Demi Lovato's mother opens up on singer's overdose
Dianna De La Garza, mother of singer Demi Lovato, has opened up on her daughter's scary apparent overdose in July. De La Garza appeared to confirm that Lovato did indeed overdose, but she said that her daughter is "doing really well now."
In an interview with Newsmax TV to promote her new book, "Falling with Wings," De La Garza said that she had Lovato's permission to talk about the incident. De La Garza talked about the day Lovato was hospitalized.
"Texts started coming in, 'I just heard the news, I'm so sorry, I'm praying for your family, I'm praying for Demi,'" she said. "I was in shock, like, what is going on? My heart just dropped."
She said before she had the chance to read anything about what had happened to her daughter, Lovato's assistant, Kelsey, called her.
"Kelsey was rambling, like she's obviously been through something terrible and she said, 'I need to tell you what's going on, you're going to see a report come out,'" she said. "The next words that came out of her mouth are words that are just so difficult to hear as a parent. She said, 'Demi overdosed.' I was in shock. I didn't know what to say. It was just something that I just never expected to hear as a parent about any of my kids. I hesitated to ask, but I had to ask her ... 'Is she OK?' And she stopped for a second, and she said, 'She's conscious but she's not talking.' I knew at that point that we were in trouble."
De La Garza said she took her other daughters to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to see their sister.
"She was in bad shape, but I said to her, 'Demi, I'm here, I love you,'" De La Garza recalled. "And at that point, she said back to me, 'I love you too.' From that point on, I never allowed myself to ever think that things weren't going to be OK ... We just didn't know for two days if she was going to make it or not."
De La Garza said she's thankful to Lovato's fans for their support.
"I just feel like the reason she is alive today is because of the millions and millions of prayers that went up that day," she said.
De La Garza said that Lovato is doing really well.
"She's happy, she's healthy, she's working on her sobriety and she's getting the help she needs — and that in itself encourages me about her future, and the future of our family," she said.
Lovato has talked openly before about her struggle with substance abuse. In June, she released a song called "Sober" about a relapse after six years of sobriety. In the song, she apologized for letting down her family and fans. In De La Garza's new book, she talks about her own substance abuse issues with alcohol and pills.
In August, Lovato broke her silence on social media and said, "I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction. What I've learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet."
She continued, "I want to thank God for keeping me alive and well. To my fans, I am forever grateful for all of your love and support throughout this past week and beyond. Your positive thoughts and prayers have helped me navigate through this difficult time."