LIFE

Demi Lovato: Body image issues began at age 3

USATODAY
Demi Lovato sits down with Katie Couric on Couric's syndicated talk show. The episode airs Sept. 24.

Demi Lovato has widely discussed her longtime struggle with eating disorders. But in a new interview with Katie Couric airing Monday on Katie, the X Factor judge reveals that her body image issues started at an unimaginable age:

"I remember being 3 years old in a diaper and rubbing my hand over my stomach ... and I remember thinking in my head, 'I wonder if one day this will ever be flat?' "

Lovato, 20, says that the verbal taunting she experienced as a tween "played more of a toll on me than if I was physically abused in school. I've always said I wished that they had just hit me in the face and gotten it over with because what they said to me sticks to me to this day and it affected me, (turned) me into the person I am today. I was bullied and they called me fat and they called me horrible things."