Demi Lovato Called Out ‘Gross Older Men’ Years After Dating A That 70s Show Star
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They dated for six years from 2010 to 2016, but Demi Lovato and Wilmer Valderrama’s age gap is something she’s reflected on recently.
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Valderrama played Fez on the popular sitcom That 70s Show, which ran for eight seasons, from August 1998 to May 2006. Lovato’s comments come amid somewhat of a reckoning for the culture on the show, where Valderrama’s co-star Danny Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life for the rape of two women in the mid-2000s.
Not only that, but in a joint interview on The Rosie O’Donnell Show from April of 2002, fellow stars of the show Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher described her first few days on set and how the script called for “making out” in the scene. “I never kissed a guy … I was a 14-year-old little girl and I was extremely scared for my life,” Kunis said. “Danny goes, ‘Dude, I’ll give you $10 if you French kiss her,” Kunis said, turning to Kutcher and asking, ‘What, if you stick your tongue in my mouth?”
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Kutcher added: “I’m like thinking this is slightly illegal, right,” explaining that Masterson wagered him $20 that he “wouldn’t do it.” O’Donnell joked, “And then the cops showed up and you got arrested, pretty much.” Kunis then explained, “I didn’t let him … he never got his tongue in my mouth.” Kutcher then said he actually believed Kunis was 15 at the time, “There’s a big difference—that one year makes the whole world change.”
In her 2017 documentary, Simply Complicated, Lovato recalled her relationship with Valderrama, whom she dated on and off throughout their time together. “I think it was love at first sight,” she said. “We connected on a level that I’ve never connected with anybody before. He was just my rock, my everything.” But it now appears she’s seeing it through a different light.
Demi Lovato’s response to Wilmer Valderrama’s age gap
In an interview with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM, per Entertainment Weekly, Lovato reflected on her relationships with older men, though didn’t mention any by name. Valderrama, who she met when she was just 17 and he was 29. They confirmed their relationship after she turned 18.
“I think what I went through is I had a phase of dating older men and dating older guys because of my daddy issues, obviously. And now I’m at a place where I’m in an amazing relationship,” she said in the interview on September 13, 2023. “I can say with confidence that my daddy issues aren’t anything that are inside of me anymore, and I think there’s a few signs to that. I’m with a partner that is my age, essentially. I look back on the past and think, ‘That’s gross.’”
She continued: “For me, I was a teenager, and so, to me, that’s gross. If you are 50 and 60, you’re fine. Even 30 and 40, that’s not gross at all. But I think that when you’re in those development years, you should absolutely not be with somebody that is older than you by that much. It’s just unhealthy and toxic.”
Wilmer Valderrama’s Howard Stern interview
While Valderrama has stayed mum on Masterson’s rape conviction—he was not among the That 70s Show cast that wrote letters of support, asking the judge for leniency in his sentencing—but a pretty unfavorable interview with Howard Stern has resurfaced in the days following Masterson’s court appearance.
In 2006, Valderrama spoke of his womanizing before he met his now-fiancée, Amanda Pacheco, bragging about what Ashlee Simpson was like in bed, boasting that he took Mandy Moore’s virginity, claiming “The sex with Mandy was good, but it wasn’t like warm apple pie.” Ew.
He also engaged in banter about “roofies” with Stern (the slang term for a commonly used date-rape drug Rohypnol that makes someone drowsy and disoriented), and rated Jennifer Love Hewitt and eight out of 10 for sex, boasting about being “cursed with this gift” of a giant penis.
As Moore phrased it in an interview with Elle shortly after, she described the interview as “utterly tacky, not even true, and it hurt my feelings because I like him.”
Danny Masterson gets 30 to life
Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo issued a scathing assessment of Masterson before she dispatched him to prison. “Mr. Masterson, I know that you’re sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence and thus no doubt feeling victimized by a justice system that has failed you,” she said, per NBC News. “But Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said he applauded the women for “coming forward and participating in this process,” adding that he hoped it encouraged others to come forward about instances of abuse in Hollywood. “My hope is that this sentence will somehow bring them peace and that their bravery will be an example to others,” he said. “One of my top priorities is to ensure that Los Angeles will no longer be a hunting ground for Hollywood elite who feel entitled to prey on women.”
Shawn Holley, a lawyer for Masterson, told reporters outside the courtroom that she was “very disappointed” in the sentence, noting that a team of lawyers had reviewed the case and found “a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues” that they planned to use in appeals. “Though we have great respect for the jury, and for our system of justice, sometimes they get it wrong — and that’s what happened here,” Holley said, noting that Masterson maintains his innocence.
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