So much for wanting to share some personal news.
Pop star Demi Lovato was hit by a firestorm of haters on Twitter after sharing the results of a DNA ancestry test on Friday.
Lovato, 24, revealed that she’s mostly Spanish, with Native American, Scandinavian, Irish and British roots. She also said she’s 1 percent African.
Lovato’s clear excitement was perhaps expected, since she’s been outspoken about her love of Africa. After celebrating her 21st birthday by volunteering with a children’s charity in Kenya, she got a tattoo of the continent on her arm.
“I went to Kenya and it was just a very, very inspirational journey that I feel like really had a huge impact on my life,” she told iHeart radio while discussing her ink. “I would’ve gotten Kenya but then people would have been like, ‘What’s that?’ So Africa’s a little more distinct.”
Her test results were not well received.
The “Confident” singer’s mood went from excited to downcast in a matter of minutes. In a follow-up Tweet, she called out some of her haters for being “mean [as f**k].”
Fortunately, there were plenty of others who embraced her Lovato’s news.
A 2014 study found that roughly 6 million Americans who identified themselves as white were found to have some African ancestry. That equated to roughly 3.5 percent of self-described white Americans having 1 percent or more African ancestry, according to The Washington Post. To reach that 1 percent, the individuals would have to have an African relative no further back than seven generations, the paper reported.