Demi Lovato’s self-sabotage to blame for breakups

The ride has been rocky at times, but Demi Lovato has always known boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama would be there for her.

The couple, who started dating right after Lovato turned 18, have had their share of difficulties and breakups, but they are still going strong after nearly five years of dating.

“People told him, ‘You should probably leave. She’s on a spiral, and you’re going to be sucked down with it.’ But he was like, ‘I’m not leaving. This is somebody I really care about.’ We relate on a lot of levels. I’ve seen a lot of s–t. S–t people don’t know about. He’s seen a lot of stuff too,”​ she recently told Cosmopolitan magazine.

The 22-year-old “Cool for Summer” singer — who thanked Valderrama, 35, for his support upon the three-year anniversary of her sobriety in May — also believes that some of their lowest points can be attributed to self-sabotage.

“The only times we ever broke up were when I was relapsing, whether it was drugs or in a bad place and rebelling against everybody, not just him,” she told the magazine.

Now that she’s older and more comfortable with herself, she can look back at the tough times and understand why she lashed out the way she did.

“People say that relapses happen before you use,” she continued. “Your mind starts setting up the relapse before you take that drink or that first hit. The times we’d broken up, I had already gone to that place of, ‘Yeah, this is what’s happening.’ I didn’t realize it at the time, but I just wanted to sabotage everything around me so that I could sabotage myself.”​

As difficult as some of those times may have been, Lovato believes she’s a stronger person, and more believable artist, because of them.

“There are a lot of girls in pop,” she said. “They have badass lyrics, but I feel like I’m the only person other than Rihanna and Nicki Minaj who isn’t afraid to say, ‘Try something on me and I’ll f—–g beat your ass.’ There are people who can dress up and play the part, but their music doesn’t say it.”