Demi Lovato’s mother worried singer would die after overdose
Demi Lovato performs on stage (MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty)
Demi Lovato’s mother has broken her silence over her daughter’s drug overdose.
The star, who came out last year, was rushed to Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in July after the fire department received a call about a medical emergency.
Her hospitalisation came after the singer and LGBT+ icon revealed she had broken six years of sobriety in “Sober,” an emotional song in which she apologised to her parents, fans and prospective lovers.
Demi Lovato performs “Skyscraper” at the March for Our Lives rally (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Dianna De La Garza, a former singer and cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys, told Newsmax that she still struggles to discuss what happened to her 26-year-old daughter.
She said: “It’s still a really difficult thing to talk about it. I literally start to shake a little bit when I start to remember what happened that day.”
De La Garza said the first she knew of the overdose was the avalanche of texts she received on the morning of July 24 wishing her love and prayers.
Dianna De La Garza has written about her family’s struggles with addiction (KTLA 5/youtube)
This torrent of messages was explained when she was called by Lovato’s assistant, Kelsey Kershner.
“She said: ‘Demi overdosed,'” de la Garza said. “So, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to say, it was just something that I never, ever expected to hear as a parent, about any of my kids.
“And I hesitated to ask, but I had to ask her, I remember it just seemed like the words took forever to come out of my mouth. I said: ‘Is she okay?’
Demi revealed she was no longer sober shortly before her overdose (Demi Lovato/YouTube)
“And she stopped for a second, and she said: ‘She’s conscious but she’s not talking.’ And so I knew that we that we were in trouble.”
De La Garza, who has written Falling with Wings: A Mother’s Story about her family’s struggles with mental health and addiction, said she and Lovato’s sisters Dallas and Madison immediately rushed to the hospital.
“She just didn’t look good at all,” she recalled. “She was in bad shape but I said to her: ‘Demi, I’m here; I love you.’ And at that point, she said: ‘I love you too.’
“I said to her: ‘Demi, I’m here; I love you.’ And at that point, she said: ‘I love you too.’” (Cindy Ord/Getty)
“So from that point on I never allowed myself to think that things wouldn’t be okay.”
However, Lovato’s mother, who was speaking with her daughter’s permission, said it was a long wait before the family was told whether the star would survive.
“We just didn’t know for two days if she was going to make it or not,” she said.
Demi came out last year (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Mastercard)
She credited the fact that Lovato did make it to the work of everyone at the hospital, as well as “the millions of prayers that went up that day” from fans and well-wishers.
And she said that her daughter is currently on the path to recovery.
“I can honestly say today that she is doing really well, she’s happy, she’s healthy,” said De La Garza.
“She’s working on her sobriety and she’s getting the help she needs, and that in itself encourages me about her future and about the future of our family.”
