New doc reveals Donna Summer time’s non-public hell: ‘My life had no which means’

When Donna Summer time was feeling all of the love from the world because the Queen of Disco within the ’70s, the suicidal singer hit all-time low.

“Probably the most dismal days of my existence had been on the peak of my profession,” says the late legend within the new documentary “Like to Love You, Donna Summer time,” which premieres on HBO and HBO Max Could 20. 

The truth is, whereas Summer time was driving excessive from the success of her breakout hit, the orgasmic basic “Love to Love You Baby,” she was enduring an abusive relationship with artist Peter Mühldorfer. One extreme beating even left her unconscious, with a black eye and damaged ribs.

“I hit her, and I by no means may forgive myself,” says Mühldorfer within the doc.

And having grown up in a deeply spiritual family — her father smacked her for carrying pink nail polish as a result of “that’s what whores wore” — Summer time was extremely conflicted about her picture as a intercourse goddess from hits corresponding to “Like to Love You Child,” “I Feel Love” and later “Hot Stuff.” In actuality, she was extra church woman than “Bad Girl.”

“You’re me, however what you see shouldn’t be what I’m,” she says within the movie, which is co-directed by her daughter Brooklyn Sudano and Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams. “What number of roles do I’ve to play in my very own life?”

Summer time was additionally carrying across the ache and trauma from having been sexually abused by her pastor as a toddler.

“He did the satan’s work higher than most,” says her brother Ricky Gaines within the doc. “It turned a defining second in her life.”

All of her psychological struggles led to Summer time nearly leaping out of a window in her New York lodge room in 1976. However her foot turned entangled in a window curtain as she approached the ledge, and at that second a maid entered.

“One other 10 seconds, and I’d have been gone,” Summer time — who died at 63 from lung most cancers in 2012 — later mentioned.

“I felt God may by no means forgive me as a result of I had failed him. I used to be decadent, I used to be silly, I used to be a idiot. I simply determined that my life had no which means.”