Demi Lovato couldn't love Wilmer Valderrama more.
But, as the "Cool for the Summer" singer reveals in Cosmopolitan's September issue, their five-year relationship is no fairy tale romance. "We started dating when I turned 18...Right after that, I went to rehab. 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,'" she recalls. "We relate on a lot of levels. I've seen a lot of s--t. S--t people don't know about."
According to Lovato, her boyfriend has "seen a lot of stuff, too."
Lovato, 22, and Valderrama, 35, have called it quits and reconciled a few times over the years, with the pop star taking the blame for each split. "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 tells the magazine.
Since getting sober, Lovato sees things more clearly. "People say that relapses happen before you use. 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," the singer says, "but I just wanted to sabotage everything around me so that I could sabotage myself."
Today, Lovato and Valderrama are stronger than ever.
Case in point: Valderrama isn't jealous of Lovato's working relationship with Nick Jonas, with whom she started a record label. Furthermore, he also happens to be friends with her ex-boyfriend, Joe Jonas! "Nick and Wilmer get along great—Joe and Wilmer, too. It's weird. In the beginning, I was like, 'Why the f--k are you friends with Joe?' He was like, 'He's a cool guy,'" Lovato recalls. "Yeah, I know. I dated him."
Cosmopolitan's September issue on newsstands Aug. 11.