix it right by being in control, and all it did was make her feel even worse, she added. Furthermore, Demi recalled that in addition to the trauma she faced, she had to continue seeing her alleged rapist regularly at the workspace, which she says eventually, contributed to her Eating Disorder and self-harming approach. She said that she stopped eating and tried to cope up with the situation in other ways like throwing up or cutting. Her bulimia got so severe that she started throwing up blood. When Demi told somebody about the alleged rape, her attacker was still not penalized, other professionally or legally, and that they were never even taken out of the movie.
EPISODE 4: ‘DEMI LOVATOS’ REBIRTH’
- Demi Lovato once and again redefined what sobriety means to her
In her docu-series final episode, Lovato gets frank with her fans and says that she no longer believes that there is only one way to be sober and that the path she has chosen for herself might not necessarily be the right one for others as well. To Demi, this currently means not practicing total sobriety all at once. Demi says that Recovery isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and added that she still smokes marijuana and drinks in moderation. She also receives her injections of VIVITROL, a drug that is used to prevent opioid and alcohol relapses every few weeks as it helps to curb her addictions. The very thought that she can never smoke marijuana or drink feels like she is setting up a boundary for herself, that she is bound to fail because she is such a black-and-white thinker. This approach doesn’t at all work for her, Demi added.
- Demi was misdiagnosed as Bipolar
Back in 2011, Demi Lovato was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and she soon became a public advocate for its treatment and awareness. After seven long years, Demi was informed that she was misdiagnosed. Demi was acting out since she was 18 for multiple reasons but now she knows and has confirmed from multiple doctors that it wasn’t due to bipolar disorder. However, Lovato didn’t reveal that whether or not she was given a new diagnosis and instead said that she simply needed to grow up.
- Demi claimed to not know her ex-fiance Max Ehrich
When Demi’s documentary started filming after all the hurdles, she was in the middle of a swirling romantic affair with actor Max Ehrich and the pair was reportedly engaged in July 2020, after dating for four months. But, unfortunately, it was short-lived, and both the documentary cameras and the paparazzi captured the post-phase after their break up. As the then-couple were celebrating their sixth anniversary, with some old misleading messages Ehrich confessed his love for Selena Gomez and insulted Demi. Initially, she shot down the rumors on social media and later called off her engagement in September 2020. Demi now admits that she had rushed into things that she thought she was supposed to do. But she has realized that she didn’t know the person she was intending to get married to or was engaged to.
- Demi’s sexuality is now runny
The traumatic break-up allowed Demi to look within and reconsider her sexuality as a whole. Lovato explained that at this point in her life she feels too queer to marry a man and adds that she is not willing to put a label on anything presently. She just wants to allow herself the ability to live her life in the most authentic manner, which she believes she just hasn’t done in the past. There are certain things that Demi believes she needs to work upon. Demi Lovato is now a pansexual!
Website link: http://www.demilovato.com/