Anna Good
Demi Lovato made an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, where they discussed their healing process after being raped as a teenager by someone else who worked at Disney at the same time.
This discussion comes a year after the singer and actress, who uses she/they pronouns, revealed that they had been raped in their YouTube docuseries, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil.
Lovato came to prominence in the acting world after appearances in a number of Disney Channel movies and shows as a teen actor. After the age of 15, she was starring in leading roles, but not everything was sunshine and roses, as she struggled with eating disorders, drug addiction, and lost her virginity to a rapist in the late 2000s.
She never shared the name of the person who raped her but said that they “never got taken out of the movie they were in” after raping her.
“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,” Demi said. 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.”
“The Christian, Southern girl in me didn’t see it [as rape] because sex was not normalized as a child or in the South,” they added. “And, you know what, f-ck it, I’m just gonna say it: My #MeToo story is me telling somebody that someone did this to me, and they never got in trouble for it.”
Speaking with Alex Cooper from the Call Her Daddy podcast, the singer discussed what their healing process was like after being raped.
“I think in a way, time can heal wounds,” they said. “Maybe not all of them. The more time that has gone by, the easier it has gotten.”
Lovato went on, “But there’s still a sadness, a deep sadness inside of me that someone took that from me at such a young age. […] It was hard because this person was also around. Like, they were also on Disney. And so, seeing them around was difficult and it really messed up my teenage years. And finally, I went and got help for that.”
“It’s been something that I’ve worked on, but you know, I’ve had other traumas happen, and it kind of pushes those to the side a little bit, but there are moments where I definitely will cry and just feel the sad,” they continued.
“And to be clear, like it wasn’t anyone in the immediate Disney circle. I’ve had people ask questions like, ‘Was it this person or was it that person?’ And it was like, ‘I don’t think it’d be anybody that anyone would guess, but they were friends with someone on set and they’d come around [all] the time,’” she said.
If you are a teen dealing with depression or other mental health issues, see PBS.org for a list of resources and organizations that can help you. If you are an adult, see Mental Health Resources.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, harassment, or violence or want more resources on sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center by going to nsvrc.org.
For more information about eating disorders or to speak with someone confidentially, contact the National Eating Disorders Organization. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/help-support/contact-helpline