Demi Lovato’s Drug Dealer Once Said They Had a ‘Sexual Friendship’
Singer Demi Lovato finally opens up about the night of her 2018 overdose in her 2021 documentary. Previously, all fans knew about the incident came from outside sources, including that of her drug dealer that night. Here’s what both have said about the nature of their relationship.
Demi Lovato overdosed in July 2018
After years of sobriety, Lovato relapsed in April 2018. She kept this a secret from many of the people in her life at the time. Her fans learned via her confessional song “Sober,” released in June 2018. A month later, she was hospitalized following a drug overdose.
Lovato went back to rehab following her hospitalization. She then remained largely out of the public eye for the next several months. But the always-upfront singer promised to reveal all with her seventh studio album. Her Lovatics just had to be patient a bit longer.
She talks about the incident in ‘Dancing with the Devil’
Not only will Lovato’s new music paint a picture of her last couple of years, but she’s spilled even more in her four-part YouTube documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil. It chronicles her decision to start drinking and using drugs again, as well as the night of her overdose.
“I actually don’t think people realize how bad it actually was,” Lovato explained (via Entertainment Tonight). She noted she had “three strokes,” “a heart attack,” and “suffered brain damage.” “I’m really lucky to be alive,” the artist added. “My doctors said I had five to 10 more minutes [to live].”
Lovato’s drug dealer said they had ‘a sexual friendship’
In August 2018, TMZ tracked down the man from whom she bought the drugs that night. He defined their relationship as “a flirty friendship, but nothing more.” “It kind of grew into more of a sexual friendship,” he added. “Later on in the relationship, we messed around. But for the most part, we were just friends.”
The man, who wasn’t named in the video, insinuated that Lovato called him intending to hook up. “She texted me at four o’clock in the morning because she’s a girl, and she wanted to kick it,” he said. “I mean, why else does any other girl text a guy at four o’clock in the morning to come over?”
She says he ‘took advantage of’ her
However, Lovato recalls it differently “I didn’t just overdose. I was taken advantage of,” she said in the docuseries. At the hospital, when asked if she’d had sex, the artist remembered a moment in which the man who sold her drugs that night was on top of her. So she confirmed she had.
“It actually wasn’t until maybe a month after my overdose that I realized, ‘Hey, you weren’t in any state of mind to make a consensual decision,'” Lovato continued. “That kind of trauma doesn’t go away overnight.” So Lovato called him again after she was out of rehab.
“I wanted to rewrite his choice of violating me. I wanted it now to be my choice,” Lovato shared of propositioning him at a later date. “He also had something I wanted, which were drugs.” She continued, “I was mortified at my decisions.”
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
