"We support Demi's decision to put her health first and we send her our best wishes," a Disney spokesperson told People; Lovato's show "Sonny With a Chance" appears on the Disney Channel and is currently on a scheduled hiatus. Demi's father, Patrick Lovato, is also speaking up about his daughter seeking treatment, noting that he thought she was feeling the pressures of acquiring so much fame at such a young age. "There are a lot of pressures. That is one of the things I worried about when she signed with Disney," he told Radar Online. "It's just going to happen."
Her father recalled his own brush with the entertainment industry and how hard it was on Demi's older sister, Dallas. "[Demi's mother] Dianne and I each played in a band and we toured all over the United States and Canada and our oldest daughter Dallas went with us and I could see then what the pressures would be like for a child on tour because it was hard on Dallas too," Patrick said. "She enjoyed it because we were always on the road and we had a nice bus and it wasn't too bad but the hours were difficult.
"[Demi] grew up around it, so I guess that's why she went into it; I guess it's in her genes with her mom and her dad," he continued. "Mainly watching her mom; I'd gotten out of it myself. 'Cause someone had to take care of the kids."
Patrick and Demi are estranged, and he is reportedly battling cancer. Lovato has spoken in the past about her relationship with him. In an interview with MTV News in 2009, she said, "I wrote a song called 'For the Love of a Daughter' with William Beckett from the Academy Is ... . Totally wasn't planning on writing a song that deep or anything, but we just got together, had a really long talk and then spit out this song."
The song is about Lovato's relationship with her dad, and she hoped that by addressing it, she could help her fans out. "It's basically about my past relationship with my birth father. ... I think everybody — well, a lot of people — go through this situation where parents divorce, and what they don't realize is that it really affects you. It's selfish for me to bottle up my past when I could be helping others."
via: mtv
