Ariana Grande insisted at her concert Monday night that the professional break she’ll soon take was not a “impulsive” reaction to “negativity” and speculation about her health — but an “empowered” decision that was “quietly” planned “a long time ago,” with the expectation that it will lead to the “greatest experience of my professional and creative life.”
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Yes, Grande said a mouthful to her fans at her Eternal Sunshine Tour performance in Chicago. And, a new report Tuesday has offered a translation to her words, pointing to a situation that sounds more dire and less “empowered.”
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According to the report in Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice Substack, “concern” about the 33-year-old mega-star has been “growing behind the scenes” for quite a while and it’s gotten to the point that her “inner circle” is “quietly exploring exploring treatment options and wellness facilities” for her to check into, once her tour ends Sept. 1.
“They’re looking at what comes next,” a source told Shuter. The priority isn’t another album, another movie, or another show—it’s Ariana. Everyone agrees she needs time away from the spotlight.”
These sources didn’t comment on whether Grande is exploring treatment for any particular health condition, including an eating disorder. Grande probably won’t offer any specifics herself anytime soon, as she also defiantly said Monday night that boundaries “need to be set” and that nothing “will distort my reality.” Grande has previously insisted she’s healthy and described her weight as her own personal business, saying, “I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what.”
Unfortunately, the “Wicked” star’s comments about her break being planned “a long time ago” will offer little consolation to the London producers she was working with on mounting a big, splashy and long-planned West End revival of the 1984 Stephen Sondheim musical, “Sunday in the Park with George.”
Grande was set to appear in the show with her “Wicked” co-star Jonathan Bailey and begin rehearsals in 2027. But she announced Sunday she’s pulling out of that production — and she did so suddenly, according to the Daily Mail. Sources told the publication that producers at the Barbican Centre in London only got word of her withdrawal Sunday night — about an hour before her statement was released about her canceling upcoming professional commitments after her tour.
“The Barbican (Centre) was informed at 8 p.m. on Sunday,” a source alleged to the Daily Mail on Monday. “It was all very sudden and has left them in a terrible mess.”
Shuter reported that doing the Sondheim show in London was a “dream project” for Grande and walking away from it “wasn’t easy.”
“But everyone around Ariana knows there are bigger things than opening night,” a second source told Shuter. “She has nothing left to prove.”
Sources stressed to Shuter that no final decisions have been made about what form any “post-tour support” might take for Grande. But her team “is determined to put her well-being first.”
Many people out in the world discussing Grande’s thin frame would say it’s about time that her team started putting her well-being first. In fact, her “inner circle” of family and professional managers have been accused of “enabling” the singer’s choices around her health and around her apparent efforts to “glamorize” her thin body image.
Grande’s appearance has been a topic of “brutal and clinical” discussion for some time, but the latest flashpoint about her body erupted last week, when she released the video for “Petal,” the title track off her new album. The video is supposed to be a critique of the harmful way women are judged for their appearance, as it casts her an aspiring actress going to auditions and trying to please a panel of male executives with a series of different looks.
There’s a scene in the video where Grande is wearing an-all black, off the shoulder ensemble, and she’s meant to look alluring. But she looks emaciated, with protruding collar and breast bones on display and even emphasized.
“This poor woman is possibly dying right in front of us,” actor and activist Jameela Jamil declared on social media. Jamil has been public about her own past struggles with anorexia nervosa and said that Grande’s styling in the video was designed to drawn attention to her thinness and make it seem normal and desirable.
Other celebrities, writers and experts on eating disorders also have come out to say that Grande — as one of the biggest celebrities in the world “with millions of followers who idolize her every move” — should take accountability for the body imagery she’s pushing out into the culture, as Buzzfeed writer Stephanie Soteriou said. That imagery includes “her disappearing arms and increasingly gaunt face,” Soteriou added.
“When somebody has Ariana’s level of influence — so much so that she has inspired countless lookalikes — normalizing or glamorizing this kind of imagery becomes, to me, downright irresponsible,” said Soteriou. She reported that Grande has become a fixture on pro-anorexia forums for years, “with those suffering from disordered eating using the star’s frame as their so-called ‘thinspiration’ to dangerously restrict their own diets and do serious damage to their bodies as a result.”
Writer Charli Howard, an advocate for people with eating disorders, also expressed concern about the “appalling” imagery Grande is advocating in the “Petal” video.
“I think it is absolutely appalling, from both a moral and capitalistic standpoint, to have released these videos and an album when this person needs psychiatric help and hospitalization,” Howard wrote on Instagram. Howard also took issue with the people around Grande.
“What’s disappointing is that it takes teams, often hundreds, of people to approve videos like these and get them over the line,” Howard said. “Each and every one of you, including her family and management, are enabling this person and encouraging her illness when she needs help.”
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