Dove Cameron used to suffer ‘full panic attacks’ over fan attention

Dove Cameron has recalled how she used to suffer “full panic attacks” over fan attention.

During an interview for the Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, the actress-singer reflected on the way she wasn’t at all “prepared” for “overnight fandom” following the release of the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie in 2013.

Dove played dual roles on the show, which ran for four seasons until 2017.

“I also think I surprised myself by being more introverted than I anticipated. You truly don’t know until you’re put into that situation. And then you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m very introverted,'” she told host Dax Shepard. “I didn’t really learn how to navigate fan attention or public attention for many years. I used to have full panic attacks.”

Dove went on to describe how her rise to international stardom coincided with the death of her father, Philip Hosterman, in 2011.

“There was so much going on in my personal life. That’s going to affect any kid. When you’re 15 and that happens, it changes the course of your life,” the 29-year-old continued. “And within the same calendar year, we were in 900 million homes and translated into all these different languages… It was almost like (at) the beginning of my career, I was so shrouded by this heavy cloud that it didn’t hit me that I was a famous person until years later.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, the Boyfriend hitmaker insisted she always enjoyed being on the Disney set and found working on the show to be a “great escape” from her personal life.

“I would come to work every day, and some days would be good and some days would be bad, and everybody was super protective of me. And it was kind of like a volatile time in my life in general, just being a teenager, being on TV,” she added.

Dove will next be seen onscreen in the upcoming thriller TV show, Obsession.