Lala Kent Admitted She Finds Demi's "California Sober" Lifestyle "Offensive"
Her idea of sober is very different.
After Demi Lovato’s YouTube docuseries came out in March 2021, fans saw an inside glimpse into the singer’s experience with substance use disorder and ultimate path toward recovery. With Lovato’s 2018 overdose putting their career on hold, it wasn’t until quarantining throughout the pandemic that they finally had a chance to reflect on everything they’d been through. While sobriety often refers to abstaining from all alcohol and drugs, Lovato has decided to embrace their own kind of sobriety, and Lala Kent said that Demi Lovato’s “California Sober” lifestyle is “offensive.”
About three years after their near-fatal drug overdose, Lovato told “CBS Sunday Morning” that they have chosen to follow a “California Sober” lifestyle. Adherents of this specific lifestyle tend to drink alcohol and smoke weed in moderation. “Yeah. I think the term that I best identify with is ‘California sober,’” Lovato said. “I really don’t feel comfortable explaining the parameters of my recovery to people, because I don’t want anyone to look at my parameters of safety and think that’s what works for them, because it might not.”
Well, Lala Kent isn’t having it. She slammed Lovato’s “California Sober” lifestyle, calling it “super offensive” to those living with substance use disorders. “I don’t like to judge, but I actually think that that’s super offensive,” the Vanderpump Rules star said on David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope podcast on July 19. “There are people out there who work their ass off to never take themselves out of reality and to never place themselves in an altered state.”
Kent stated that to her, “California Sober” isn’t even a real thing. “I’ve been in rooms with men and women who have given up everything just to not pick up,” she said. “You’re not sober if you’re drinking or you’re smoking weed, you are not sober.”
After her father passed away suddenly in 2018, Kent began struggling with alcohol abuse and decided to seek help following a family vacation with her fiancé, Randall Emmet, and his two daughters, in which she found herself drinking for four days straight.
In April 2019, Kent told Page Six that she swears by the Alcoholics Anonymous program. “I know that old-timers will hate me for talking about the program because of it being an anonymous program. But there is a generation, my generation, that’s struggling and they need to know about this program. It exists and it’s saving my life.”
Meanwhile, Lovato feels differently. "I've learned that shutting a door on things makes me want to open the door even more," Lovato said in their YouTube docuseries Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil in March. "I've learned that it doesn't work for me to say 'I'm never gonna do this again.” Lovato also told CBS This Morning she knows the lifestyle isn’t for everyone dealing with substance abuse disorders. “Recovery isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. You shouldn't be forced to get sober if you're not ready. You shouldn't get sober for other people. You have to do it for yourself," Demi said.
