breakups

How Stans (Accidentally) Broke Up Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich

The couple formerly known as Dax. Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Getty Images

We all knew some of these quarantine relationships weren’t going to last. But damn, we had hope for Demi Lovato, who went into lockdown right after returning to the limelight at the Grammys. The singer’s two-month engagement to actor Max Ehrich came to a grinding halt last week, and the aftermath is still ensuing. Back when we all thought quarantine was just going to be a walk in the park (to Dunkin’ Donuts), a hopeful Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich shacked up in her Los Angeles home after just a week of dating. About seven months later, the U.S. is still in the throes of the pandemic and a freshly dumped Ehrich is getting baptized in Atlanta. The former Young and the Restless actor went full melodrama (well, technically, Christian-film melodramatic — he’s currently on set for Southern Gospel) on social media after the break-up went public. Demi, meanwhile, has already said everything that could be said in her 2017 hit “Sorry Not Sorry.” While celebrity break ups this big usually play out offline — even Cardi B and Offset have managed to keep it on the down low this time — the end of Dax began online long before they started posting mushy captions about each other. Here’s how stans uncovered old social-media posts and mayb, kind of, sort of, accidentally had a hand in Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich’s breakup.

So, we know it’s over. How did it get started?
Demi and Max had the unfortunate timing of meeting “a week” before the coronavirus sent them into quarantine together. But it didn’t matter. “I knew I loved him the night I met him,” she said on Sirius XM on September 11. “So a week later we went into quarantine. I was like, ‘Look, we’re quarantining together cause I love you.’” After she accidentally popped into his Instagram Live in March, they went public, posting loving pics of one another, celebrating birthdays, and more. (Those posts have since been deleted, yikes.) Then, after a whirlwind four-ish months, they announced their engagement in July.

Demi and Max got engaged after four months … in this economy?
Well, sources say he initially planned to propose after quarantine, but something moved the timeline up, and fans are not convinced it was overwhelming love, despite the Instagram captions. “I’ve never felt so unconditionally loved by someone in my life (other than my parents) flaws and all,” she wrote in the caption. “You never pressure me to be anything other than myself. And you make me want to be the best version of myself.” Unfortunately, this engagement announcement also doubles as harrowing foreshadowing.

Well, from their early-quarantine appearance in the “Stuck With U” video in May, they looked cozy. 
First of all, thank you for bringing this up. When was the last time anyone checked in on Ariana Grande and her normie BF, who also appeared in the music video? For Demi and Max, the picture-perfect social-media presence began to tarnish soon after. For the first time since Princess Protection Program, Selenators and Lovatics came together this summer to deliver some harsh news. You see, Ehrich may be a “Who?” to everyone including Lovato, but he was very much a “Them” to some Selenators. Beginning in July, they resurfaced receipts from the past decade showing Ehrich stanning Selena Gomez, flirting in the pop star’s Twitter replies, comments, live streams, and more. He also allegedly followed a fan account that posted “manips” (manipulated images photoshopped to look like it’s a real snap of a fan and celebrity) of Ehrich and Selena. There are multiple screenshots of him engaging with Selenators like he’s one of them, as well as a screen recording of one of his IG Lives, where he’s listing all the reasons he loves Selena Gomez.

So, he stans. So do 194 million other people. But even though she appears to be the primary object of his affection, Max has left almost identical comments on the Instagram posts of Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid, Madison Beer, Ariana Grande and … Demi Lovato. Screenshots from an unknown Instagram story suggest Lovato started following Max after she noticed his comments on her post. Some fans brushed it off because Gen Z knows better than anyone that commenting ups visibility on Instagram. But other fans were genuinely concerned that he was using Lovato for fame. “Yes her happiness is important but if that happiness is coming from someone who has ill intentions then she deserves to know,” one fan wrote. The week of September 12, more and more screenshots from his Twitter account were uncovered, including two specifically about Demi. “Hahaha selena gomez and Demi are cute together but boy if you think Demi is prettier.. you’re WRONG!,” he wrote in 2010, per screenshots. And in 2015, he wrote, “There’s a female singer that screams so much, that’s why my girl S is better than you know who.” Ehrich responded by deleting his Twitter. On September 14, after Twitter erupted, Demi responded diplomatically on Instagram. “It’s really sad when people FAKE images to put women against each other,” she wrote. “If women have conflict that’s between them NOT YOU.” Publicly, she stood by her man.

What could Max possibly have to say for himself?
He’s using all his skills as a soap-opera actor to try and twist the plot. In a series of since-deleted Instagram Story posts September 26 and 27, Max first claimed he was blindsided by the breakup entirely. “Imagine finding out to the status of your relationship through a tabloid,” he wrote. “This is the God’s honest truth of how I found out about the ending of engagement and have people from my film who saw the whole thing go down and helped me get back into character to continue my job. I had cast and crew with families relying on me to do my job.” On September 27, he posted that they “haven’t even officially ended anything.” He then shared several of her songs and repeatedly called her by her full name, Demetria. One source told E! News that Demi indeed did inform Max about the breakup. The singer hasn’t yet made a public statement.

Max continued his Instagram spree, calling out both fans and Demi herself. He posted a screenshot of a text-message exchange where someone asks if he is home because the owner of his rental saw “a kyack [sic] in the middle of the lake and someone is there grilling.” Max replies that he’s on set in Atlanta. He captions the screenshot “… and by the love of God & Jesus Christ please don’t send people to break into my home again!” seemingly implying that Lovato had something to do with it. “If you’re going to preach about anti-bullying- Why would you allow someone you love(d) to be bullied by your fans?” he addressed Demi in a screenshot. “For what …? Telling the truth.” He also posted about getting baptized “in real life” and posted a screenshot of himself listening to John Mayer’s “Dreaming With a Broken Heart.” By the morning of September 28, Max was on the path to healing. “One chapter finally closed this am,” he wrote on his Story. “And now I turn the page.” Wait, shh, what’s that sound in the distance? It’s Demi Lovato warming up her voice.

How Stans (Accidentally) Broke Up Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich