In July, Demi Lovato announced her engagement to Max Ehrich, whom she had been dating for less than four months at that point. Considering Demi’s troubled personal history, a lot of us kind of halfway cringed when we saw the Fiance Rollout, complete with completely staged “proposal” photos at the beach. It just seemed like it was way too fast and maybe she didn’t really know the guy. Little did we know that the biggest problem would end up being… Max’s old thirst tweets to Selena Gomez. Like, seriously, Max spent years trying to get Selena’s attention on social media.
So, yesterday, Page Six did a story about how Max and Demi were “struggling to make their relationship work” and a source told the outlet “It’s not over yet, but it’s on its way there.” Apparently, Demi’s family members unfollowed Max on Instagram this week AND Demi and Max haven’t “liked” each other’s IGs in a while. Just a few hours later, Demi let People Magazine know:
Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich are calling it quits.
The “Confident” singer, 28, and the Young and the Restless actor, 29, have called off their engagement, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“It was a tough decision, but Demi and Max have decided to go their separate ways to focus on their respective careers,” says the source. “They have respect and love for one another and will always cherish the time they spent together.”
People Mag did a follow-up story with multiple sources claiming that Demi and Max “started having problems over the last several weeks as they returned to work.” Basically, they had been in a quarantine bubble “with zero stress” and as soon as they were around other people, their relationship fell apart. Which I believe! Sources also say that “Max shot up in fame, and it’s been hard/He got wrapped up in [Hollywood].” Which I guess is a nice way of saying that Demi only just found out about Max’s creepy thirst tweets to Selena Gomez and other women over the years!
#MaxEhrichIsOverParty max ehrich is a creep that has tried to get famous women’s attention for years (especially selena gomez) he is a clout chaser and was even commenting on many other women’s posts a few days before he got with his fiancé, demi lovato. pic.twitter.com/E37ccIOUoP
— 𝐥𝐢𝐚 (@onlyforeverddl) September 14, 2020
i’m sorry but the fact he’s always gone after FEMALE celebrities doesn’t sit right with me, you can have celebrity crushes but this man literally posted manips and followed accounts that made the fake screenshots from demi’s finsta pic.twitter.com/OFPByJnPs9
— 𝐥𝐢𝐚 (@onlyforeverddl) September 14, 2020
Photos courtesy of Max’s IG and Demi’s IG.
She’s dodged a bullet right there.
Exactly.
Definitely.
Better a broken engagement than the legal disaster of a bad marriage.
Good for her! I’m glad she finally saw through him.
And was strong enough to let it go?! It can’t be easy. Makes be think of Nicki M as I was sure she was going to get out soon enough but no
Yeah, I don’t think the whole situation is easy for her. I hope she has a good support system around her.
True. Demi has spoken before about how bad she felt about herself after the overdose, like she was a failure who kept letting people down (which is sad but understandable considering the pressure that’s been in her from an early age). It would have been so easy for her just go along with a potentially unhealthy relationship to ‘prove’ her value.
If those are his persinality traits who knows what he can try to pull if he feels scorned.
She is a mess. I’m glad she got away from that jerk I hope she doesn’t spiral downward.
Oh poor Demi, it really looks like she got out just in time and I hope she has the support she needs to move past this and get to a healthier place for her next relationship.
The Selena Gomez obsession was known for awhile and Demi would have seen her fans constantly posting about it, but I think her competitive side probably got off on the idea that a man with a Selena obsession instead fell in love with her and was telling Demi she was beautiful. There’s been insecurity there that Selena is regarded as more beautiful and that Selena got more fame and success when Demi is a more talented singer. It would have been a victory in her mind. What changed this time besides it going so public is that it exposed his car moments all the other female celebrities so know it’s just about Selena, but that’s he’s a just general fame chaser.
She used to be so beautiful
What is she doing with her face?
She is still so beautiful today.
They’re both HOW old??? I thought I was looking at a couple of 40 year olds…..
Everything we saw of the relationship was very embarrassing. This is definitely for the best.
I feel bad for her. A guy like this was probably really manipulative and was telling her everything she wanted/needed to hear in the beginning, and then to find out he was just looking for a famous girlfriend.
I wish her all the best.
I think it’s Ehrich, not Elrich, just FYI!
Came here to say this! And good for Demi because yikes 😬
Good for her for getting out. He seems a little, erm, unhinged. I know fans can be overzealous and say things like “OMG will you marry me?” but I find it particularly creepy he was saying these things with a verified account — meaning he was a working actor in Hollywood when he said this stuff? I know he’s only been on soaps and stuff but something about that is just extra odd to me.
Hey, soaps are hard work, and most soap actors are good at their craft.
It was pretty clear from the beginning they were love-bombing each-other, which is never healthy and actually could be a sign for something more sinister like an abusive/manipulative partner. It’s best this didn’t go any further.
I’m genuinely curious about your comment. What does love bombing mean and why might it be a red flag?
