Demi Lovato looked up to her ‘Sonny with a Chance’ co-star Tiffany Thornton when she was struggling with life in the spotlight.
The 27-year-old singer starred as Sonny Munroe in the Disney Channel show, and has credited Tiffany – who played Sonny’s pal Tawni Hart in the show, as well as taking the lead role in spin-off show ‘So Random!’ – with being her "biggest inspiration" after she went to rehab for the first time, because Tiffany could "deal with all the pressures of being a woman on TV".
Speaking to 34-year-old Tiffany – as well as her other ‘Sonny with a Chance’ co-stars – during a virtual reunion that took place on Zoom on Saturday (25.04.20), Demi said: "I went to rehab – several times. When I went away to treatment for the first time, you were my biggest inspiration coming out of it because you dealt with all of those pressures of being a woman on TV. I looked at that as, ‘I wish I had that so bad.’
"Yes, I probably was happier in my head with whatever I looked like at the time. But I’m so much happier now with the mentality that you have. I look back now and I’m like, ‘Man, it’s a shame that we wasted any energy on what we wore on set.’ "
Demi left the Disney show in 2011 after just two seasons after feeling "overworked", and the cast members continued without her in the form of spin-off show ‘So Random!’.
She added: "I wasn’t sleeping and was so miserable and angry too because I felt like I was being overworked. When I left, you don’t expect your show to go on without you, but it did.
"But I couldn’t have been happier for everybody. I just wasn’t in a period of time when I was ready to be on camera again. I could not go back into that environment and there were other things that factored into it."
And whilst the singer "misses" working with her co-stars, she would rather "start a whole new project" with them as she doesn’t want to revisit the old show.
Addressing the whole group – which also included Allisyn Ashley Arm, Doug Brochu, Sterling Knight, Audrey Whitby, Matthew Scott Montgomery, Shayne Topp, and Damien Haas – she said: "I would rather just start a whole new project with all of you. I had the best time with you guys and when I think about the show, I miss you guys. And I miss spending time with you and joking and going to Kitchen 24 on our lunch breaks! If we were ever to do anything, I think we should just do a whole new thing."
Demi Lovato looked up to Tiffany Thornton during rehab stint
