Raven-Symoné Had to Remind Longtime Admirer Demi Lovato They Once Worked Together: 'Bitch, I Was on Your Show!'

Mar. 15, 2025

Demi Lovato (left) and Raven-Symoné in the documentary ‘Child Star’.Photo:Tori Time/OBB Media

Tori Time/OBB Media

Fellow former child starsDemi LovatoandRaven-Symonéhave a shared history that one of them didn’t even remember until the other offered a hilariously direct reminder.

Lovato, 32, reached out to Symoné, 38, about appearing in a documentary she was directing, and she began her pitch with some honest flattery.

“When we first got on the phone to talk about this project, I was like, ‘I watched you onThat’s So Raven, such an inspiration,’ " Lovato recalls in the documentaryChild Star, which premiered Sept. 17 on Hulu. “You were like, ‘Bitch, I was on your show!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, she was.’ "

In the documentary, which is Lovato’s directorial debut, the actress and singer discusses the pressure she faced as a kid being overworked in Hollywood, and also being her family’s breadwinner. The demands of the industry led to fatigue, depression and a number of other mental and emotional maladies.

“I was a teenager, and I was just exhausted,” Lovato says in the doc. “I was being worked into the ground. We were all just kind of flapping around, figuring out how to swim.”

Raven-Symoné (left) and Demi Lovato on ‘Sonny with a Chance’ in 2010.Adam Rose/Disney Channel via Getty

Adam Rose/Disney Channel via Getty

“It was part of my disassociation that I don’t even remember so much of my show that I was on, Lovato explains. “But I do remember how difficult I was to work with because I was in so much pain, and I was hurting.”

Demi Lovato (left) and Raven-Symoné in ‘Child Star’.Tori Time/OBB Media

Symoné, for her part, is understanding — and she was equally understanding back then.

“I mean, you weren’t the nicest person,” she says. “You weren’t like, ‘Welcome!’ You weren’t doing that. But being the type of person I am and that I’ve been in the industry for as long as you, and I understand the glaze over the eyes, I didn’t hold it against you. I just was like, ‘Something’s going on there.’ "

Symoné is just one of the former child stars that Lovato talks to in the documentary.

She also sits down withDrew Barrymore,Kenan Thompson,JoJo Siwa,Christina Ricci,herCamp Rockcostar Alyson Stoner and her sister Madison De La Garza (Desperate Housewives) as they discuss their careers and the dangers of becoming famous too early in life.

Child Staris now streaming on Hulu.

source: people.com