I lost my virginity when I was raped at 15: Award-winning singer’s heartbreaking revelation

Trigger Warning: The article contains details of an alleged sexual assault and drug overdose

American singer-songwriter Demi Lovato has opened up about being raped as a teenager while she was working for the Disney Channel in the late 2000s. The singer made the revelation in her new documentary, ‘Dancing with the Devil,’ which premiered Tuesday night at SXSW.

“I lost my virginity in a rape,” the singer said. “I called that person back a month later and tried to make it right by being in control and all it did was make me feel worse.” Demi Lovato also disclosed that she was raped not once, but twice. The second time she was assaulted was during the drug overdose episode in 2018. She had blacked out and was raped by her drug dealer who laced her heroin. “I didn’t just overdose. I was taken advantage of. When they found me, I was naked, blue. I was literally left for dead after he took advantage of me. When I woke up in the hospital, they asked if we had had consensual sex. There was one flash that I had of him on top of me. I saw that flash and I said yes. It wasn’t until a month after the overdose that I realized, ‘You weren’t in any state of mind to make a consensual decision.'” the singer stated.

Recalling the horrific time she lost her virginity to a rape at 15, Demi Lovato said, “When I was a teenager, I was in a very similar situation. We were hooking up but I said, ‘hey, this is not going any farther, I’m a virgin and I don’t want to lose it this way.’ And that didn’t matter to them, they did it anyways. And I internalized it and I told myself it was my fault, because I still went in the room with him, I still hooked up with him.” Mentioning the reason behind revealing the traumatic incidents now, the singer added, “I’m coming forward about what happened to me because everyone that happens to should absolutely speak their voice if they can and feel comfortable doing so.”