Demi Lovato dropped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday (March 5) to promote her new comeback single “I Love Me” and get serious about the events that led to her 2018 relapse, eventual overdose and hospitalization.
When asked by host Ellen DeGeneres what made her “throw it all away” after six years of sobriety, the pop star revealed that her breaking point stemmed from an eating disorder that became all-consuming. “It let me to being really, really unhappy; my bulimia got really bad and I asked for help. And I didn’t receive the help that I needed,” she told DeGeneres.
Lovato went on to explain that when she reached out to her then-management team questioning her sobriety, the reaction she received was anything but compassionate. “They responded with, like, ‘You’re being very selfish, this would ruin things for not just you but for us as well,'” she said. “And when I heard that, my core issues are abandonment from my birth father as a child…so when they left, they totally played on that fear and I felt completely abandoned. So I drank. And that night I went to a party and there was other stuff there, and it was only three months before I ended up in the hospital with an O.D.”
While the star was quick to take accountability for everything that led to her relapse (“Ultimately, I made the decisions that got me to where I am today; you know, it was my actions that put me in the position that I’m in”), she also had a hopeful message straight from the lyrics of her new song for anyone struggling with self-worth, addiction and self-destructive behaviors.
“I think it’s important that I sit here on this stage and tell you at home, or you in the audience, or you right here that if you do go through this, you yourself can get through it,” Lovato concluded. “You can get to the other side and it may be bumpy, but you are a 10 out of 10. Don’t forget it. And as long as you take the responsibility, you can move past it and learn to love yourself the way that you deserve to be loved.”
Check out the pop star’s powerful moment on Ellen below.
