Jameela Jamil defends Demi Lovato amid frozen yoghurt shop controversy

Jameela Jamil has defended Demi Lovato after the singer launched a tirade against owners of a frozen yogurt shop in Los Angeles.

The Cool for the Summer star - who has battled drug addiction and an eating disorder - urged officials at The Bigg Chill in Los Angeles to "do better" as she felt they were pushing diet culture by making sugar-free and low-calorie foods prominent, and she vowed to shame other stores she felt were doing the same using the hashtag "#DietCultureVultures".

While Demi later accepted she could have handled the fall-out better, after attracting backlash from fans online, The Good Place star Jameela rushed to the defence of her pal, insisting the hitmaker shouldn't be portrayed as a "monster" off the back of the incident.

"Ok, I want to try to avoid making the story bigger than it already is," the actress wrote on Instagram Stories. "But if an eating disorder advocate says she sees products that are positioned as guilt free, and it is potentially triggering, that doesn't mean she's too stupid to remember that diabetics exist. It just means that we need to change the marketing of products that are for people's medical needs.

She continued: "That's all @ddlovato was asking for. It doesn't make her a monster. It doesn't mean she disregards people's illnesses.

"She's just one of few celebrities reminding us to look out for mental illness. Guilt free is diet culture terminology. We need to stop using that f**ing term... I think it's good to keep raising awareness on this matter until eating disorder rhetoric is OUT of our normalized mainstream culture."

Demi reposted the message and added: "THANK YOU QUEEN. LITERALLY SO GRATEFUL YOU GET ME AND THAT I CAN CALL YOU A CLOSE FRIEND. I LOVE YOU."