Something to sing about? Demi Lovato made waves when she seemingly called out ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama and their age gap on her “29” single.
“I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a ton of anxiety about putting out this song,” the Sonny With a Chance alum, 29, told Zane Lowe in a Wednesday, August 17, interview for Apple Music. “I just said, ‘I have to go for this. I have to own my truth.’ … Sometimes saying less is more.”
Lovato — who dated the That 70s Show alum, 42, between 2010 and 2016 — hasn’t outright confirmed that Valderrama inspired the new single, but she is standing firm in her account of the events.
“I’m very careful with the way that I answer these questions because I feel like the song says it all,” the Disney Channel alum told Lowe during the Wednesday interview. “I don’t have to say too much, to be honest.”
The song, which dropped on Wednesday, does mention an age-gap romance that seemingly began when she was underage. (Lovato was 17 when she met the Grey’s Anatomy alum, who was 29 at the time.)
“Petal on the vine, too young to drink wine,” Lovato crooned on her “29” single. “Just five years a bleeder, student and teacher. Far from innocent, what the f—k’s consent? Numbers told you not to, but that didn’t stop you.”
The Camp Rock star further reflected about turning 29, which was the same age as her then-partner when they started dating.
“Finally 29, funny, just like you were at the time,” she sang. “Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy. But was it yours or was it mine? 17 [and] 29.”
Valderrama has not publicly commented on Lovato’s new song, but his former partner seemed to further shade his relationship antics on the track.
“Had me in your grip, went beautifully with all my daddy issues and this s—t continues,” she sang. “I see you’re quite the collector. Yeah, you’re 12 years her elder, maybe not it doesn’t matter, but I know f—king better.”
Lovato and the Handy Manny voice actor initially met back in 2010 when she was a teenager.
“[When] I met him and I laid eyes on him for the first time, I was in hair and makeup and he came in and sat down and I was like ‘I love this man and I have to have him,’” the “Sorry Not Sorry” performer said in her 2017 documentary, Simply Complicated. “But I was only 17, so he was like, ‘Get away from me.’ After I turned 18, we began dating. I think it was love at first sight, and I don’t really believe in that, but I believe that it happened.”
She continued at the time: “I don’t know if I’ll lose him for the rest of my life. I think my heart is always with Wilmer, I think it was with Wilmer, I think it is with Wilmer, I think it will be. Because you don’t share six years with somebody and not give them a piece of your heart and vice versa. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to meet anybody that compares to him.”
Lovato and Valderrama eventually went their separate ways in 2016 after six years together. The Florida native has since moved on with Amanda Pacheco, with whom he shares 18-month-old daughter Nakano. The “Confident” musician, for her part, is currently linked to fellow musician Jordan Lutes.
