What you need to know
When she was just 15 years old, Cameron received news that her father had died by suicide a few months after visiting Los Angeles.
Dove Cameron said she developed a “serious phone phobia” after learning of her father’s death over the phone.
The 30-year-old singer opened up about the tragic moment in her life on the Wednesday, Feb. 4, episode of Alex Cooper’s podcast, “Call Her Daddy.”
She recalled that when she was just 15 years old, she received news that her father had died by suicide a few months after visiting Los Angeles. She said the day she learned of his death, she received a message from a family friend asking if her mother was around.
Since her mother was out of town, a family friend advised her to tell her mother to contact the family. “I knew it,” the Disney alum said. “I can’t say how I knew, but it wasn’t a normal interaction. She had no reason to talk to me.”
Gilbert Flores/Variety, via Getty Images
Cameron’s mother then returned home and called her family to tell them that her father, Phil, was “no longer with us.”
“I had a panic attack because it’s the most uncontrollable emotion,” she said. “Actually, all three of my big losses were over the phone, which I think is pretty standard…but I think this is why I have so much anxiety about phone calls.”
Reflecting on his reaction to the tragic news, Cameron said he “ran out of the room”. She continued to say “I couldn’t breathe” and said she went into “animal mode”.
“You fight, flight, or freeze,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to pour out my soul. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
The singer, who is also known for her roles in Descendants and Schmiga Doon!, spoke to PEOPLE in 2023 about revisiting past traumas.
While talking about her debut graduate, Alchemist Vol. 1, she told PEOPLE, “My friends and family were always worried and stressed about me. As a Capricorn, and as someone who has been severely traumatized, I feel like I was so committed to work at such a young age that I hadn’t built a community or a life or anything else outside of work.”
Stefan Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis/Getty
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
“I ended up here, and I think this happens to most people in their 20s, where you have to take stock of all the things you’ve been ignoring, reconsider, redirect, reorganize. It’s like emotional spring cleaning,” said Cameron, who lost two of her closest friends in addition to her father.
“I had to go into the attic and go through and look at all the stuff that I wasn’t working with and put it down on paper. That was really, really good for me as a human being,” she said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, emotional distress, substance use issues, or just want to talk, call or text 988 or chat 24/7 at 988lifeline.org.
