Demi Lovato has opened up about rape, sexual assault, and drug use in her new docuseries, Dancing With The Devil.
CW: Addiction, sexual assault
During a livestream, the 28-year-old singer announced that her first record in four years, Dancing With The Devil, is due to come out on Friday, April 2nd.
The album will be an unofficial soundtrack to the four-part docuseries of the same name, which will be broadcast intermittently on YouTube in the lead up to the album’s release. The first episode was premiered during the virtual SXSW film festival and covered a lot of very personal issues.
Lovato revealed candidly that she has been sexually assaulted on more than one occasion. “I lost my virginity in a rape,” Lovato said. “We were hooking up but I said, ‘Hey, this is not going any farther, 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.”
The singer then added that during her overdose, she was assaulted a second time by a drug dealer. “I didn’t just overdose – I also was taken advantage of,” she said.
“When they found me, I was naked, I was blue. I was literally left for dead after he took advantage of me.” Lovato believes that the dealer who provided her with oxycodone had laced it with the deadly drug, fentanyl.
demi lovato and the doctor who saved her life after her overdose… pic.twitter.com/ohQA2UILVb
— Demi Lovato Team (@DemiTeamFR) March 17, 2021
“When I woke up in the hospital, they asked if I had had consensual sex. There was one flash that I had of him on top of me. I saw that flash and I said, ‘Yes.’ It wasn’t until a month after my overdose when I realized, ‘Hey, you weren’t in any state of mind to make a consensual decision.’ That kind of trauma doesn’t go away overnight.”
Lovato suffered three strokes, a heart attack, pneumonia, and multiple organ failures after being rushed to hospital. The singer was even deemed legally blind and has since regained her eyesight, but is unable to drive.
On the road to recovery, Lovato is convinced she will not end up with “another overdose headline” on TMZ, but is realistic about her sobriety journey. The singer revealed that she only smokes weed and drinks in moderation. “I have to work every day to make sure that I’m in a good place so I don’t go to those things. Time and trust is the only thing that will work for people, and over time you’ll see that I’m good,” she said.
My new song “Dancing With The Devil” as heard in the @YouTube #DemiDWTD doc trailer will officially be released 3.26 🖤 #DWTDTAOSO
Pre-save it now: https://t.co/QIyFhN6X37 pic.twitter.com/Z2TGGaoLsR
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) March 17, 2021
The first two episodes of Dancing With The Devil will stream on Youtube for free on March 23. Watch the trailer here.
