Pete Davidson has seen all of the negative chatter about Ariana Grande, to whom he was once engaged. Though things didn’t work out between him and the pop star, he isn’t happy with the way she’s been treated.
In a cover story interview with Variety published Wednesday (Sept. 30), the comedian shared his thoughts on the discourse surrounding Grande, which reached a fever pitch over the summer as commenters increasingly speculated on her appearance and slender figure. When the scrutiny ramped up even more following the release of her “Petal” music video, Grande announced in August that she’d be stepping away from the public eye for an undisclosed period of time.
“I don’t like it at all,” Davidson told the publication of the vitriol. “It’s not cool. She’s a really strong person — I’ve witnessed it — and I don’t understand it.”
Grande and the Saturday Night Live alum started dating and got engaged within a matter of months in 2018, ultimately splitting by the end of October that year. Their breakup — after which the singer and Davidson traded a few barbed comments about each other when everything was still fresh — came about a month after the death of Mac Miller, whom the Wicked actress had dated for nearly two years before Davidson.
It was a dark time for Grande, who had to grieve the difficult loss of her ex while, at the same time, receiving hate from certain Miller fans who blamed her for the rapper’s fatal overdose. A few months prior, she’d clapped back at the notion that she was responsible for Miller’s DUI crash in May 2018 simply because she’d broken up with him and moved on with Davidson.
Now, the King of Staten Island star added to Variety of Grande, “She knows how to handle this stuff though. She’s been around. She’ll be OK, but I think it’s f–ked up.”
With Miller’s death and the breakup from Davidson happening in quick succession, Grande famously hunkered down in the studio and turned to music to process her feelings, re-emerging with her Billboard 200-topping album Thank U, Next. The title track from the LP — in which she name-checks Davidson — spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, marking her first of many solo No. 1s on the chart.
The Bodies Bodies Bodies actor has been open in his stand-up about the experience of being the inspiration for one of pop music’s biggest hit breakup songs, and in the new interview, he quipped that “there should be a group” for famous ex-boyfriends such as himself and Jake Gyllenhaal, the assumed subject of Taylor Swift’s searing No. 1 hit “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”
“It’s something that comes up once in a while,” Davidson added of “Thank U, Next.” “But I think Ariana’s f–kin’ cool and immensely talented and an awesome girl. We’re not texting or whatever, but we’re cool.”
The pop star is now in a relationship with Ricky Alvarez, having rekindled things with him earlier this year after previously dating the dancer in 2016. Meanwhile, Davidson is a father now, welcoming daughter Scottie — whom he shares with ex Elsie Hewitt — in December 2025.
“Scottie is my whole life,” the comedian told the publication. “I was living or dying on this business and what I thought people thought of me … but as soon as I saw her for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh my God, none of this f–kin’ matters at all. It’s a job. If I get to do cool stuff, great; if not, cool, I get to be home more with my kid.’”
Check out Davidson on the cover of Variety below.
