10 Bombshells from JoJo's Memoir: Sexual Assault, Substance Abuse and More

JoJo, born Joanna Noëlle Levesque, pulled no punches when she wrote her memoir, Over the Influence, which was released on September 17.

"I did not have that on my bingo card for 33, but I'm so happy," she said of her new book during an interview with TIME. "I feel a lot of joy, a lot of excitement, and a lot of gratitude that I get to put my story out there into the world. I hope it hits some people in a way that they're moved by it."

She began her memoir with details about her parents and the early days of her career.

According to JoJo, she started singing as a toddler after being influenced by her former singer mother, Diana, and her late father, Joel. Her parents, however, divorced when she was five, and she became estranged from her dad following his relapse.

Her mom stepped into a manager role but also faced her own demons — so much so, she once threatened to take her own life.

In her memoir, the 33-year-old pop sensation revealed she spent much of her time as a child in church basements while her parents attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. As she witnessed her parents' struggles with abuse, she soon found herself having the same issues as a young adult.

"I was in a full-blown addiction to love and validation, s-- and stimulation," she wrote.

JoJo said she wanted to remain intoxicated as much as possible, so she began consuming alcohol and weed while trying to cope with the pressures of fame.

She continued, "I grew up thinking that I would never end up like my parents, who self-identified as addicts. I felt a bit self-righteous about it, like I was stronger than that. But something my dad said when I was maybe 21 stuck with me: 'Addiction is like Arnold Schwarzenegger in your backyard pumping iron, just waiting for you. It's going to come for you.' So one of the things that I wanted to explore — and just something that I like to talk about — is addiction and what it means."

JoJo's mom helped her join local auditions for TV programs as a child, and their hard work soon paid off as she was given the chance to show off her talent on America's Most Talented Kids, The Rosie O'Donnell Show and Destination Stardom, among others.

At 12, she signed with Blackground Records and released her single "Leave (Get Out)" in 2004.

"[The label] brought up the idea of the ‘Great White Hope' that we'd seen throughout music history, and he told me I was walking in the footsteps of performers like Elvis and Justin Timberlake. Barry also said that it was a fine line I had to walk-knowing that I'm clearly white but ‘sing Black,'" she wrote.

Despite her first song's success, JoJo was upset by her then-label's decision to release it since she "just never saw myself as a pop singer."

She added, "It sounded really different from the album I was making. If you go back and listen to my first album, it's influenced heavily by hip-hop and R&B — 'Leave' kind of stands as an outlier. So it was just confusing to me, and that set in motion a lot of confusion in my life. But I am grateful beyond words for that song."

In her book, JoJo confessed to feeling "a deep sense of guilt" when she went on tour with Usher.

"As a white girl who performed what could be called both pop and R&B, the opportunity to open for a hugely successful, genre-crossing chart topping and iconic artist made me feel incredibly lucky. Validated. Embraced. ‘Invited to the cookout,' as Vince said," she wrote.

Outside the music industry, JoJo also scored the chance to work as an actress.

In the 2006 film Aquamarine, she costarred alongside Sara Paxton and Emma Roberts, whom she called "super lovely and kind." However, the pair reportedly "spent time together more often than they did with me," so she assumed their different upbringings created a gap between them.

The "Can't Handle the Truth" singer revealed she was a little jealous of Roberts' lineage, adding, "How much better would my life have been if I'd been born with (what seemed like) a silver spoon? And a cheetah-fast metabolism?"

Though Aquamarine wasn't rainbows and butterflies, JoJo enjoyed her time filming RV because of her costar Robin Williams.

"He spoke so intelligently and hilariously about any and everything, as if he was channeling from another planet (maybe that's why he was such a natural for the part of Mork in Mork & Mindy)," she wrote in her memoir. "Robin was a class act; the first to arrive on set and the last to leave, and he knew everyone's name and their dog's name, too."

Amid her struggles in her career, JoJo found solace when she became friends with Selena Gomez, whom she met through their mutual friend Francia Raisa.

She recalled in her book, "Sel came to a few of my studio sessions, and I swung by hers to hang out or write together. It was honestly a breath of fresh air to be around someone who had started in this industry at such a young age, just like me, and was still so down to earth and open."

Although they grew closer, JoJo reportedly developed an "occasional twinge of pain or jealousy" because of the differences in their lives and careers. On the other hand, she also felt grateful for her "relative anonymity" in public after imagining how suffocating it must have been for Gomez to get mobbed by her fans all the time.

Between her late teens and early twenties, JoJo reportedly experienced several sexual assaults due to men who "took the way I viewed s-- as an invitation to try to have it with me." One of them was allegedly a producer who tried to get her to drink more so she would not be able to drive.

In another incident, she met a DJ at Katy Perry's New Year's Eve Party and found herself naked and alone in a hotel room the following day. When she saw a used condom in the bathroom trash can, the man reportedly "sounded so surprised as he told me that I was essentially ‘begging him for it.'"

JoJo also filled her memoir with stories about her past romantic relationships, which mostly ended due to infidelity.

In Over the Influence, she spoke about spending time with an ex-fiancé, who got involved with another woman while they were planning their wedding. Although they went to couples counseling, she ended up calling off the engagement.

But the "Do Whatcha Gotta Do" singer also cheated on one of her boyfriends with Adu's soccer friend and slept with him twice.

"I was feeding my addiction and biding my time before telling my man that I was the worst person in the world," JoJo wrote. "The sabotage switch flipped, and I responded to the athlete. I mean, at this point what was I if not a sucker for self-betrayal and overindulgence? Somehow, I convinced myself it didn't matter."