Demi Lovato does not want their future kids pursuing fame before 18: ‘I want you to have a childhood’

Demi Lovato and Jordan Lutes

Ahead of their upcoming documentary Child Star, Demi Lovato has spoken about their wishes for their future children, specifically, about them avoiding child fame and having a childhood.

The singer, who is non-binary and uses they/them/she/her pronouns, has admitted that she wouldn’t let her potential kids pursue music or acting until they are over the age of 18, given her personal experience of navigating stardom as a child. 

The Hulu film Child Star features them interviewing fellow celebrities who shot to fame as minors including Raven-Symoné, Christina Ricci, Drew Barrymore, and JoJo Siwa, with Lovato saying they would not want their future child to go through the same struggles. 

Asked how she would handle her future child wanting to become a performer, the singer told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’d say, ‘Let’s study music theory and prepare you for the day you turn 18, because it’s not happening before that. Not because I don’t believe in you or love you or want you to be happy, but because I want you to have a childhood, the childhood that I didn’t have.'”

Lovato was thrust into the limelight at the tender age of 10 when they landed their first screen role on Barney & Friends (the same age at which fellow Disney star Selena Gomez also landed on the show). 

The star, who is engaged to partner Jordan “Jutes” Lutes, then went on to have her breakthrough with Disney Channel’s Camp Rock at just 15 years old, in which she acted alongside an 18-year-old Joe Jonas, which skyrocketed her to international fame. 

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The star has been open about their sobriety journey, after revealing they first started abusing drugs around the age of 13 after being prescribed opiates, as well as struggling with alcohol abuse.

In the interview, she added that being the main household earner also made things difficult in her family. “Having the child be the breadwinner almost inherently changes the dynamic of a family, and then it becomes, like, how do you discipline that breadwinner?”

Child Star is coming to Hulu on 17 September.

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