Demi Lovato announced on Wednesday morning (May 19) that after the past year of reflection they now identify as non-binary and are changing their pronouns to they/them. The “very personal” news came as part of their new podcast, “4D with Demi Lovato,” in which the 28-year-old singer explained, “Over the past year and a half I’ve been doing some healing and self-reflective work. And through this work, I’ve had the revelation that I identify as nonbinary.”
Lovato said that changing their pronouns to they/them “best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am and still am discovering.” The first episode of the podcast delved into what this change means to them and what it may look like for other people.
“I want to make it clear that I’m still learning and coming into myself, and I don’t claim to be an expert or a spokesperson,” said Lovato, who shared the pod episode with Alok Vaid-Menon, a gender nonconforming writer/performer and friend who engaged in a conversation about pronouns in which Lovato said they understand that some people might occasionally “slip” and use their former pronouns and that it might take time to get used to.
“I think it’s important because I want to use these pronouns that feel right to me. I also just don’t want people to be so afraid of messing up that they don’t try to use them,” Lovato said. New episodes of the podcast — which appears on Apple Podcasts, Audacy, Spotify and everywhere podcasts are available to stream — will drop on Wednesdays.
Vaid-Menon attempted to de-mystify the language barrier around pronouns in the episode, reminding listeners that “all language” is made up and that it evolves over time to address topics more thoroughly and allow us to communicate better. “This is not about grammar or language. This is about power,” they said. “Because we have a society that is so homophobic and transphobic, they’re going to basically try to delegitimize us in every way. That’s why I believe in non-binary joy, because we are showing the world, ’Okay, you think that we’re these like miserable, self-hate — no baby, we are are free, and happy, and singing, and loving, and living.”
Lovato, who earlier this year released the album Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over and an accompanying YouTube docuseries in which they delved into a near-fatal 2018 drug overdose, revealed on the pod that the overdose set them on a journey of discovery. “In 2018 when I overdosed, I feel like the reason why that happened was because I was ignoring my truth, and I was suppressing who I really am in order to please stylists, or team members, or this or that, or even fans that wanted me to be the sexy, feminine pop star in the, in the leotard and look a certain way, you know?” they said.
“I thought that was what I was supposed to be and now I just realize that it’s so much more important to live your truth than to ever suppress yourself because that’s the type of stuff that happens when you do.” Back in March, Lovato appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and told the host that they identified as pansexual.
“I heard someone call the LGBTQIA+ community the ‘alphabet mafia,’ and I was like, ‘That’s it. That’s what I’m going with,’” they told Rogan. “I’m part of the alphabet mafia and proud.”
See Lovato’s tweet below.
