Dani Vitale sets the record straight
The following article contains details of drug overdose which some readers may find upsetting
Demi Lovato has given her good friend and former choreographer Dani Vitale a platform to speak her truth.
After Demi's fans blamed her for the singer's 2018 overdose, she lost jobs, received death threats, and was chased by paparazzi.
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Dani shares her side of the story on episode three of Demi's YouTube docuseries, Dancing with the Devil.
It begins with her friends talking about the death threats and backlash they received over the incident.
But it was her former choreographer and creative director Dani Vitale who received the majority of the backlash.
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Ahead of her interview for the docuseries, Demi gave her a pep talk and encouraged her to, "clear [her] name."
"I just want the truth to be told because you deserve that," she said.
In the interview Dani is asked why she was so nervous to sit down and share her story.
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The interview
"It was having to relive it," she explained.
Screenshots of articles suggesting Dani was somehow involved in Demi's 2018 overdose flash across the screen.
One headline reads, 'Lovato reportedly partied hard as she celebrated Dani's birthday the night before her overdose.'
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As Demi explained in previous episodes, her friends had no idea she had relapsed.
After their night out, she invited them back to her house, and once they left, she called her dealer.
Dani continued, "Having to go back on my phone and look at the screenshots from her fans just telling me to die and kill myself."
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"I would say nearly four to five thousand a day."
In the episode, Demi admits, "It was awful to see what happened to Dani..."
"My fans are amazing. They're very passionate. But they're a little out of line sometimes because they want what's best for me but don't always have all the information."
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Dani's friends & family
Dani said her friends and the people who know her found the accusations, "laughable," because she was always the good girl in school.
"They were like, 'How on earth are you the girl that gets blamed for this?'"
"And it was laughable for a day or two not thinking it would stick."
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"Then it continued to stick for days, weeks, months, a year."
Dani became quite emotional as she admitted it was one of the hardest things she's ever had to deal with.
She said she was in the hospital with Demi, "when everything started to unfold."
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"I remember one night my mother sat me down and screamed at me."
"She said, 'I cannot watch my little girl take the fall for someone that did something like this.'"
Dani remembered thinking, "It's going to be fine," but soon learned, "it wasn't."
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Dani lost jobs over the allegations
She shared, "I lost all my teaching jobs; no one wanted to bring their kid to [an] apparent heroin dealer teacher."
"Any artist that I was working with, they didn't want to deal with the drama."
"I would go to studios, I would have like TMZ following me to the studio..."
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"I had to rethink my whole future, all because of someone else's decision and that was terrifying."
Demi said she feels, "terrible," that it's taken this long for Dani to finally be able to share her truth.
But she said, "It's taken me a while to come to terms and process that night... and be ready to talk about it."
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"It took me too long to realise how my choices affected the people I really care about who had stuck by me."
"I'm just glad that she got the chance to talk today and clear her name 'cause she wasn't involved in all of that," Demi insisted.
Watch the full episode here:
For a full detailed recap of episodes one and two, click here.
