Ariana Grande calls ex Pete Davidson ‘an amazing distraction’ Image by Getty/Forward Montage

Ariana Grande, after ending her whirlwind engagement with Saturday Night Live actor Pete Davidson last summer, shook global popular culture with a song called “Thank U, Next,” which called out her exes by name.

Now, in case she wasn’t clear the first time, Grande is elaborating on just what spelled the downfall of her relationship with Jew-ish comic Davidson. “It was an amazing distraction,” Grande told Vogue in a cover story released on Tuesday, of meeting the man to whom she became engaged within three weeks.

“It was frivolous and fun and insane and highly unrealistic, and I loved him, and I didn’t know him,” she said. She had moved to Manhattan, she explained, in the wake of her breakup from Jewish hip hop artist Mac Miller. She was also dealing with the traumatic fallout of the terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester, England, which killed 23 and wounded hundreds, including many children.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“It’s not my trauma,” Grande said, of witnessing murderous attack. “It’s those families’. It’s their losses, and so it’s hard to just let it all out without thinking about them reading this and reopening the memory for them.”

Tragedy continued for Grande, alongside massive fame — near the end of her relationship with Davidson, her ex, Mac Miller, died of a drug overdose. “I’m so sorry I’m crying,” she told the Vogue interviewer, weeping over the memory of Miller.

“By no means was what we had perfect, but, like, f**k. He was the best person ever, and he didn’t deserve the demons he had. I was the glue for such a long time, and I found myself becoming…less and less sticky. The pieces just started to float away.”

Oof. We wanted to make fun of Grande for dragging us through her quicksilver relationship with Davidson, which we documented with elaborate attention to detail last summer, but we’d rather just wish her a release from this agony. However Grande decides to say “Thank U, Next” to these memories, we’re glad she’s doing what’s right for her. On her journey to healing, we wish her a refuah shlemah — a full, peaceful recovery.

Jenny Singer is the deputy life/features editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount