Demi Lovato has confessed to developing a drug addiction as early as 13 after being involved in a car accident that prompted her to experiment with opiates she was taking to mend the pain from the crash. In the latest episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, which was released on Wednesday, Lovato, who recently started using she/her pronouns again, recalled to the host Alexandra Cooper how she became dependent on opiates at a very early age.
“I started experimenting for the first time when I was 12, or 13,” Lovato shared. “I got into a car accident and they prescribed me opiates.” At that time in the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer’s life, she admits to having already started drinking alcohol during this period due to the endless bullying she was said to have endured. “I had been bullied and was looking for an escape.”
Demi Lovato opens up to Alex Cooper from ‘Call Her Daddy’ about the abuse they endured from their old manager that led to their relapse in 2018. pic.twitter.com/Dc3kAs969i
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Once her mother Dianna De La Garza found out just how many opiates Lovato was taking in a day, she snatched the remaining pills and locked them away, after becoming increasingly concerned about her daughter’s health — unaware that Lovato was also battling alcoholism at the time. The pop star retorted how she would commonly steal her stepfather’s beers in the fridge, which eventually led her down a dark path with prescription drugs and cocaine by the time she was 17.
Things continued to spiral in Lovato’s life that year, which is when she said she started doing cocaine, and it became such a big problem for her because right from her first experience, she “loved it too much.”
“At 17, it was the first time I tried coke and, like, loved it too much and then kinda bled into me going to treatment right after I turned 18,” she expressed, referring to the time she was taken to rehab in the hopes of overcoming her newfound addiction to cocaine.
Wilmer Valderrama dated Mandy Moore when he was 20 and she was 15, Lindsay Lohan when she was 17 and he was 24 and Demi Lovato when she was 17 and he was 29.
Get that man behind bars already pic.twitter.com/FJqzhN8Iw8
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Lovato suffered a near-fatal overdose back in 2018 when she was given heroin laced with fentanyl, causing her to have three strokes and a heart attack at her Los Angeles home. Following her stint in hospital and yet another rehab facility, Lovato vowed to stay “California sober” by still drinking alcohol and smoking weed in moderation.
In December 2021, however, the Disney Channel alum said she had given up on the California sober lifestyle.