Have some sympathy for Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and the rest of the Disney girls. Most people can probably imagine that being a young person dating in the public eye would seem like hell. And most of us know for sure that the specter of parental approval on one’s dating choices can be a pain. Now imagine experiencing both. At the same time. Imagine your mother publicly commenting on your already publicly scrutinized dating choices. It seems like an absolute nightmare.
Gomez’s mother Mandy Teefey’s feelings about her daughter’s apparent reunion with Justin Bieber seem to be more widely known than, say, Donald Trump’s steel-tariff decision. Back in January, Teefey gave an interview to the website Gossip Cop in which she confirmed rumors that she is indeed “not happy” about the development. Though, she added, “Selena can live her life however she wants as long as she is happy, safe, and healthy.”
“Every mother and daughter have disagreements.”
Indeed, although not every mother-daughter disagreement plays out across tabloid magazines and Twitter. At least Gomez isn’t alone in having her mother put her love life on blast. Her Disney cohort Lovato also finds herself in a similar situation, though, at least it’s a little less dramatic.
Lovato’s mother, Dianna De La Garza, is out with a new memoir called Falling With Wings, which is about her life raising daughters who grew up in the entertainment industry (she’s also mom to Madison De La Garza, most famous for her role on Desperate Housewives). Naturally, the subject of her daughters would come up when she sat down for an interview with Access Hollywood, but a no-chill host asked about the state of Lovato’s relationship with ex Wilmer Valderrama. The pair dated between 2010 and 2016, and were recently spotted out together.
“I don’t know,” De La Garza said about their current status. “But I like them together.”
“I have to be honest — I would be happy if they were together forever, but I don’t know anything about a timeline or even if it’s going to happen.”
“They’re amazing friends and hopefully one day it will be more than that,” she added. “And if it’s not, that will be up to her, I guess. But I do like them together.”
Now, we’re sure no one wants to see their mother pull a “Whatever happened to that nice boy you used to see?” on national television.
For Disney kid completist purposes, we should also point out that Miley Cyrus’s mother, Trish, also isn’t afraid to publicly discuss her relationship with Liam Hemsworth. “I will say, I love Liam. I’ve known him forever,” she said last year. “Absolutely cannot be more obsessed.” To be fair, we guess once the relationship reaches engagement status, it’s fair mom game.
Though, perhaps all these mothers need to take a page from Hollywood’s most infamous mother: Kris Jenner.
Sure, she may help at engineering her daughters’ lives into multiplatform modern soap opera sagas for our enjoyment, doesn’t necessarily mind an ill-thought-out marriage if there’s a television special in it, and isn’t afraid to publicly embarrass her daughter in other ways. But she’s not putting her daughters’ love lives on direct blast in the media. She’s not critical. She’ll keep her clan’s secrets (including multiple pregnancies at a time) under lock and key. She’ll be supportive, and she knows how to dodge an invasive interview question like a pro. Just look how long that whole Kylie and Tyga thing went on, and yet did Jenner say one negative thing about it publicly? No. If you she can hold her tongue at that, maybe the Disney moms can figure out a way to be a bit more chill.
Related: Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez Are Maybe Putting Their Relationship on Hold
