Personal Life <3 Lovato is a Christian and prays with her band before they perform. She has described herself as very spiritual rather than very religious and confirmed her belief in God. She is best friends with Selena Gomez, whom she met at the auditions for Barney & Friends. Lovato was a vegetarian, but since entering treatment, has started eating meat. She is an active supporter of gay rights, tweeting "Gay, straight, lesbian, bi..... No one is better than any one else. What an incredible day for California AND for equality." in June 2013 when DOMA was repealed.
In March 2009, Lovato stated "My first passion is music, because it comes naturally to me. Acting has been like a hobby." In 2010, Lovato briefly dated Joe Jonas. Later that year, on her eighteenth birthday, she bought her family a 2.25 million Mediterranean-style house in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles; she described giving to her family as the "best present" she had received.
On December 23, 2011, Lovato posted a message on Twitter criticizing her former network for airing episodes of Shake It Up and So Random! which featured characters making jokes about eating disorders. Disney Channel publicity officials quickly took action and apologized to Lovato, then removed those episodes from the network's airing cycle and video on demand sources, after further criticism in the wake of Lovato's message to the network's public relations account.
Lovato had no interest in having a relationship with her late estranged father Patrick. He is the subject of her song "For the Love of a Daughter", which was reportedly prompted by a series of interviews given by her father to benefit himself from her fame. He died on from cancer June 22, 2013, at the age of fifty three. Shortly after his passing, Lovato revealed he had been suffering from a mental illness, and that in his honor she created the Lovato Treatment Scholarship Program.