Ariana Grande teared up while addressing “dangerous” comments about her weight.
When French reporter Sally asked Grande during a recent interview how she copes with society’s “beauty standards” and the “overwhelming” pressure women feel “to always look perfect,” the pop star, 31, was immediately overcome with emotion.
“My goodness. I’m not gonna–” she let out, trying not to cry. “Good question.”
Grande was then comforted by her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo, who joined her for the sit-down.
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish really since I was 16 or 17, so I have heard it all,” Grande shared.
“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 from — even just the simplest thing — your appearance, you know?”
The former Nickelodeon star explained that it’s “hard to protect yourself from that noise” when “you’re young and you’re hearing all kinds of things.”
“I think that it’s something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on,” she said, “even if you go to Thanksgiving dinner, and someone’s granny says, ‘Oh my God, you look skinnier! What happened?’ or ‘You look heavier! What happened?’”
Grande emphasized that being on the receiving end of those comments, regardless of who you are, is “horrible.”
“I think in today’s society, there is a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all — commenting on others’ looks, appearance, what they think is going on behind the scenes or health or how they present themselves,” she continued.
“From what you’re wearing to your body to your face to your everything — there’s a comfortability that people have commenting on that that I think is really dangerous,” Grande told Sally as she leaned in to add, “and I think it’s dangerous for all parties involved.”
Despite the public’s unsolicited remarks about what she looks like, the actress feels “really lucky” to have a “support system” in place that reminds her that she’s “beautiful.”
As for how she deals with the commentary, Grande simply doesn’t “invite it in anymore.”
“It’s not welcome,” she stated sternly. “I have work to do, I have a life to live, I have friends to love on, I have so much love, and it’s not invited, so I don’t leave space for it anymore.”
Speaking directly to those who can relate to the struggle, the Grammy winner stressed, “However, you all can protect yourselves from that noise — whether it’s at a family reunion or online, if you gotta block people, I don’t care if you have to delete the app entirely — you keep yourself safe because no one has the right to say s–t.”
Grande first spoke out about her drastic weight loss in April 2023 when she was filming “Wicked” in London.
At the time, she posted a lengthy TikTok video in which she encouraged the masses to be “gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies.”
“The body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly,” she insisted at the time.
“[I was] at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”
Though she didn’t get into specifics, the “Victorious” alum made sure to point out, “You never know what someone is going through, so even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with.”
