Demi Lovato was born in Dallas, Texas to Patrick Lovato and Dianna Hart. Her mother, Dianna, was a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys during the 1982-83 season, and was also a country music singer.
Demi's favorite band is Paramore. Her favorite song by them is "
Born For This."
Lovato is a skilled piano and guitar player. She began playing the piano when she was seven years old, the same age she was when she began her acting career - she played Angela on Barney and Friends for seasons 7 and 8. Her best friend Selena Gomez was also on the show at the same time.
Demi was home-schooled after being bullied at public school. In a Mean Girls moment, many students signed a petition that said, "We all hate Demi Lovato." As a result of the bullying, she became bulimic and developed other emotional issues, which she overcame in late 2010 at a treatment facility in Illinois. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Demi Lovato toured with the Jonas Brothers on a couple of occasions. She has stated that Joe Jonas is her best friend and the couple dated for a short while. Jonas called it off because he said their friendship was more important. Lovato and the Jonas Brothers also starred in the two Disney Channel Camp Rock movies together.
She is partly of Mexican descent, but doesn't speak Spanish. This didn't stop her from recording a Spanish version of her song "Skyscraper" called "Rascacielo," which she performed at the American Latino Media Arts Awards with the help of a teleprompter.
Demi has gotten various tattoos over the years, including some on her hands. At one point she had the words "peace" and "rock 'n' roll" tattooed on her middle fingers. "One's like 'f--- yeh, rock and roll!' And the other's a reminder not to flip people off when I'm driving," she told the British edition of Company magazine.
Lovato's fans are known as Lovatics. They won MTV's "The Big & Best of 2012: Last Fans Standing" contest, topping
Lady Gaga's Little Monsters and
Britney Spears' Team Britney army.
In 2013 Demi Lovato compiled an inspirational book titled Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year. The guide to helping others through tough times contains affirmations for every day of the year accumulated from Demi's own Twitter posts as well as various inspirational quotes. The publication topped the New York Times Advice, How-to & Miscellaneous best-sellers list.
After Lovato punched female backup dancer Alex Welch in October 2010 while on tour with The Jonas Brothers, her management and family staged an intervention. Once she completed inpatient treatment at Timberline Knolls in Illinois, Lovato revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. "I remember smiling and thinking, 'Great. OK, so there's not anything wrong with me as a person,'" she recalled. "It's actually just a condition that I have and I can do something to fix it. I don't have to be like this forever."
Demi Lovato was crowned Texas State Cinderella Miniature Miss 2000 when she was 8 years old, and continued to compete over the next few years. "I started in pageants, so I had to adapt to the princess life," she later joked.
Demi Lovato earned her Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt in record time between 2016-17. The singer halved the usual two-year process of graduating from basic white belt status to blue.
Lovato has long hinted at being attracted to other women, including shooting the video for her 2014 single "
Really Don't Care" on a float during Los Angeles' Pride parade, and singing of hooking up with girls on 2015's "
Cool For The Summer." The singer eventually came out as pansexual during a March 2021 interview on
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, describing her sexuality as fluid.
On July 24, 2018, Lovato was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after an opioid overdose. She suffered multiple strokes, a heart attack, organ failure, and lasting vision problems.She recounted her near-death experience in the 2021 four-part YouTube documentary
Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil. Lovato has recorded several songs, including "
Sober," "
Anyone," and "
Dancing With The Devil," that recount her descent into addiction.
When she was a child, Demi Lovato was a huge fan of Kelly Clarkson, who won American Idol in 2002 when Demi was 10. Lovato used the email littlekelly@yahoo.com when she was young.
Demi Lovato married her longtime partner, Jordan "Jutes" Lutes, in a California ceremony on May 25, 2025. The wedding took place in the late afternoon and was attended by their closest friends and family. Lovato wore a custom Vivienne Westwood gown for the ceremony with a corset bodice and a cathedral-length veil. Paris Hilton, who was one of the guests, did a DJ set at the reception.
