Demi Lovato: Radio host ‘quits show’ rather than stopping jokes about non-binary pop star

Matty Siegel, 71, has hosted his Boston radio show since 1981

An American radio host has apparently quit his long-running show after he was told not to make jokes about Demi Lovato being non-binary.

Yesterday (19 May), Lovato announced to fans that after “healing and self-reflective work”, they realised that they were non-binary, and will from now on be recognised with the pronouns “they/them”.

After joking about Lovato’s announcement on his Boston radio show Matty in the Morning, presenter Matty Siegel, 71, told his listeners that he was walking away from the programme due to complaints from his management.

Siegel said his bosses at radio station WXKS-FM had told him to “shut up” and “stop talking” following the jokes.

“They pulled the plug on me and they said, ‘You cannot talk about what you’re talking about,’” Siegel claimed. “I like my boss personally. I do. I’m very fond of him, he’s very nice to me. It’s not personal. It’s professional.”

He continued: “I can’t do what I just want to do, which is be a funny comic who tells it like it is about what he’s thinking. So I’m ending my portion of the radio show right now. I don’t care what Demi Lovato does, but now we have to worry about [if] you might offend someone.”

WXKS general manager Alan Chartrand told The Boston Globe that “everything is going to be fine” and that they are hoping to resolve the matter with Siegel, who has hosted his programme since 1981.

“This isn’t the first time he’s threatened this would be the last show,” Chartrand said.

Demi Lovato in their non-binary announcement video (Instagram/Demi Lovato)

In their statement yesterday, Lovato said changing their pronouns “best represents the fluidity that I feel in my gender expression, and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am, and still am discovering”.

Lovato had previously said that they had cut off their hair to free themselves from “gender and sexuality norms”.