NEWSDemi Lovato Admits It Took Her a While to Come Out to Her Mom and Stepdad: 'I Didn't Feel Like I Was Ready'
July 18 2023, Published 10:25 a.m. ET
Demi Lovato recalled the moment she came out to her mom and stepdad when she was in her mid-twenties.
"I came from a Christian background and grew up q**** and didn't tell people until I felt comfortable with it," she said while speaking to SiriusXM. "It took me until I was 25 to come out to my mom. At the time I was bisexual and then I realized I was pansexual. It took me a while."
The brunette beauty released her hit song "Cool for the Summer" in 2015 — but she hadn't told her family the true meaning behind the bop.
"It's, like, very obvious, but I didn't feel like I was ready," she shared, referring to some of the lyrics such as "Got a taste for the cherry I just need to take a bite." "One day I was about to go to a show. I was sitting on a plane and I was with my stepdad, who's basically my dad, and I was like, 'Hey, I need to tell you something.' I was like, 'I like girls too.' And he was like, 'Yeah, I know. You have 'Cool for the Summer' out.'"
Fortunately, the Disney Channel alum's mom, Dianna De La Garza, had a similar reaction to the news.
"I was getting ready to go on a date with a girl, and I didn't know if I would be photographed or what would happen and I really liked this girl. I was like, 'I think it's time to tell my mom in case it becomes serious,'" she recalled. "I sat my mom down and I was like, 'I need to talk to you.' I said, 'I am about to go on a date with a girl and I just wanted you to know and hear it from me that I do like girls too.' She just almost started crying and was like, 'I just want you to be happy.'"
Lovato knows how lucky she is to have such a supportive inner circle since "there are so many parents that don't respond that way and it breaks my heart."
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Over the years, Lovato has used her platform to continue to speak out about the LGBTQ+ community.
"Providing that energy and being a part of the community is so important to me, and providing a safe space is so important too," she said. "That's why I post on social media all the time about being queer and what it means. Things that are in the public eye, what's going on, current events, I post about it because it's really important to me."
