{"id":843124,"date":"2026-08-04T10:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843124\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:50:19","slug":"ariana-grande-speaks-on-body-weight-says-break-from-public-life-was-planned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843124\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariana Grande speaks on body weight, says break from public life was planned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kayla<\/p>\n

August 4, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm<\/p>\n

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Ariana Grande has revealed she\u2019s long been quietly planning to step away from public life, in her first public comments since her representatives announced this week that she planned to take a break.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing,\u201d Grande told the Chicago crowd during her Eternal Sunshine album tour on Tuesday (AEST).<\/p>\n

\"ArianaAriana Grande\u2019s video for her song Petal has led to a flurry of online commentary about her weight.YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that I had decided to plan that I had quietly made a long time ago, and it\u2019s a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grande said she knew her fans were worried about the negativity surrounding the latest discourse about her body, but that \u201ccould not be more the f— opposite\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be very, very clear. Multiple things can be true at the same time. Yes, boundaries, they need to be set. Human beings can need a break sometimes. And also, this can be and will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/p>\n

Grande is halfway into her four-month Eternal Sunshine world tour \u2013 but recent life has been less than sunny for the three-time Grammy Award winner.<\/p>\n

Her reps\u2019 statement on Monday said the Wicked actor \u201cwill be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine tour\u201d, amid ongoing speculation about her wellbeing and thin frame, prompted at the weekend by her appearance in the newly released video for her song Petal.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 33-year-old has endured a gruelling few years of public scrutiny. Katia Temkin<\/p>\n

Grande, who has been vocal against commentary concerning her body, also dropped out of her debut role in the West End\u2019s 2027 revival of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George due to \u201congoing public scrutiny\u201d.<\/p>\n

The musical\u2019s producers expressed support for Grande on X, saying \u201cwe know this cannot have been an easy decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the hours after her announcement, a video recirculated of the 33-year-old weeping and thanking fans for their support during a Los Angeles concert in June, about the time of her break-up with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, whom she had dated for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much for always being such a loving, safe presence in my life. I love my fans so much, and I have since I was 13,\u201d Grande said in the video.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for being a part of my life for all of these chapters and all of these years. It\u2019s been seven years since I\u2019ve been on stage in front of you all, and you\u2019ve stood by my side and supported me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the break was a decade in the making<\/p>\n

The pop star has faced constant criticism and scrutiny, mostly surrounding her alleged affair<\/a> and later relationship with Slater.<\/p>\n

That, coupled with ongoing talk about her extremely thin frame, a hectic work schedule and continuing to work following the 2018 death <\/a>of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and the 2017 Manchester bohttp:\/\/p502jqmbing<\/a>, points to a potential decade-long burnout.<\/p>\n

\"ArianaAriana Grande with Ethan Slater in 2025.Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2023, while filming Wicked, rumours spread <\/a>that Grande was having an affair with co-star Slater, who was married and expecting a child with clinical psychologist Lilly Jay at the time.<\/p>\n

Online backlash came in heavy \u2013 particularly amid speculation Slater and Jay had split as he was beginning the relationship with Grande \u2013 and only intensified when Jay wrote an essay in New York Magazine\u2019s The Cut titled How does my divorce make you feel?<\/a><\/p>\n

Grande was the victim of more scrutiny during Wicked after fans noticed she and co-star Cynthia Erivo appeared thinner than before filming in many press tour clips.<\/p>\n

The constant criticism of Grande\u2019s appearance led her to say she felt like a \u201cspecimen in a petri dish\u201d during a December 2024 interview, as she was holding back tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been kind of doing this in front of the public … really, since I was 16 or 17,\u201d Grande said, according to Variety<\/a> in a 2024 report based on an interview with French journalist Salima Poumbga.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard it all. I\u2019ve heard every version of it, of what\u2019s wrong with me. And then you fix it and then it\u2019s wrong for different reasons. But that\u2019s everything. Even the simplest thing like your appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GrandeGrande at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards.Invision\/AP<\/p>\n

The former Nickelodeon child star added she was lucky to have a support system around her, especially since commentators have picked apart her appearance since she was a teenager.<\/p>\n

She reposted a clip <\/a>of that interview on her Instagram story in late 2025, following the Wicked: For Good press tour, which once again sparked further discussion about her weight, with the caption, \u201cre-sharing this from last year as a loving reminder to all\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fight she\u2019s been waging for years. In a 2023 TikTok video, Grande also expressed discomfort with public talk about her weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people\u2019s bodies, no matter what,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

These long-held sentiments, coupled with allusions to an ex who can\u2019t get over her, are explored in Grande\u2019s latest album, Petal. In the Petal music video, the catalyst for the latest debate about her weight, Grande plays an actress who is rejected by multiple casting directors and enters a bloodied frenzy, which this masthead reviewed as \u201cvisually \u2026 the strongest example of [Grande\u2019s] \u2018unfiltered rage\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her 2024 album Eternal Sunshine was a critical and commercial success despite the Wicked controversies. The lead song, Yes, And?, was a deliberate clap-back at her haters and tabloid outlets chastising her about her love life.<\/p>\n

But before her body and love life were major points of discussion (although who she is dating has always sparked headlines), Grande experienced gruelling times in her personal and her professional life.<\/p>\n

The most public was in 2017, when a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving the pop star\u2019s 2017 Manchester Arena show. The incident left more than 130 people injured and was the deadliest terror attack on British soil since the 2005 London bombings.<\/p>\n

A year later, Grande\u2019s ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died aged 26 because of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose<\/a>. The pair started as friends and collaborated on the 2013 hit The Way before dating in 201p50e7c6 and amicably ending their relationship months before Miller\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

With AP<\/p>\n

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\"KaylaKayla Olaya<\/a> is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 4, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-843124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}