- Demi Lovato recently teased a snippet of a new song called "29" on TikTok.
- The lyrics seem to call out her ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama, who was 29 when they met. Lovato was 17.
- "Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy / But was it yours or was it mine?" Lovato sings.
Demi Lovato is teasing a new song that casts her six-year relationship with Wilder Valderrama in a new, unsettling light.
The 29-year-old singer shared a TikTok on Tuesday that includes a snippet of "29," the sixth track on their forthcoming eighth album, "Holy Fvck."
"Finally 29 / Funny, just like you were you at the time," Lovato sings in their soaring falsetto. "Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy / But was it yours or was it mine? / 17, 29."
The song was originally previewed during a listening party on Discord, which revealed the lyrics in the song's first verse, including a pointed message about the nuances of age and consent.
"Petal on the vine, too young to drink wine / Just five years a bleeder, student and a teacher," Lovato sings. "Far from innocent, what the fuck's consent? / Numbers told you not to, but that didn't stop you."
Lovato has not clarified the inspiration behind the song and her representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
However, the lyrics seem to implicate the former "That '70s Show" star, who was less than one month away from turning 30 when he met Lovato on January 11, 2010.
In the 2017 YouTube documentary "Simply Complicated," Lovato revealed they met while filming a PSA for the US Census at Valderrama's house. She described the encounter as "love at first sight."
At the time, Lovato was starring on their hit Disney Channel series "Sonny With a Chance" and had recently wrapped filming on "Camp Rock 2."
"When I met him and I laid eyes on him for the first time, I was in hair and makeup and he came and sat down and I was like, 'I love this man and I have to have him,'" Lovato said. "But I was only 17, so he was like, 'Get away from me.' After I turned 18, we begun dating."
The two dated intermittently for six years before splitting for good in 2016.
"It had nothing to do with falling out of love. We decided together that we're just probably better as friends," Lovato explained in the documentary.
"The sparks never faded," she continued. "But there are issues that I haven't conquered yet that I know I won't conquer if I'm relying on somebody else to take care of the loneliness. I just wasn't ready and there was so much in my life that I hadn't explored yet."
In a 2020 interview with Harper's Bazaar — shortly after Valderrama, now 42, announced his engagement to model Amanda Pacheco, 31 — Lovato said she wished her ex-boyfriend "nothing but the best," though she also noted the toll their age gap took on her psyche.
"When you get into a relationship with somebody at that young of an age and then you spend six years with somebody, you don't really get to learn about yourself," Lovato said.
Most recently, Lovato discussed age-gap relationships during an appearance on the E! News "Rundown Show" on Snapchat.
When asked if she believes "age is just a number" when it comes to dating, Lovato replied, "Not anymore."
"I finally dated people my age and it was a nice fit," they explained. "I think it can be, it can be just a number, but I guess it just all depends on how much life experience you both have."
Valderrama previously dated Mandy Moore when she was "16 or 17," according to the actress, while he was four years older. He also dated Lindsay Lohan when she was 18 and he was 24.
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