Demi Lovato and Penn Badgley got deep on the latest episode of Podcrushed, with the 32-year-old singer/actress opening up about her ongoing eating disorder treatments, gender presentation and more in an interview posted Thursday (Oct. 3).
Sitting across from the You actor, Lovato gave an update on how they’re currently managing their body image and mental health — all things the Camp Rock star has previously been open about. “I have a treatment team that I work with that helps me stay in recovery, and I’ve been in recovery from bulimia for five, going on six, years now,” she said. “I’m trying to learn body acceptance rather than body positivity, because body positivity feels like, ‘I can’t even reach that yet.’ I have a nutritionist and a therapist that specializes in eating disorders.”
Adding that cooking meals at home feels like “the biggest ‘F— you’” to her eating disorder, Lovato continued that “the main thing that I’m working on is just body acceptance, and looking in the mirror and being like, ‘This body is strong … This body saved my life and fought for my life when I overdosed. This body is a miracle.’”
The interview comes a few weeks after the Sept. 17 premiere of Lovato’s Child Star Hulu documentary, on which the vocalist further explored their past struggles and interviewed fellow celebrities — Christina Ricci, Drew Barrymore and Jojo Siwa, to name a few — about their own experiences with child fame. Lovato also recently dropped a companion single for the self-directed film titled “You’ll Be OK, Kid.”
But while Badgley had Lovato in his presence, there was another song he wanted to sing with her: 2021’s emotional ballad “Anyone” from Dancing With the Devil. In a clip posted to Podcrushed‘s Instagram, the Gossip Girl alum starts out the song before listening in awe as the “Cool for the Summer” artist took the floor.
Elsewhere in Badgley’s interview with Lovato, the Princess Protection Program star opened up about feeling more comfortable balancing masculinity with femininity as it pertains to their gender presentation. “I came out as nonbinary [in 2021]. I really shed that image of that hyper-feminine pop star that I had been for so many years. I cut all my hair off and it was really freeing for me.”
“I feel masculine and feminine,” Lovato continued. “I have both energies in me. At that point in my life, I really shunned the feminine energy in me, and now I’m able to embrace both.”
Watch Badgley interview Lovato above, and check out their mini-duet below.
