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17 Feb 2026 8:38
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  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Demi Lovato says her battle with an eating disorder led to her 2018 overdose

    The ‘Sober’ hitmaker suffered a near-fatal overdose in July 2018 and subsequently spent time in rehab working on her sobriety, and has now said she was “running herself into the ground” prior to her overdose - which came as a slip in her previous sobriety journey - as a result of an eating disorder


    Demi says she felt pressure from people to “look a certain way”, and ended up slipping in her sobriety as she pushed herself to “tell the world [she] was happy”.

    She confessed in a preview clip for an upcoming episode of Ashley Graham’s ‘Pretty Big Deal’ podcast: "I'm tired of running myself into the ground with workouts and extreme dieting. I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder when it actually was just completely falling into it.

    "I think when you have certain people around you that are telling you certain things that you should look a certain way, it makes it harder. I was in that situation, and I was just running myself into the ground. I honestly think that's kind of what led to everything happening over the past year was just me thinking I found recovery when I didn't, and then living this kind of lie and trying to tell the world I was happy with myself when I really wasn’t."

    Ashley shared the clip on Instagram on Tuesday (18.02.20), where she gushed over Demi’s “strength and openness”.

    She wrote: "I am so proud to call @ddlovato a friend and I’m in awe of her strength and openness on today’s episode of @prettybigdealpod. Her faith, wisdom, and new found awareness has gotten her to a place where she’s comfortable enough to set boundaries or take a pause to heal; which is something we can all learn from. I’m so excited for this next chapter of her career, it’s going to be the best yet because she finally gets to be true to herself (sic)”

    The ‘Anyone’ singer, 27, also shared details of the podcast - which will be released in full later on Tuesday - and thanked the model for allowing her to “open up” about her health journey.

    She wrote: "Thank you Ashley for allowing me to really open up about my faith, boundaries, my body acceptance journey, and what my future holds. We had such an honest and real conversation... I can’t wait for you guys to watch and listen (sic)”

    © 2026 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

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