Demi Lovato's mother, Dianna De La Garza, is talking about the day her 26-year-old daughter overdosed.
Demi Lovato's mother, Dianna De La Garza, is talking about the day her 26-year-old daughter overdosed.
De La Garza appeared on Newsmax TV on Tuesday to promote her new book, Falling With Wings, and said Lovato gave her blessing for her to talk about the singer's overdose in July. She was understandably emotional speaking about the heartbreaking moment and revealed she was first alerted to the news after being suddenly bombarded with texts.
"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 recalls. "I was in shock, like, what is going on? My heart just dropped."
De La Garza says she then got a phone call from Lovato's assistant at the time, Kelsey, before she had a chance to read the TMZ article people were referring her to.
"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 continues. "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, of course, rushed to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with Lovato's sisters.
"She just didn't look good at all," she acknowledges of Lovato. "She was in bad shape, but I said to her, 'Demi, I'm here, I love you.' 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."
"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 added, also thanking Lovato's doctors.
These days, De La Garza says her daughter's condition has improved dramatically.
"I can honestly say today that she is doing really well," she says. "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."
De La Garza's new memoir, Falling With Wings, also deals with her own past struggles with alcohol and pills. She says it is now her mission to raise awareness about the opioid crisis.
Last month, Lovato broke her silence since the overdose with a heartfelt Instagram message to her fans.
"I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction," she wrote. "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."
"I want to thank God for keeping me alive and well... I now need time to heal and focus on my sobriety and road to recovery," she continued. "The love you have all shown me will never be forgotten and I look forward to the day where I can say I came out on the other side. I will keep fighting."
For the latest on Lovato, watch the video below:
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