Ariana Grande says she’s long been quietly planning to take a break

Ariana Grande has revealed she’s 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.

“The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing,” Grande told the Chicago crowd during her Eternal Sunshine album tour on Tuesday (AEST).

“It is something that I had decided to plan that I had quietly made a long time ago, and it’s a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place.”

Grande said she knew her fans were worried about the negativity surrounding the latest discourse about her body, but that “could not be more the f— opposite”.

“I 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,” she said.

How did we get here?

Grande is halfway into her four-month Eternal Sunshine world tour – but recent life has been less than sunny for the three-time Grammy Award winner.

Her reps’ statement on Monday said the Wicked actor “will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine tour”, 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.

Grande, who has been vocal against commentary concerning her body, also dropped out of her debut role in the West End’s 2027 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George due to “ongoing public scrutiny”.

The musical’s producers expressed support for Grande on X, saying “we know this cannot have been an easy decision”.

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.

“Thank 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,” Grande said in the video.

“Thank you for being a part of my life for all of these chapters and all of these years. It’s been seven years since I’ve been on stage in front of you all, and you’ve stood by my side and supported me.”

Why the break was a decade in the making

The pop star has faced constant criticism and scrutiny, mostly surrounding her alleged affair and later relationship with Slater.

That, coupled with ongoing talk about her extremely thin frame, a hectic work schedule and continuing to work following the 2018 death of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and the 2017 Manchester bombing, points to a potential decade-long burnout.

In 2023, while filming Wicked, rumours spread 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.

Online backlash came in heavy – particularly amid speculation Slater and Jay had split as he was beginning the relationship with Grande – and only intensified when Jay wrote an essay in New York Magazine’s The Cut titled How does my divorce make you feel?

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.

The constant criticism of Grande’s appearance led her to say she felt like a “specimen in a petri dish” during a December 2024 interview, as she was holding back tears.

“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public … really, since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said, according to Variety in a 2024 report based on an interview with French journalist Salima Poumbga.

“I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it and then it’s wrong for different reasons. But that’s everything. Even the simplest thing like your appearance.”

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.

She reposted a clip 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, “re-sharing this from last year as a loving reminder to all”.

It’s a fight she’s been waging for years. In a 2023 TikTok video, Grande also expressed discomfort with public talk about her weight.

“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said.

These long-held sentiments, coupled with allusions to an ex who can’t get over her, are explored in Grande’s 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 “visually … the strongest example of [Grande’s] ‘unfiltered rage’.”

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.

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.

The most public was in 2017, when a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving the pop star’s 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.

A year later, Grande’s ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died aged 26 because of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose. The pair started as friends and collaborated on the 2013 hit The Way before dating in 2016 and amicably ending their relationship months before Miller’s death.

With AP