The biggest Ariana Grande controversies: from doughnut licking to dating her co-stars

Of course, we’re talking about Ariana Grande — the queen of high ponytails and high notes who has sold over 90 million records with her powerhouse vocals but seems to have a habit of getting into drama when she’s off the stage.

The infamous doughnut incident happened in 2015 when Ariana went to Wolfee Donuts in LA with her then-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez. TMZ obtained CCTV footage of the star picking up one of the glazed pastries when the employee’s back was turned and licking it, before putting it back. When a fresh tray was brought out, the pop star could be heard calling them “disgusting” and saying “I hate America. I hate Americans.”

This footage went viral instantly and sparked a huge backlash, with critics calling out Ariana’s unsanitary behaviour and her controversial comment. She wrote an apology statement to US Weekly saying her comment was “taken out of context” and was a reaction to unhealthy eating habits in the US. “I am EXTREMELY proud to be an American and I’ve always made it clear that I love my country,” She stressed, adding: “As an advocate for healthy eating, food is very important to me and I sometimes get upset by how freely we as Americans eat and consume things without giving any thought to the consequences that it has on our health and society as a whole.”

Donut-gate was a learning curve for the young star, who was 22 at the time, to be careful of her actions. When she was questioned about the saga on Good Morning America, Ariana said: “I think one of the biggest things I learned from that was what it feels like to disappoint so many people who love and believe in you. And that’s an excruciating feeling.”

Ariana’s friendship with her Sam & Cat co-star Jenette McCurdy turned sour after Ari’s career took off while she was filming the 2013 show — which ended up being cancelled after one season, despite being popular.

In Jenette’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, she was brutally honest about how she felt at the time: “Ariana is at the stage in her career where she’s popping up on every 30 Under 30 list that exists. And I’m at the stage in my career where my team is excited that I’m the new face of Rebecca Bonbon, a tween clothing line featuring a cat with her tongue sticking out. And I frequently make the mistake of comparing my career to Ariana’s. I’m constantly in the same environment as her, and she doesn’t exactly try to hide her successes.”

The now 32-year-old grew frustrated about Ariana taking time off filming the show to focus on her musical career: “The week where I was told Ariana would not be here at all, and that they would write around her absence this episode by having her character be locked in a box. Are you. Kidding me,” she writes. “So I have to turn down movies while Ariana’s off whistle-toning at the Billboard Music Awards?”

The final straw for Jenette was Ariana coming in late to set, full of “excitement because she had spent the previous evening playing charades at Tom Hanks’ house. That was the moment I broke.”

In 2014, Ariana’s relationship with rapper Big Sean caused controversy when fans speculated the romance had overlapped with his previous relationship with Glee star Naya Rivera.

His former fiancée Naya hinted at infidelity in her memoir Sorry Not Sorry, writing about finding an unexpected guest at her house: “On the one day that he was back in LA, (Sean) said he didn’t want to see me,” she writes, explaining that she had a key so she let herself into his house anyway. “I walk in, go downstairs, and guess what little girl is sitting cross-legged on the couch listening to music? … It rhymes with ‘Smariana Schmande.”

Ariana has never responded to these claims. Naya, meanwhile, wrote that she felt completely blindsided by the breakup: “I learned that I was no longer getting married from the internet, and at the same time as the rest of the world. Not only were we not getting married, we weren’t even together anymore.”

Three days after the news broke that Ariana had ended things with husband Dalton Gomez, the singer was linked to her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. At the time he was married to his high school sweetheart Lilly Jay, with whom he shares a young son.

The timing of the romance caused a media firestorm in mid-2023 – with many accusing the pair of infidelity. Lily Jay — who filed for divorce in the same month Ariana’s marriage ended — added fuel to the fire, describing herself as “collateral damage” in the relationship.

Meanwhile, In a Vanity Fair interview, she accused the tabloids of making up false stories for their gain: “I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie. A lot of people that were working on it did. We were away for two years. So, of course, I understand why it was a field day for the tabloids to sort of create something that paid their bills.”

Of the media narrative surrounding Ethan, Ariana insisted: “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bulls**t tabloid can rewrite in real life.”

For his part, Ethan had this response when he was asked about “falling in love” during making the film by GQ: “There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love. So just to address that part of it, that feels really hard.”

For her fifth studio album, Ariana celebrated her lead single ‘7 Rings’ with a Japanese tattoo in 2019 – getting Kanji characters inked on her palm that were supposed to spell out the name of her hit track.

In a series of since-deleted tweets, the singer defended her appreciation for Japanese culture, writing: “I can’t read or write kanji obviously. What do you want me to do? It was done out of love and appreciation. What do you want me to say?”

She added that all her album merch bearing Japanese writing, such as a jumper with Kanji on the front, had been discontinued: “However, all of the merch with Japanese on it was taken down from my site, not that anyone cared to notice.’’

The Italian-American singer has been called out for her voice always changing. During 2019, she faced accusations of using a “blaccent” and appropriating Black culture. Critics pointed out that in interviews and music videos, her voice and mannerisms seemed to mimic African American Vernacular English.

Since playing the role of Glinda in Wicked, her voice has sounded somewhat higher in interviews, and during an episode of ‘Podcrushed’, fans were surprised when the pitch of her voice changed during the conversation. She saw comments about the episode on TikTok and had this to say: “I intentionally change my vocal placement (high/low) often depending on how much singing I’m doing. I’ve always done this BYE.”

Recalling the event on Podcrushed she said: “I was infatuated with serial killers when I was younger. It was in between me being Cat (Sam & Cat) and pop stuff, so it was like a younger group, and they were with parents, and someone said, ‘If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be?’”

She continued, “I was like, ‘Oh, you’re so cute. Mom and dad, is it okay if I give the real answer?’ And they were like, sure what’s the answer? And I was like, Jeffrey Dahmer’s pretty fascinating. I think I would have loved to have met him. You know maybe with a third party or someone involved. I have questions.”

While the answer drew laughs from the ‘Podcrushed’ hosts, Ariana hints that the adults in the room were not exactly thrilled. “The parents were like, ‘We’ll explain it later, sweetie.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll just sing ‘Problem’ and go home.’”

Understandably, the comment did not go down well with the families of the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer Shirley Hughes, whose son Tony was murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer in 1991, told TMZ: “To me, it seems like she’s sick in her mind. It’s not fancy or funny to say you would have wanted to do dinner with him. It’s also not something you should say to young people, which she says she did.”