@Heylee
So it’s a form of emotional manipulation and abuse. It’s excessively trying to display “love” to a partner straight off the gate. Key word: excessive. It’s a way to assert power over the partner and relationship and sort of overwhelm them or steamroll them into submitting.
It’s kinda like they even make you question your own self and why you might not feel so strongly about that person right away, but then if they don’t see that over-enthusiasm displayed back they make you feel wrong about it. Often it’s only their own wishes that matter, everything is on their terms and their timing, and if you don’t follow along they act victimized by you.
It can be an early sign of someone who’s just looking to fill a void with a relationship, or worse case scenario: you’re in a relationship with a narcissist. They shower you with attention and sometimes they use that to even alienate you from friends and family, from your career goals (cause they want you to pay as much attention to them) or actually manipulate them (your friends and family) towards “their side”, so again makes you the bad guy if you ever question their affection or being in the relationship.
Many abusers use it to seduce you into a relationship quickly, before you have time to see any red-flags or other signs of abuse. Even using their words and displays of “love” to encourage you to forgive or ignore if early signs of control/jealousy/anger issues arise.
Sometimes if they’re really successful, they’re able to turn you into believing in the “us against the world” mentality, where they keep you trapped and dependent on them because they make you think everyone on the outside of the relationship is wrong and that they’re the only person that “truly” loves you or “gets” you.
Health .com, huffington post, refinery29, and even Wikipedia have good information about it if you’re more curious.
i have experience with toxic people and this is a concept ive read about:
Love bombing is the practice of showering a person with excessive affection and attention in order to gain control or significantly influence their behavior. The love bomber’s attention might feel good, but the motive is all about manipulation.
I know someone who is married to a man that so obviously did this to her. She was a live in boyfriend that we all loved before him and they broke up after a long time together. I’m not sure of the exact cause but she quickly got together with her now husband. She would say that he treated her like a queen and they got engaged like four months after meeting, then she “accidentally” got pregnant about a month after that. Everyone was very suspicious about it. She’s now multiple kids and years into her marriage and it sounds absolutely awful and he treats her like garbage.
@MTEC thank you for articulating this. I always thought I was just too cynical or scarred but love bombing really is and has been a red flag for me.
@Mtec Great summary! Many parts of this resonate with me as they mirror my (now over) marriage. Especially how love bombing can turn in to an “us against the world” mentality and make you think your family/friends/career are less important that your relationship. When the relationship is established in this way, it makes it much harder to recognize when the other abusive behaviors come in to play.
I wish I had known about love bombing and gaslighting and a host of other things early on in my relationship, so I could have identified that they were happening to me. As it is, it took almost 12 years for me to see the depth of abuse and manipulation I was living in with my husband. I’m glad I learned and got out of the situation, and I’m even more glad to see so many women discussing these types of abusive behaviors more. I hope more women can learn the signs and quickly leave relationships if they start showing up.
Looking back my friends and i would’ve avoided lots of toxic boyfriends if we’d known about these things beforehand. We wish there was a required high school class or something discussing these things
@Tarabest
I’m sorry you went through that. It’s awful. To be honest, even knowing all this, I don’t think I’m incapable of ending up in a situation like this. The reason it works it’s because they are SO good at it. I just hope if I ever meet someone that tries to do that to me, that I remember and recognize the signs before getting in too deep. It’s hard to see in new relationships ‘cause it is expected for us to be excited and very into eachother. But there are always red flags if they are manipulative and excessive about it. We just gotta make sure we don’t ignore those.
@Meg
Completely agree we should be taught this. And excellent suggestion to do it in highschool when most kids are starting to get into dating/first relationships and that comes with a lot of toxic behaviours because of inexperience, or immaturity, or for certain teens, modelling their toxic parent’s relationships because that’s all they know.
@Tarabest i am glad you got out of it! Same situation as mine. Also important to mention that lovebombing stops as sudden as it starts and it is inevitably stops and is replaced with complete coldness toward the partner and ignoring. It can be extremely confusing and painful.
Demi was panicking she wasn’t in the spot light. Time for her to get back in the news. Just give it up.
I remember when I made a comment about this engagement happening way too fast after her mental health recovery, and so many people jumped down my throat. So, uh, called it.
Haha really? ‘Cause i had the exact same feeling when I first heard about this relationship, and his fame-seeking thirsty ways.
I saw those comments too!
Yea, plus she was so over the top showing off. Always a sign that something is amiss.
He looks like a human version of Jessi’s dad from Big Mouth. It’s not relevant, but it really ups his creep ante.
So he’s just a fame-man-whore.
they both are thirsty thirsty thirsty…pretty sure the snide sniping and cutting remarks will start being tweet-bombed from Demi’s camp “anonymously”, ripping into Selena and with thinly veiled messages about nasyy women stealing other women’s men…who knows? these Disney kids ended up really fractured after that company was done with them.