Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) have described non-ischaemic late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) lesions of prognostic importance in various non-ischaemic cardiomyopathies. Ischaemic LGE lesions are prevalent in diabetes (DM), but non-ischaemic LGE lesions have not previously been systematically studied. Methods: 296 patients with type 2 DM (T2DM) and 25 controls underwent echocardiography and CMR including adenosine-stress perfusion, T 1 -mapping and LGE. Findings: 264 patients and all controls completed the CMR. 78.4% of patients with T2DM had no LGE lesions; 11.0% had ischaemic LGE lesions only; 9.5% had non-ischaemic LGE lesions only; and 1.1% had both ischaemic and non-ischaemic lesions. The non-ischaemic LGE lesions were situated mid-myocardial in the basal and lateral or inferolateral part of the left ventricle. The affected segments showed normal and normal contraction. Patients with non-ischaemic LGE lesions in comparison with patients without LGE lesions had increased myocardial mass (150±34 vs. 133±33 g, P=0·02), average E/e’(9·9 IQR8·7-12·6 vs. 8·8 IQR7·4-10·7, P=0·04), left atrial maximal volume (102 IQR84·6-115·2 vs. 91 IQR75·2-100·0 mL, P=0·049), NT-proBNP (8·9 IQR5·9-19·7 vs. 5·9 IQR5·9-10·1 µmol/L, P=0·02) and high-sensitive troponin (15·6 IQR13·0-26·1 vs. 13·0 IQR13·0-14·6 ng/L, P=0·007) and a higher prevalence of retinopathy (48 vs. 25 %, p=0·009) and autonomic neuropathy (52 vs. 30·5%, P=0·005). Interpretation: A severe variant of the diabetic cardiac phenotype is associated with a specific LGE pattern with lesions in the basal and lateral or inferolateral part of the left ventricle. Funding: By NSR hospitals’ local research committee, the regional research committee of Region Zealand, and the Danish Heart Association. Declaration of Interests: We declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval Statement: After written informed consent, patients were included between January 2016 and August 2019. The study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by The Zealand Ethics Committee (SJ-490).