- Demi Lovato said on "The Howard Stern Show" that she dated older men because of her "daddy issues."
- "I look back on the past and think, 'That's gross,'" she said.
Demi Lovato said she is over her "daddy issues" when it comes to relationships.
Appearing on SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show" on Monday, Lovato opened up about her complicated relationship with her father, and how it impacted her romantic relationships.
"I think what I went through is that I had a phase of dating older men and dating older guys. I went through a phase when I was attracted to older guys because of my daddy issues, obviously," Lovato said.
Lovato went on to say that she looks back at her past relationships with older men, some of whom were more than 10 years older than her, negatively.
"For me, I was a teenager. And so to me, that's gross. If you are 50 and 60, you're fine," the "Heart Attack" singer said. "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."
She added: "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.'"
Lovato is currently dating Jutes, a musician who co-wrote three songs on her latest album "Holy Fvck." The couple went public in August 2022, and the 31-year-old singer told Stern that they have talked about marriage.
"He came in to write on one of my sessions and I was in the studio and was immediately attracted to him. I texted my friends on the side and was like, 'He's so hot!'" Lovato said of their first encounter.
"Now I'm at a place where I'm in an amazing relationship and my boyfriend is a year older than me. We're growing together and it feels so healthy," she added.
Last year, fans speculated that Lovato's song "29," which appears on "Holy Fvck," was about her previous relationship with "That '70s Show" star Wilmer Valderrama, with whom she had a 12-year age gap.
The relationship began when Valderrama was 29 and Lovato was 17.
"Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy / But was it yours or was it mine? / 17, 29," Lovato sings on the track.
However, the "Heart Attack" singer refused to confirm whether the song was about Valderrama in interviews.
"When I turned 29, I remember I was on vacation and I just realized I'm 29 now, and it put things into perspective. It put everything into perspective," Lovato told Apple Music's Zane Lowe in August 2022. "And I'm very careful with the way that I answer these questions because I feel like the song says it all."
The same month, Lovato said during an appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast that she decided to release the track because the message was so important to her.
"If you're a young girl and you think that it's sexy or fun to date older men, it's not OK unless you're of age," Lovato said. "It's portrayed as like, 'Oh, you scored someone older. That's cool.' And actually, that's weird."