I don’t know if Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez are still best friends from their Barney and Disney Channel days, but they still managed to perfectly coordinate their cryptic Instagram posts about their personal lives last night. I already unpacked Selena’s ambiguous kiss and matching tattoo with her BFF Julia Michaels, so now let’s turn our attention to Demi Lovato. Demi went Instagram-public with a new man, and we need to talk about him.
Of course, last we knew, Demi Lovato was hanging out with Bachelorette favorite Mike Johnson, but that was back in September. Even though I was really rooting for them, after going such a long time without hearing any news, it’s no surprise that they’re not a thing anymore. After a rough year of relationships, I hope Mike finds happiness with me, but that’s beside the point right now—back to Demi.
Late Tuesday night, she posted this photo, making it no secret that she’s with someone new. It’s a grainy, black-and-white mirror selfie, but they’re obviously into each other, and her caption refers to him as “my love.” Thankfully, Demi tagged him in the photo, so we don’t have to go on a wild goose chase to figure out who he is. Let this be a lesson to all of you: if you’re going to post your mans on social media, TAG HIM.
His name is Austin Wilson, and he’s clearly good at following directions, because he posted last night at the exact same time as Demi. He did chose a different cuddly, full-body mirror selfie to declare his love, though. I wonder, did Demi get to choose her photo first, and he had to post whatever one she didn’t like? These are the behind-the-scenes things I need to know.
So let’s see what we know about Austin Wilson. Right off the bat, he has approximately one million tattoos, his hair is currently fluorescent pink, I honestly feel that Demi could snap him in half if she wanted to. I guess skinny guys need love too. Visually, Austin Wilson gives me Aaron Carter vibes, but for Demi’s sake, hopefully Austin is just a liiiiittle more stable than that. Unsurprisingly, he is a model, which is a debatably real career, but I won’t deny that he’s hot. He has 77,000 followers on Instagram, which is kind of a lot for a male model, so good for him.
Here’s a better shot of Austin’s tattoos. He has Marilyn Monroe on one of his arms, but I’m not sure who the woman is in the middle of his chest. If I were Demi, I would make him get it lasered off and replace it with my face ASAP, just to show his dedication. Don’t ask me why I’m single.
So far, we don’t know the details of Demi and Austin’s relationship, or exactly how they met, but there is one important clue. Last month, Demi lost one of her close friends, Thomas Trussell, after a battle with addiction, and she even got a tattoo to honor his life. It turns out that Austin Wilson was close with Thomas too, and he also got a tattoo after he passed away. I don’t know if Thomas was the one who introduced Demi and Austin, but it looks like they were in the same group of friends.
Obviously Demi Lovato has been through a lot in the last couple of years, but judging from her body positivity on Instagram and her upcoming return to TV on Will & Grace, it seems like she’s been in a good place lately. so hopefully she’s feeling good, and surrounded by people with the right kind of energy. We’ll have to wait to see where this relationship with Austin Wilson is going, but I hope it works out for Demi—she deserves it.
Images: Shutterstock.com; ddlovato, austingwilson (2) / Instagram
