Demi Lovato offered an apology of sorts on Monday for the way she attacked a L.A. frozen yogurt shop over the weekend.
“I’m so sorry if it got misconstrued,” the pop star said, in a video message she shared on Instagram. “I don’t always get this right. I speak my mind, I’m opinionated and sometimes I get labelled as problematic.”
Lovato appeared to blame others for the way she called out The Bigg Chill outlet in Century City over their selection of sugar-free products.
“If it upset some people, I’m so sorry,” she said. “My intentions were not to come in and bully a small business. That was not it.
“I’m genuinely sorry that people took it the wrong way.
Lovato, who has been public about her battles with eating disorders, launched the attack in an Instagram Story over the weekend. She has 102 million followers on the platform.
“Finding it extremely hard to order froyo from [The Bigg Chill] when you have to walk past tons of sugar free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter,” Lovato wrote. “Do better please.”
She included the hashtag “#DietCultureVultures.”
Lovato followed up by promising that she will be “calling harmful messaging from brands or conpanies (sic) that prepetuate (sic) a society that not only enables but praises disordered eating.”
The Bigg Chill replied via its own Instagram Stories. “We carry items for Diabetics, Celiac disease, Vegan and of course have many indulgent items as well.”
Lovato later shared a screenshot of a DM from the frozen yogurt shop. “We are not diet vultures. We cater to all of our customers (sic) needs for the past 36 years. We are sorry you found this offensive.”
In her video message on Monday, Lovato said: “I’m sorry that I got the messaging wrong. I’m sorry that I may have disappointed some people. But I’m not coming after a small business as someone with a lot of followers. That’s not what I’m doing here.
“I walked into a situation that didn’t sit right with me, my intuition said speak up about this, so I did, and I feel good about that.”
She said she left the shop and “didn’t get the yogurt that I wanted and then I had a hard time the rest of the weekend, to be totally transparent.”
Lovato explained that she called out The Bigg Chill to make a point about “branding things that didn’t sit right with me.”
She added: "As someone that deals with an eating disorder – is in recovery from an eating disorder – I still to this day have a hard time walking into a froyo shop, ordering yogurt and being able to content with it and keeping it down.
“So by the time I got to the counter after seeing so much diet stuff and health food stuff … it wasn’t clear to me that it was for specific health needs. If there was a sign that said ‘celiac,’ ‘vegan’ I would have understood. That would have been clear messaging for me. Because it wasn’t clear, I definitely jumped to conclusions and probably shouldn’t have gone about this the way that I have.”
Lovato said she is willing to help The Bigg Chill improve its messaging.
So far, The Bigg Chill has not publicly responded to Lovato’s offer.
Lovato's explanation hasn't convinced everyone, of course.
"So let me be clear. I totally feel for people who struggle with mental health. I’m one of them," reads one comment on her post. "But at the same time, we have to take accountability for ourselves and not expect the world around us to bend over backwards for us to feel comfortable ... Like I said, not belittling or dismissing her mental illness, but working on ourselves is about ourselves and not expecting the world to cater."
Another read: "Take it from someone who struggles with weight we need to learn that no one else is responsible for what we put in our mouths except ourselves."