Demi Lovato. (LISA O’CONNOR/AFP/Getty)
Demi Lovato has said she “fooled” herself into getting engaged to actor Max Ehrich as part of a desperate bid to “prove to the world” that she was OK.
The singer started dating Ehrich in March 2020. They announced their engagement in July 2020, and broke up two months later.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Demi Lovato said she “cared deeply” for Ehrich, but has since come to see the engagement for what it was.
“I really had myself fooled, because it was the safe and expected thing,” Lovato said.
Regardless if drama is happening or not, I am too gay to marry a man right now.
“Obviously I cared deeply about the person, but there was something inside of me that was like, ‘I have to prove to the world that I’m OK.’ Now that I’m not engaged or married and I’m okay, I’m like, ‘Wow. Isn’t that so much more empowering?’ It’s not this false sense of security.”
Demi Lovato realised she didn’t ‘need’ to get married
The “Skyscraper” singer also said the size of her engagement ring gave her a reality check.
“The size of that ring, it made it really real. The second it was off, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m good. I don’t need that.’ I just don’t need an object on my finger to make me feel like I’ve got my s**t together. It looks like stability, but it doesn’t mean that it is.”
Lovato went on to explain that she doesn’t “grow through stability” and that she actually likes living in “fluidity”.
“It’s not [being] stuck and stagnant in an ideal or a tradition that was placed upon us by the patriarchy,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lovato spoke about the struggle she faced in embracing her queerness. Following her relationship with Ehrich, she realised that she is “just too queer” to have a long-term relationship with a cis, straight man.
“Regardless if drama is happening or not, I am too gay to marry a man right now,” she said.
“I don’t know if that will change in 10 years and I don’t know if that’ll never change, but I love accepting myself.”
She added: “I’ve always known I was hella queer, but I have fully embraced it.”