Demi Lovato may carry herself as one of America's Sweethearts, but as she has made clear, she hasn't always been the golden girl her publicist has made her out to be. Following the publication of her memoir, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year, the 21-year-old sat down for an interview with Access Hollywood, giving them a revealing and candid look at her past and her behaviour behind-the-scenes that almost wrecked her career before it had begun.

Demi Lovato
Demi has managed to regain control of her body and mind

“I’m very, very good at manipulating people and that was something that I did in my disease, I would manipulate everyone around me. There were times I would just continue to lie, so that everything looked OK on the outside,” the X Factor judge told AH's Kit Hoover. Lovato went on to describe how her lying turned into deception and conniving, going on to describe some of the times she would go to whatever lengths necessary to have things her way in her wild teenage years.

“Something I’ve never talked about before, but with my drug use I could hide it to where I would sneak drugs. I couldn’t go without 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine and I would bring it on airplanes,” she revealed further. “I would smuggle it basically and just wait until everyone in first class would go to sleep and I would do it right there. I’d sneak to the bathroom and I’d do it. That’s how difficult it got and that was even with somebody [with me], I had a sober companion, somebody who was watching me 24/7 and living with me [and] I was able to hide it from them as well.”

The former Disney star went on to describe how her battles weren't just with drugs, revealing that her lowest point came as she battled the bottle, in this case a Sprite bottle. She recalled "going to the airport" with "a Sprite bottle just filled with vodka" at only "nine in the morning," as the moment she looked at herself and decided it was time to get help. She continued, "I was throwing up in the car and this was just to get on a plane to go back to LA to the sober living house that I was staying at…I had all the help in the world, but I didn’t want it. When I hit that moment I was like, it’s no longer fun when you’re doing it alone."

Demi Lovato red light app
Demi's biggest battle came with booze

Next page: Demi's mother opens up as they both recall their eating disorders