Demi Lovato Uses Dating Apps Just Like Everyone Else
In 2017, many people aren’t finding love in a supermarket aisle or at the bar. According to the Pew Research Center, at least 15 percent of U.S. adults are swiping left and right on dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and others—including celebrities.
In her new documentary, Simply Complicated, singer Demi Lovato revealed that she has turned to social dating apps now that she's a single woman.
Lovato, whose documentary premiered on YouTube Tuesday, has been single for more than a year, after the end of her six-year relationship with former That 70’s Show star Wilmer Valderrama. Lovato may believe that she will “never love anybody like I loved Wilmer,” but the former Disney channel star is using Raya, an exclusive online dating app that’s become a favorite of high-titled executives, athletes and celebrities.
“I am on the dating app with both guys and girls. I am open to human connection, so whether that’s through a male or a female, it doesn’t matter to me,” she said.
Throughout the documentary Lovato shared a number of startling details of her life, from her known battles with drug abuse and addiction—she said she was just 17 and working for Disney when she was first given cocaine—to her struggles with food and body acceptance, which she still battles. She's been sober for the past five years, but the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer battled her eating disorder while filming the documentary, which she said was due to missing Valderrama.
“When I was in a relationship with Wilmer I went three years without [bingeing and] purging. And when we broke up, that’s one of the first things I did,” she said. “When I feel lonely, my heart feels hungry. And then I end up bingeing. And I don’t know how to figure out how to be alone [and not binge and purge].”
A year after their breakup, Lovato has found more productive ways to cope, like with martial arts, which she practices regularly, and also by dating and meeting new people. She's enjoying the single life and experiencing the same jitters most do when going out with new people.
“First dates are so nerve-wracking. I didn’t have that before. I mean, not in so long. And the butterflies of that, the sweat on my hands, the fucking sweaty palms. It’s so much fun.”
