[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
It’s been more than a decade since Demi Lovato went through one of the most difficult and damaging ordeals of her life, but now, she’s opening up and moving forward as best she can.
As we’ve been reporting over the last few days, the 28-year-old pop princess’ new YouTube Originals docuseries, Demi Lovato: Dancing With The Devil, premiered on Tuesday. It’s been a big hit with fans so far — and raised some serious eyebrows, too, because Demi isn’t holding anything back.
Related: Demi Reveals She Lost Control Of Everything During ‘Miserable’ Addiction Battle
Take this, for example: in the first part of her new docuseries that went live on Tuesday, the Confident singer revealed details into exactly why her early-career music seems “so angry” when looking back on it now.
Demi recalls losing her virginity in a horrific rape at just 15 years old — and as you’d expect, something like that profoundly affects a person for years and years to come.
She told People about the aftermath with her music, revealing (below):
“Sometimes people hear my music from when I was a teenager and they’re like, ‘Oh, you were so angry.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, and now you guys get to see why I was so angry.’”
No kidding.
Lovato goes further in Dancing With The Devil, directed by her friend Michael D. Ratner, and shares more heartbreaking details about how she “never saw consequences” for her attacker. She also reveals more about how she was “violated” by her drug dealer back on the very night she overdosed and nearly died in 2018.
Wow…
Lovato noted:
“That kind of trauma doesn’t go away overnight. Having put that out in front of the camera and knowing that people have seen that, it’s freeing. It’s empowering. It’s liberating. And it really lets that anger that was inside of me dissolve. I had let go of a lot of the anger beforehand, but this was kind of just the final send-off, like, okay, I can really heal from this now.”
And that, it seems, is the silver lining.
As brutal and awful as these past experiences have been for much of Lovato’s life, she is now in a place where she can use them to help others.
Related: Grappling With Demi’s Very Scary Overdose Revelation! OMG!
The star, whose new accompanying album Dancing With The Devil… The Art of Starting Over comes out on April 2nd, explained (below):
“Now that I’ve talked about it and now that I know that other people could hear my story, I just hope that it helps people. Sexual abuse is something that people feel is taboo to talk about and to come forward about, but I want to show people that you can, and it’s okay.”
Amen to that!
Looking back on all the pain she felt as a teen and feeling particularly reflective with her newfound perspective, Lovato also tackled the question of what she would tell her 15-year-old self — and other young people currently silently suffering.
The talented crooner said:
“When the time is right, and when you feel ready, you can talk about it. And you’re going to heal from it. You’re going to feel so much more empowered. You’ll be free of the shame. It’ll be an up-and-down journey, but when you do finally decide to confront that [trauma] and do the work around it — really do the work around it — it’s so rewarding and freeing. I want not just my 15-year-old self to hear that, but anyone else who’s been abused.”
Love that! Love yourself, put in the time, do the work, and come out on the other side a stronger person. It’s not easy, and it’ll take time and patience, but it’s worth it.
[Image via C.Smith/WENN]
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