The Year Is Already Bad Enough—So What’s With These Sketchy Celeb BFs?

ICYMI, on September 24 Demi Lovato called off her engagement to soap opera actor Max Ehrich after a whirlwind six-month courtship (fast even by Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson standards). The news came less than two-weeks after Lovato was forced to defend her then fiancé after old tweets and social media posts of him lusting hardcore after Selena Gomez went viral online. But people shouldn’t *really* be that surprised at the news of Lovato and Ehrich’s split, because even before the actor’s old tweets and videos resurfaced (yes, there are videos), Lovatics online were skeptical of Ehrich’s intentions, with some members of the singer’s close inner circle reportedly hesitant to congratulate and support the newly engaged couple. The main reasons why? Fans thought Ehrich was just using the “Sober” singer to garner more fame—and worse, that he probably would have shacked up with *any* female celeb who gave him the time of day. And seriously? Can we not just have nice things? It’s already tough enough to be a famous person looking for authentic love without the added stress of wondering if your partner is actually just with you for clout.

Not to mention that the year 2020 is already bad enough, the last thing we need is fame- (or money-) hungry partners just in it for the notoriety or cold hard cash. (We’ve already seen enough of that—see: Adele’s alleged divorce proceedings.)

Here’s everything we know about Ehrich’s alleged bad behaviour—as well as some other sketchy celeb partners—because he’s not alone.

TBQH, the receipts about Ehrich are *pretty* telling

While it’s nice to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their intentions, it’s become increasingly hard to do so for Ehrich. While Lovato and Ehrich’s relationship was seemingly got off to an A+ romantic start, with the couple quarantining together amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, travelling in the States together, and ultimately getting engaged and sharing their love on social media, things appear to have quickly turned south. At the beginning of September, old videos and tweets from Ehrich started to go viral online. Among these posts were tweets in which Ehrich said he wanted to marry Selena Gomez, and even comparing Gomez and Lovato to each other, and saying Gomez was better.

In an old Instagram Live, Ehrich also talked extensively about his admiration for Gomez, saying of the singer: “I think she’s an extremely, extremely, extremely talented girl, and I’ve actually had a major crush on her since 2010,” he said. “But yeah, I honestly think Selena Gomez is an extraordinary women. What she stands for charity-wise, just being an activist, she just has a great heart. Her heart is in the right place. She loves Jesus. She loves God. She’s just like, she’s an angel, and I love her, but on top of that, I respect her musically and I want to make music with her.”

https://twitter.com/maria_tineo_/status/1305313539956051968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1305313539956051968%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elle.com%2Fculture%2Fcelebrities%2Fa34009935%2Fdemi-lovato-max-ehrich-selena-gomez-tweets-statement%2F

And in a series of screenshots shared on Twitter, user @demisglo outed Ehrich for reportedly shooting his shot—often with the same pick-up lines and emoji comments—on other female celebs’ Instagram accounts. Showing the comment sections on Gigi and Bella Hadid’s Instagram accounts as well as singer Madison Beer’s, the post reveals that Ehrich had left similar comments to those on Lovato’s account in the time before their relationship started.

“You can literally see here he’s said the exact same thing as he did to every other celebrity and demi was the only one to let him in her life,” @demisglo tweeted. “Max is using demi to boot his career it’s worked. i really do feel sick.”

https://twitter.com/onlyforeverddl/status/1305319699706712066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1305319699706712066%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elle.com%2Fculture%2Fcelebrities%2Fa34009935%2Fdemi-lovato-max-ehrich-selena-gomez-tweets-statement%2F

Ehrich can 100% be thirsty for famous women, shooting his shot with them *and then* subsequently fall in love with Lovato; but these screenshots just don’t look great.

And if there was still any doubt about his intentions, fans seem to think that Ehrich’s response to the news of his and his ex-fiancée’s breakup is pretty telling as to his intentions (ie: 15 more minutes of fame). On September 26, two days after initial reports that the couple had called it quits, Ehrich spoke out about the situation, implying that Lovato hadn’t spoken with him about breaking up. “Imagine finding out about the status of your relationship through a tabloid,” Ehrich wrote in a post to his Instagram Stories. Seemingly doubling down after skepticism from some people online, Ehrich continued: “I was on the set of my new movie, Southern Gospel, with crew and cast members right next to me who literally watched me open my phone where I then opened a tabloid. This is the God’s honest truth of how I found out about the ending of the engagement,” he continued, “and have people from my film who saw the whole thing go down and helped me get back into character to continue my job.”

It may be “God’s honest truth,” but fans are also wondering why Ehrich felt the need to make a private situation less-than-private.

Ehrich isn’t the only partner to come under suspicion

But Ehrich is *far* from the first celebrity-adjacent partner to come under suspicion for not being—in the famous words of The Bachelor franchise—there for the right reasons. When Ariana Grande first revealed her relationship in May with non-famous person Dalton Gomez (an über successful realtor) during her and Justin Bieber’s “Stuck with U” video, some people online were quick to note that Gomez has been celebrity-adjacent for awhile, hanging out with stars like Miley Cyrus and seemingly implying that he likes to be around fame. (But, let’s be real, who among us doesn’t like to be?).

Not to mention the fact that even some actual celebrities have come under fire for being sketchy—dating and subsequently (allegedly) cheating on partner after partner, each one more famous than the last as their own star grows. (See: Jacob Elordi.)

And this trend isn’t entirely relegated to men

But while the idea of sketchy boyfriends seems to be applied to famous women who date seemingly “normal” (AKA non-famous) men; the idea of dating a celebrity for fame and fortune isn’t anything new, and definitely doesn’t just apply to men. For what feels like decades, the idea of a woman with the wrong intentions dating a famous or wealthy person has become synonymous with the term “gold digger.” And while the stereotype of a gold digger—a duplicitous (usually applied to) woman who entraps a wealthy, unsuspecting man—is frankly kind of misogynistic (as one Medium article title so aptly put it: “Gold Diggers Aren’t Real—You Just Hate Women“), the idea that your partner might actually be dating you for reasons other than love is a real thing.

And, frankly, we’re over it. In a year that’s already been a massive shit show, can we all just agree to date people for love and not fame? We already have The Bachelor to bring the drama.