DEMI’S CRY FOR HELP
The actress and singer’s relapse stuns loved ones
Watching Demi Lovato fumble through a performance of new song Sober on July 22, the audience at her Paso Robles concert in Los Angeles assumed it was because she was emotional about the lyrics, written about a relapse after six years of sobriety. “Mama, I’m so sorry I’m not sober anymore, and Daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor ... I’m sorry for the fans I lost who watched me fall again, I wanna be a role model, but I’m only human,” Lovato sang, before admitting to forgetting the words and leaving the stage.
Just days later, on July 24, the 25-year-old was rushed to Cedars- Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles following a drug overdose. Initial reports indicated she had overdosed on heroin, but a source connected to the star told TMZ that heroin was not the substance involved. Lovato’s publicist released a statement confirming she was recovering. “Demi is awake and with her family who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support,” the statement read. “Some of the information being reported is incorrect and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now.”
The next day, the pop star returned home and was described as “stable” and “awake and talking,” while celebrity friends rallied on social media to support her. “We should all wrap our arms of love around Demi Lovato. I am so happy
you’re alive. Thank God. We all wish you selfcompassion and inner peace. And may you receive the love so many have for you. #Imconfidentindemi,” Lady Gaga, 32, tweeted. Fellow Disney alum Ariana Grande, 25, also tweeted, “I love u @ddlovato.”
A source close to the situation told WHO there had been clear signs Lovato’s health had recently taken a turn for the worse. “Things have been a total mess for months,” the source says. “She and her team severed ties, and they played a large part in getting her sober years ago. She hasn’t been in a good place.”
Another insider claimed her behaviour had changed of late. “You could tell when Demi was doing well with her sobriety because she wasn’t hanging out at clubs,” the source told WHO. “She has still very much kept up her work schedule and daily life, but there have definitely been signs that she isn’t doing great with her sobriety.”
Lovato won herself a legion of loyal fans after appearing in hit Disney film Camp Rock in 2008, but as her star ascended, thanks to the leading role in Sonny with a Chance and
a judging slot on the US X Factor, as well as a string of singles and albums, her personal life suffered. In 2010, she was treated for bipolar disorder, bulimia, self-harm and addiction at Timberline Knolls rehabilitation clinic.
When Lovato’s career took off in her teens, her mother, Dianna De La Garza, 55, said she noticed a change in her daughter’s habits and would intervene almost daily. “Every night I’d set an alarm for 2 AM. If she wasn’t [ home], I called her until she walked through the front door,” she recalls in her book, Falling with Wings: A Mother’s Story. One of the reasons Lovato was open to undergoing rehabilitation was because her mother and stepfather, Eddie De La Garza, warned she’d have to cut ties with her younger sister, Madison De La Garza. “I knew that I had a lot of life ahead of me,” she said on The Jonathan Ross Show. “One of the main reasons of getting sober was so that I could be around my little sister. My mum and dad [said I couldn’t be around her] if I was doing stuff.”
Before Lovato entered rehab for a second time in 2012, she described the lengths she took to feed her habits. “I was sneaking [cocaine] on planes,
I was sneaking it in bathrooms, sneaking it throughout the night ... I went on a bender of, like, two months where I was using daily,” she said in documentary Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated. Not even De La Garza was aware of the extent of her daughter’s habit. “As the intake counsellor asked questions, I heard more than a few shocking revelations,” she wrote in her book. “When she asked about drugs, my jaw dropped. ‘Cocaine, pot and Adderall,’ Demi said. My blood ran cold.”
Over the years, the singer found solace in her support network, in particular former boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama, 38. The couple, who dated on and off for six years, took a break when Lovato entered rehab in 2010, and remained tight-lipped about their romance until March 2015, when Lovato publicly thanked him for being her rock.
“I wish I could put into words how grateful I am for this man right here,” she wrote on Instagram. “But my love has grown to a level that words could never possibly express how much this man completes me. He’s loved me the way I never thought I deserved to be loved and with this day marking my 3rd year sober. After sharing my ups, putting up with my downs and supporting my recovery, he still never takes credit and I want the world to know how incredible his soul is.” Though the two are no longer romantically linked, Valderrama visited Lovato during her recent hospital stay. “Wilmer has spent hours at the hospital with Demi every day,” a source tells WHO. “He seems very concerned about her.”
The road ahead of Lovato will be tough— something she is well aware of. After receiving a Spirit of Sobriety Award at the Brent Shapiro Foundation For Drug Prevention Summer Spectacular in 2017, she said, “Every day is a battle. You just have to take it one day at a time.”