Demi Lovato opens up about her near-fatal overdose in new doc trailer

In July 2018, fans were devastated when news broke that singer Demi Lovato had been rushed from her home in Los Angeles to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering an overdose. Details surrounding the terrifying ordeal slowly began to leak out in the press in the following days, but it’s only now, after the first trailer for Lovato’s upcoming docuseries Dancing With the Devil has dropped, that viewers are learning just how close the Grammy nominee was to dying.

The first trailer for Lovato’s four-part docuseries was released on Wednesday and featured Lovato and those closest to her, including her family, friends, and famous collaborators, providing a raw and unfiltered look into the severity of Lovato’s addiction. Lovato’s parents, Dianna and Eddie De La Garza, as well as her siblings Dallas and Madison, appear in the doc along with the singer’s friends. Lovato’s mentors, including Elton John and Christina Aguilera, also make appearances and discuss the impossible pressure of growing up in the public eye and dealing with mental health and addiction issues as well as fame. But the most shocking revelations come from Lovato, who admits that she was minutes away from dying after her July 2018 overdose.

Lovato tells the camera that her drug use escalated in 2018, with her overdose taking place only one month after the singer released the single “Sober,” where she admits that she had lapsed in her sobriety. “I crossed a line I had never crossed,” says Lovato at one point in the trailer, with the gap filled in by a friend who appears to confirm that the singer was using heroin. Audio from the frantic 911 call can be heard in the trailer before Lovato recounts the harrowing experience. “I had three strokes, I had a heart attack. My doctors said that I had five to 10 more minutes to live.”

The new four-part series, which will be released on March 23, will address Lovato’s recent engagement and break-up from Max Ehrich, as well as the lead-up to and repercussions of her overdose. Ending on a positive note, Lovato tells the cameras “I’ve had a lot of lives, like my cat you know. I’m on my ninth life. I’m ready to get back to doing what I love, which is making music.”

Following the release of the trailer, Lovato appeared with director Michael D. Ratner as part of a Television Critics Association panel where she spoke about the lasting effects of her strokes and heart attack. "I don't drive a car, because I have blind spots on my vision," said Lovato. "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 also told the panel that part of the reason she was releasing her new documentary was to ensure she would not end up in the same dark space that led to her 2018 overdose. "I learned a lot from my past. I was sober for six years and I learned so much from that journey. And the main thing that I learned from that journey was coming forward and talking about my story held me accountable through those six years."

In the hours since the trailer dropped on February 17, Lovato has received an outpouring of support both from fans and those closest to her. Ratner, John, and Lovato’s mother all tweeted their support for Lovato’s willingness to share her story in hopes of helping others dealing with addiction.

Dancing with the Devil marks Lovato’s second documentary for YouTube. The singer previously released Simply Complicated in 2017, which focused on her rise to fame as a child star, her struggles with an eating disorder, and the beginning of her drug abuse during her time working for Disney.  

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[video_embed id='2126360']Before you go: Demi Lovato will star in new diet-related comedy series[/video_embed]