Ariana Grande has recently faced public scrutiny over her relationship with Ethan Slater.
Ariana Grande has addressed the tabloid rumours about her and revealed how it feels to watch people “misunderstand” her.
In 2023, Ariana Grande filed for divorce from her ex-husband Dalton Gomez and started dating Broadway star Ethan Slater. Despite Page Six confirming that Ariana and Ethan only started dating when they were both single, rumours about the two stars quickly spread with people criticising Ariana for dating someone who was married when she first met him.
Ariana later alluded to the backlash in an Instagram story in which she said: “I have never felt […] so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together, make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life.” She also called out people for judging who she dates in her No. 1 single ‘Yes, And?’.
Now, Ariana is getting real about tabloid culture and the ways in which women are judged without any “space for nuance”.
Speaking to Zach Sang about the negativity she’s experienced, Ariana said: “We know this about the tabloids and about the media. We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based on whether or not we like the person. We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance.”
Ariana then added: “They don’t leave space for that, well they do for their friends and their family, it’s selective. They turn it off when that aligns with a version of a person that they have in their head that they want to believe is true.”
Fast forward to 38:07 to watch Ariana call out the tabloids.
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Appearing to reference her relationship with Ethan, Ariana then said: “We don’t need to go into any specifics, but of course there’s an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love and you and anything.”
Ariana also confirmed that her album will address people’s perception of her as well as her real life. She said: “I’m so nervous because pieces of it touch on things that are real and then piece of it are also part of the concept.”
She ended saying: “It’s so scary to leave it up to these selective memory people to decipher.”