Site last updated: Saturday, October 12, 2024

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Singer JoJo reveals eating disorder, ‘full-blown addiction’ to love and sex

PEOPLE
JoJo

JoJo’s new memoir details the singer’s “full-blown addiction” to love and sex, as well as her experience with a binge-eating disorder.

The 33-year-old “Leave (Get Out)” singer, real name Joanna Noëlle Levesque, reveals in “Over the Influence” the darker sides of her relationships with people, food and herself.

“I was in a full-blown addiction to love and validation, sex and stimulation,” JoJo writes of her time in 2016, per Us Weekly.

This led her to eventually cheat on her boyfriend at the time, former pro soccer player Freddy Adu, with one of his friends.

“I was feeding my addiction and biding my time before telling my man that I was the worst person in the world,” she writes in the memoir, released Tuesday. “The sabotage switch flipped … What was I if not a sucker for self-betrayal and overindulgence? Somehow, I convinced myself it didn’t matter.”

JoJo’s need for validation extended to her career, for which she “came so close to doing (expletive) near anything,” even if that meant having a PR relationship while in a real romance — “as long as no one got hurt.”

“How gross,” she later felt. “What was I thinking???”

JoJo also opens up about her eating disorder, noting that while she sometimes “wished [she] had the willpower and discipline to be anorexic,” she ultimately turned to binge eating.

“Binge eating was counterproductive to my entire life structure, and yet, at the end of the night, I feel like a bottomless pit and wanted to gobble up everything in sight like Ms. Pac-Man, trying desperately to fill the void I felt from not being good enough.”

JoJo announced the book in June, saying it was dedicated to “anyone who has ever felt disillusioned, disconnected, but underneath it all DETERMINED to find themselves and a new way of being.”

———

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus sued for allegedly copying Bruno Mars to make ‘Flowers’

Miley Cyrus can buy herself flowers … and a lawyer, which the pop star now needs after she was sued for allegedly copying Bruno Mars in her 2023 hit “Flowers.”

Cyrus, 31, was sued for copyright infringement Monday by Tempo Music Investments, which now owns a copyright share in Mars’ 2013 song, “When I Was Your Man.” The singer, born Peter Gene Hernandez, is not listed as a plaintiff, according to the court documents obtained by People.

“It is undeniable based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man,'” says the lawsuit, which claims that many people have “recognized the striking similarities” between the tracks.

“Flowers,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for eight weeks, allegedly “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of its predecessor.

As part of the suit, the company has called on Cyrus and her fellow defendants and “Flowers” songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack, to stop reproducing, distributing or publicly performing the Grammy-winning song, per People.

It’s unclear how much Tempo Music Investments is seeking in damages.

Believed to reference the demise of her marriage with ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, Cyrus’ “Flowers” spent 55 total weeks on the Billboard charts. The song earned Cyrus her first two Grammys, for record of the year and best pop solo performance.

“When I Was Your Man,” meanwhile, topped the chart for one week and spent 35 total weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. Mars received a Grammy nomination for best pop solo performance with the song.

———

Chappell Roan

Chappell Roan opens up about mental health struggles during rise to fame

Chappell Roan has gone public about her battles with bipolar II disorder. From an exhausting bout of hypomania to a planned suicide, the TikTok influencer turned pop star told Rolling Stone all about the struggles she’s faced. During her rise to fame, she had to rise above.

The Missouri native, 26, was diagnosed four years ago. In 2020, her fans were already well familiar with her first single “Good Hurt.” “Pink Pony Club” had taken the internet by storm. But four months later, her label Atlantic Records dropped her. Cut off, she fell short of taking her music mainstream.

After receiving her diagnosis that year, the Billboard Hot 100 hit maker ended a four-year relationship and moved back to her hometown of Willard, Mo. She was on a mission to rediscover herself and reconcile with her difficult childhood. To start the healing, her family entered therapy together.

“It saved us,” she told Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos. “I was like, ‘I can’t go my whole life hating my parents for not knowing how to handle a really, really sick child.’ I was just miserable.”

More than 20% of adults in the United States live with a mental illness, and millions suffer from bipolar disorder. The condition causes unusual shifts in mood swings, concentration and energy levels.

Bouts of depression, episodes of hypomania — bipolar II disorder comes with a cost. And for many, it can feel like too much to pay. As many as 60% of those affected attempt suicide. And a 2023 study discovered that being diagnosed with bipolar disorder puts a person at a far greater risk of premature death than smoking.

In the summer of 2021, Roan’s greatest mental health challenge to date was creeping out of the dark.

Working at a drive-through, as a part-time nanny and a production assistant, she spent 2020 picking up the pieces. The following year began as a fruitful one. She and her longtime songwriter, record producer Daniel Nigro had reconnected. At the time, Dan Nigro had made it big with another pop star, Olivia Rodrigo. The two began rekindling her music career by working on her first songs as an independent artist.

Roan moved back to L.A. in 2021 and got to work. “Naked in Manhattan” and “My Kink Is Karma” soon followed, but something else was also on the rise. When not working on her music, Roan was cultivating a massive TikTok following through jokes, memes and more. Hypomania — a period of extreme mood swings and hyperactivity — had taken hold.

“I started gaining a lot of followers when I was being really insane on TikTok,” she said.

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Roan continued. “I was on the incorrect meds. I had the energy and the delusion and realized that this app is fueled off of mental illness.”

Something much darker was also rising to the surface. Having planned how she would do it for the first time, her suicidal thoughts had reached a near breaking point. That’s when she entered outpatient therapy.

“I realized I can’t live like this,” she explained. “I can’t live being so depressed or feel so lost that I want to kill myself. I just got my (expletive) together.”

Had she reached that dark place during the height of her fame — the last couple years — the pop star feared the worst would have happened.

“I would not have been able to handle any of this even a year ago today,” Roan continued. “It would’ve just been too much.”

But she prevailed. By the end of 2022, she had debuted her first album and sold out a headlining tour. And she’s faced more mental battles since, including an expletive-filled confrontation at last week's MTV Video Music Awards. But the pop star continues to storm the charts.

From combined wire services

More in People

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS