Demi Lovato Reveals She Was Sexually Assaulted on Day of Overdose

Demi Lovato has made some shocking revelations. The pop icon recounted her experiences of being raped as a teen and then sexually assaulted on the morning of her 2018 drug overdose in her new YouTube docuseries, "Dancing with the Devil." Speaking in the four-part documentary, which premiered at the virtual South by Southwest festival Tuesday, Lovato revealed that she lost her virginity when she was raped.

"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,'" she recalled, via USA Today. "And that didn't matter to them, they did it anyways. 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."

At the time, Lovato's career was just taking off. She had been cast in Disney's "Camp Rock" in 2008 and was portrayed as a wholesome teen, much like her fellow Disney stars Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, who were prepared to wait until marriage before having sex. Because of her image, Lovato felt she could not speak out about what had happened and chose to remain silent.

"I was a part of that Disney crowd that publicly said they were waiting till marriage," she said. "I didn't have the romantic first time with anybody, that was not it for me and that sucked. And then I had to see this person all the time, and so I stopped eating and coped in other ways: cutting, throwing up, whatever. And my bulimia got so bad that I started throwing up blood for the first time."

Several years later, on the day of her drug overdose on July 23, 2018, Lovato said she was sexually assaulted by her drug dealer. The "Sorry Not Sorry" hitmaker had been partying with friends at her Los Angeles home that day. When they all left she contacted her dealer, who delivered oxycodone to her. Looking back, Lovato said she believed it was laced with fentanyl.

"I didn't just overdose — I also was taken advantage of," Lovato explained of that early morning. "I've had my fair share of sexual trauma throughout childhood, teenage years. And when they found me, I was naked, I was blue. I was literally left for dead after he took advantage of me."

Lovato recalled waking up in the hospital and being asked whether she had consensual sex.

"There was one flash that I had of him on top of me. I saw that flash and I said, 'Yes,'" she continued. "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 has been open about her drug overdose and previously revealed that she had suffered three strokes and a heart attack while in the hospital as a result. Speaking at the documentary's Television Critics Association panel last month, Lovato said the physical effects she suffered were detrimental.

"I was left with brain damage, and I still deal with the effects of that today. I don't drive a car, because I have blind spots on my vision," she said, per People. "And I also for a long time had a really hard time reading. It was a big deal when I was able to read out of a book, which was like two months later because my vision was so blurry."

Lovato added that the after-effects were a strong reminder of the traumatic experience.

"I dealt with a lot of the repercussions and I feel like they are still there to remind me of what could happen if I ever get into a dark place again," she added. "I'm grateful for those reminders, but I'm so grateful that I was someone that didn't have to do a lot of rehabbing. The rehabbing came on the emotional side."

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