Demi Lovato says she was 'underweight and freezing' during Disney filming because of eating disorder

Demi Lovato recently took part in a video chat reunion with her former Sonny with a Chance castmates

Sabrina Barr
Monday 27 April 2020 11:49 BST
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(Getty Images)

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Demi Lovato has opened up about how suffering from an eating disorder impacted her while filming the television show Sonny with a Chance.

From 2009 to 2011, Lovato starred as the titular character on the Disney channel television programme.

The 27-year-old recently took part in a video chat reunion with eight of her castmates, during which the group recalled anecdotes from their time on the show and discussed how their lives have evolved in the years since.

During the conversation, one of the former Disney stars Tiffany Thornton remarked that Lovato’s dressing room was “98 degrees every day” in Farenheit, which equates to around 36 degrees Celsius.

Lovato responded that she “had an eating disorder” and therefore was “underweight and freezing” at the time.

“I would have people over for meetings on my lunch breaks because that’s how much I worked,” the singer said.

“People would come in, I’d be like [under a] blanket on the couch and they’d be like, ‘Why is it 80 degrees in here?’ And I was like, ‘Because I’m freezing.’

“They were like, ‘Oh my god, what’s wrong with you’,” she added.

While speaking on the video chat reunion, Lovato also discussed going to rehab on several occasions.

Lovato told Thornton that she was her “biggest inspiration coming out of it” because of the way she “dealt with all of those pressures of being a woman on TV”.

When discussing the fixation she used to have on the clothes she would wear during filming, Lovato said: ”I look back and I’m like, ‘Man, it’s a shame we wasted any energy on what we wore on set. ... Now I’m just like, ‘It doesn’t matter! What I’m wearing doesn’t matter!’”

The “Sorry Not Sorry” singer has spoken about body image on several occasions in the past.

In November, she told Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner that she “doesn’t always feel positive” about her body.

“All I have to say is, ‘I’m healthy.’ In that statement, I express gratitude. I am grateful for my strength and things I can do with my body. I am saying I’m healthy and I accept the way my body is today without changing anything,” Lovato said.

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