In her new YouTube documentary Simply Complicated, "Sorry Not Sorry" singer Demi Lovato has opened up about her struggles with addiction, anger issues, and depression. She's also revealed the truth behind the moment that led to her entering rehab for the first time: the 2010 moment in which Lovato punched her background dancer while on the Camp Rock 2 tour.
The aftermath of the moment has been discussed at length, with the popstar getting help for her issues and becoming an advocate for mental health. Now five years sober, Lovato has revealed that it was her dancer's decision to tell adults about her drug use that caused her to lash out.
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"I was in Columbia, on the Camp Rock 2 tour. I invited a bunch of people to dinner, my band and my background dancers. I paid for all the alcohol. Somebody ended up getting weed. I was on Adderall, and we had trashed the hotel. The hotel was threatening us, they went to some of the dancers and asked what had happened. I think they told on me for using Adderall. Somebody told Kevin Jonas, Sr. [the father of the Jonas brothers], and [my manager] Phil [McIntyre] and my dad [Eddie De La Garza]."
Lovato, who had been hiding her drug use from the adults in her life, was "very upset."
"I couldn't believe that it had happened. Now it was out, that I was on Adderall," Lovato said in the documentary.
"The next day, I was in a lot of trouble...I remember going to Kevin Sr. and saying 'Listen, I want to thank whoever told on me, because I know they were just worried about me. I just really want to know who told you.' I manipulated him into telling me who it was. And he said it was Shorty."
Shorty (real name: Alex Welch) was a friend who the singer had become close to on the Camp Rock films.
"[When Kevin Sr.] said Shorty, I remember thinking, 'I'm about to beat this bitch up.'"
Lovato confronted Welch on a plane, and while everyone around her was "freaking out," the former Disney Channel actress had a much different reaction.
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"I just remember going and sitting down, texting my mom 'I'm sorry.' And I slept the whole day...I just came to a breaking point."
Lovato entered rehab shortly afterwards, and was diagnosed bi-polar.
"It just made sense," the Sonny With a Chance star said in the documentary.
Though Lovato didn't get sober immediately after leaving rehab at 18 – she admitted that she went on a "bender of two months" during which time she was using cocaine daily, and continued to use other drugs as well — the incident with the background dancer did call attention to the very real problems Lovato was facing.
"It's embarrassing to look back at the person that I was," said Lovato of her time using drugs.
You can watch the entire documentary below.
If you are experiencing depression and need support, please call the National Depressive/Manic-Depressive Association Hotline at 1-800-826-3632 or the Crisis Call Center’s 24-hour hotline at 1-775-784-8090.
If you are struggling with substance abuse, please call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information.