14 DAY TRIAL // Singer and songwriter Ke$ha kicked off the new year by promising herself that she would do everything in her power to get back to good health and self-confidence, so she checked into rehab for eating disorders. Her mother, who is at the same facility dealing with post-traumatic stress, is laying all the blame at her producer and manager’s doorstep.
Reports coming out right after Ke$ha’s admission that she had sought professional help for her problem claimed that she’d told friends that Dr. Luke, her longtime producer, had put so much pressure on her to lose weight that she eventually cracked.
Pebe Sebert is confirming this in a new interview with People magazine but, at the same time, she also blames her daughter’s former manager David Sonenberg for doing the same.
Both made sure Ke$ha understood, one way or the other, that she needed to lose weight and particularly that she needed to drop the extra pounds fast.
While Sonenberg was a bit more nice about it, often calling the singer to “suggest” she tried jogging, according to Ms. Sebert, Dr. Luke would often abuse her verbally, yelling at her that she should do whatever (drugs, shove a fist down her throat were his suggestions) to get skinny fast.
In time, because eating healthy and working out regularly were not returning quick results, Ke$ha became an anorexic and a bulimic. She also became suicidal, her mother says.
“I’ve watched my beautiful, self-confident, brilliant daughter be berated and ridiculed for her looks and weight to the point that she almost died,” she explains.
“The doctors told me her blood pressure and sodium levels were so low, they’d never seen it that low except with someone who’d had a heart attack or stroke. They said it was a miracle she hadn’t already dropped dead on stage,” Sebert adds.
Both Dr. Luke and Sonenberg have denied the claims, but Ke$ha’s mother is sticking to her story. She says that, at this point, her daughter no longer cares what happens to her career because she spoke up.
“At this point, she doesn’t care if she ever makes a record again. She just wants to be healthy and happy,” Sebert adds.