Singer JoJo says she was forced on a 500-calorie a day diet and struggled with addiction as a child star
SINGER JoJo has revealed she was put on an extreme 500 calorie-a-day diet by her former record label.
The Leave (Get Out) hitmaker revealed how Blackground execs had her using appetite suppressing injections when she was just 18 years old in order to help her look "healthy".
Speaking candidly about the experience in an interview with UpRoxx, she explained: "When I was 18 I remember being sat down in the Blackground office and the president of the label being like, ‘We just want you to look as healthy as possible.'
The Baby It's You singer continued: "And I was like, ‘I'm actually the picture of health. I look like a healthy girl who eats and is active. I don't think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.'
"He's like, ‘No, I wouldn't say that.'"
JoJo, 29, added: "I ended up working with a nutritionist who had me on a 500-calorie diet a day. I was taking these injections that make you have no appetite.
"I was like, 'Let me see how thin I could become because maybe then they will put out an album. Maybe I'm so disgusting that nobody wants to see me in the video and they can't even look at me.'
She admitted: "That's really what I thought."
The Too Little, Too Late hitmaker then found herself turning to drugs and alcohol as she continued to struggle with her label - who at the time where failing for release her music despite the fact she had followed all their rules.
JoJo explained: "There were definitely nights that I stumbled out of clubs and that I blacked out. I was just completely reckless, did not care. I needed to be buzzed to feel okay.
"I would go to the edge, stand on my tiptoes on the edge and then come back. I should be dead."
The singer managed to avoid going further into a battle with addiction because she didn't want to end up like her father, who passed away in 2015 while battling addiction himself.
JoJo was signed by Blackground Records' founder Barry Hankerson, who was Aaliyah's uncle, when she was just 12 years old.
After her first two albums, 2004's Jojo and 2006's The High Road, the singer was desperate to release new records under the restrictive contract.
JoJo ended up taking legal action against the record label in a bid to be released from her contract.
After a lengthy legal battle, the label settled in 2009.
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JoJo went on to re-record her first two albums and singles and has now launched her own record label Clover through a partnership with Warner Records.
The singer is set to drop her next album, Good to Know, this spring.
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