Over the years, Ariana Grande has grown accustomed to the ways in which her life is often dissected by the public. But knowing it’s coming hasn’t made the experience any easier. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the musician addressed and pushed back against the tabloid-driven narrative that has painted her as “an evil diva.”
“Honestly, it’s taken me a lot of hard work to be able to last this long and to heal certain parts of my relationship to fame and to what I do because of these tabloids that have been trying to destroy me since I was 19 years old,” Grande said. “But you know what? I’m 31 years old and I’m not a perfect person, but I am definitely deeply good, and I’m proud of who I’m becoming. I will never let disreputable evil tabloids ruin my life or my perception of what is real and good.”
She added: “The back-and-forth throughout the course of my career has been really hard to navigate mentally. I was this approachable, funny redhead on Nickelodeon and everyone liked me. And then I had one too many hit records, and everyone decided that I was an evil diva. And then other terrible things happened, and all of a sudden I was this hero and this victim.”
The events surrounding that final point are extensive. There were highs and lows in Grande’s personal (yet intrinsically public) relationships, but also a terror attack at one of her concerts in Manchester and the death of Mac Miller, her former partner. All the while, her catalog of music grew to include the most evolved and acclaimed work of her career. Then, she booked her dream role as Glinda in the film adaptation of Wicked.
One of her co-stars in the film, actor Ethan Slater, has since joined the exhaustive list of hot topics around Grande. Last summer, rumors emerged that Slater and Grande were dating. That on its own isn’t exciting enough to cause scandal in Hollywood. But their pre-existing relationship standings complicated the matter in the eyes of the public.
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Slater became legally divorced from his wife earlier this month after separating last year shortly after welcoming a child together. And Grande had been separated from her husband of two years, Dalton Gomez, for months before the Slater dating rumors began making their rounds. But the timeline of both events weren’t clear, leaving spectators to fill in the gaps on their own.
“The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst version of it. That was definitely a tough ride,” Grande said. “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him … No one on this Earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this Earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullshit tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
