The Bachelorette's Mike Johnson Plays Coy About Demi Lovato, Calls Relationship Status 'Private'
Mike Johnson is keeping his lips sealed about where things stand with Demi Lovato.
During his appearance on PEOPLE Now on Monday, the Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise star remained coy when he asked if he’s single.
“My relationship status right now is sadly like my Facebook, it is private,” joked Johnson, 31.
When host Jeremy Parsons alluded to Johnson’s relationship with the “Sorry Not Sorry” pop star — whom he has previously said he went on several dates with and even kissed — by asking if he’d ever date a singer, Johnson didn’t budge.
“No, that doesn’t matter,” the San Antonio native said.
“I will say moments of a heart that capture me, that’s what matters,” he continued. “But if a woman does sing, there’s a song by Alicia Keys called ‘Diary,’ and if a woman sang that song to me, she’s going to win, she’s going to win my heart.”
What other qualities does he look for? “I got make her smile, she’s got to make me smile,” he added, elaborating on what his favorite ways to make a girl smile are: “Pay attention to the little things. That’s it. Pay attention to the little things and the little details, little nuances, and try to speak upon that when I see.”
Late last month, Johnson revealed on the iHeart Radio’s Almost Famous podcast, hosted by Bachelor Nation stars Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti, that not only have he and Lovato, 27, been going on dates — but they’ve also kissed.
“We’ve gone on more than one date,” Johnson told Iaconetti when she questioned him about his relationship with the pop star. “I like her tattoos — we both have a lot of tattoos. Demi has more than me.”
“And, uh, she kisses really well,” he added, much to the excitement of hosts Iaconetti, 31, and Higgins, 30.
“I’m getting to know her for her,” Johnson went on. After Iaconetti asked how he felt about Lovato making the first move on social media, he said, “For one, I’m all about her, too. She definitely was the aggressor, you know, I find it incredibly sexy. I love that like, ‘come at me. You want me, come at me.’ I want you, I’m [going to] come at you. I’m coming at her as well.”
Lovato first made her crush on Johnson known at the very beginning of Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette, sharing her thoughts on her Instagram Story as she watched and continuing to do so throughout the season and after Johnson was booted off the show.
Johnson’s comments come not long after he told Rachel Lindsay and Ali Fedotowsky-Manno on their Bachelor Happy Hour podcast that he thinks Lovato is “amazing.”
“She’s incredibly humble,” he said. “When Demi and I are together, it’s laughter and we talk about real s—. Like, she’s a down-to-earth woman and I respect it so much. And she’s just a really humble, really cool, really fun, down-to-earth person.”
“My status of the relationship with Demi and I are that we are two people exploring each other,” he added.
The San Antonio, Texas-based portfolio manager said on the Almost Famous podcast that he’s not the biggest fan of dating in the spotlight.
“To be perfectly honest, I personally don’t like it,” he said when Higgins asked him how it feels for so many people to be invested in his dating life. “I am very private with my relationships, like, straight up.”
Johnson said that it comes down to a fear of what people might say if he and Lovato end up not working out.
“It scares me, honestly,” he said. “What scares me about it is that if Demi and I were not to become boyfriend/girlfriend, right, how would people perceive that? Which honestly, I shouldn’t give two s—s about it, right? No disrespect to people that, you know, follow us. But it scares me for that reason.”
“Being quite transparent, she’s a woman that I treat like a regular individual,” he continued. “I’m a man that she treats like a regular man. And we do like each other and we are getting to know each other, but what if it were not meant to be? People would speculate, oh, this, that, and the third. So, I would rather not have that.”
