Entertainment
Demi Lovato hits back at Piers Morgan’s ‘bullying’ claims after calling out local frozen yoghurt shop over diet messaging
Demi Lovato appears to have responded to Piers Morgan’s claims that she ‘bullied’ a local frozen yoghurt shop over their diet messaging.
The Heart Attack singer publicly called out The Bigg Chill on social media after coming across ‘tons of diet foods’ when she visited their store over the weekend. She used the hashtag ‘#DietCultureVultures’ and urged the business to ‘do better’.
Her Instagram post prompted Piers, 56, to brand her a ‘repulsively arrogant woman’ in his latest Daily Mail column, while accusing her of ‘attacking’ the shop.
Demi, 28, has since addressed the backlash in an Instagram video, in which she explained: ‘I am really outspoken about the things that I believe in. I have to remember that sometimes my messaging can lose its meaning when I get emotional.
‘I am human, I am somebody who is very passionate about what I believe in and I’ve lived through enough to know when to speak up for people who don’t have a voice.
‘I messaged this fro-yo place. Originally I wanted to make a point and I wanted to call out behaviours that didn’t sit right with me. As someone who is in recovery from an eating disorder, I still to this day have a hard time walking into a frozen yoghurt shop, ordering yoghurt, being content with it and keeping it down.’
The singer said that she would have understood if the in-store messaging made it clear that the diet foods were for specific health issues and dietary choices, such as those who were ‘celiac’ and ‘vegan’.
Demi admitted that she ‘definitely jumps to conclusions and probably shouldn’t have gone about this the way that I have’, adding that she’s willing to work with the fro-yo store to ‘get the messaging right’.
She continued: ‘I’m protective of the little girl inside of me that didn’t get that representation at a young age of someone saying all of this diet stuff is not worth it, you’re worth more than that. Also, I’m standing up for anyone who struggles in LA.
‘The thing about overcoming my addictions, my drug addictions, is that I can walk away from that and never touch it again in my life… but I have to eat three times a day. This is something that will be with me for the rest of my life.
‘I’m human and I talk about my struggles and I’m passionate, so I’m sorry that I got the messaging wrong. I’m sorry if I disappointed some people. I’m not coming at this small business with a lot of followers, that’s not what I’m doing here.’
Appearing to address Piers’ criticism, Demi stated: ‘My intuition said speak about it so I did and I feel good about that. What I don’t feel good about is some of the way the message has got misconstrued.
‘It’s really important that everyone understands that my intentions were not to bully a small business, that was not it. I walked in, it was so triggering that I left without fro-yo and made me really sad.’
She concluded: ‘Being a celebrity is exhausting sometimes, so today… I’m going to work… and you won’t be hearing from me today because I need a mental health day.’
In her original post calling out the store, Demi wrote on Sunday: ‘Finding it extremely hard to order froyo from [The Bigg Chill] when you have to walk past tons of sugar-free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter.
‘Do Better Please.’
Adding the tag ‘#DietCultureVultures’, she added: ‘So, I think I’m gonna have to make that hashtag a thing. I will be calling harmful messaging from brands or companies that perpetuate a society that not only enables but praises disordered eating.’
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