Ariana Grande announced earlier this week that she has dropped out of her West End debut scheduled for next year and is taking a step back from the public eye once her world tour wraps next month.
The news comes amid rising concerns about her health and wellbeing, which were only heightened after the pop star dropped the music video for her latest single “petal” in which a bloody scene unfolds after she takes a chainsaw to a bunch of Hollywood executives making comments about her appearance.
Ironically or not, the comments section of the video is full of concerned fans wondering if Grande, who appears worrisomely frail, needs help. On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Glenn Greenwald, host of System Update, to discuss the star’s troubling turn.
‘Taking a Step Back’
Grande had been set to star alongside her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey in an upcoming adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George at London’s Barbican theater, but that has been scrapped in the wake of the news that she will be taking a break from showbiz.
Empire Street Productions confirmed Sunday that Grande will no longer be part of the production, and her rep told People magazine she “will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour.”
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the statement said.
The reference to “scrutiny” is no doubt aimed at those who have expressed worry over her increasingly gaunt appearance. Concerns about the 33-year-old singer’s weight began during the press tours for the wildly popular Wicked movies in which she played Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.
She has seemingly slimmed down even more based on footage from her tour and the music video for “petal” where the costumes seem to accentuate her diminished frame. Many fans took to the comments on YouTube to express that they want Grande “to be healthy again.”
“It’s not about wanting the old Ariana back,” one user wrote, in reference to some of the dialogue in the video. “It’s about wanting her to be healthy.”
“People don’t miss the old Ariana,” another account wrote. “They miss the HEALTHY Ariana.”
“At what point does somebody step in to help?” a third person wondered. “She’s withering away.”
“Her team labeling the response as ‘public scrutiny’ rather than ‘genuine health concerns’ speaks volumes,” another comment read.
Child Star Nightmare
Grande has previously called out the public discourse around her weight. “I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said in a 2023 TikTok video.
While promoting Wicked: For Good last year, she re-shared a 2024 interview in which she lamented the fact that she has been judged for her looks since she was a teenager after getting her start as a child actor on Nickelodeon. In the December social media post, she called the clip a “loving reminder to all.”
Megyn believes Grande’s early fame has done her no favors. “She was, of course, a former child star. We talked about her last year when the whole Nickelodeon scandal became household news with that one executive having sexualized… these young, sweet girls… It was completely exploitative… There’s a reason 99 percent of parents say no to putting their child in front of a camera at a very young age or in front of a microphone, as was done to Justin Bieber, etc,” she said.
Wanting It Both Ways?
It is also true, however, that Grande has continued to put herself in the public eye in ways that invite scrutiny. Link Lauren, host of MK Media’s Spot On, made the point in an Instagram post that Grande’s team put out the statement about scrutiny and stepping away as she is promoting her new album and music video that deal with these same themes. He believes she is trying to play her fans fools, and Greenwald didn’t disagree.
“She had been saying for several years now, ‘Stop talking about my body; stop talking about the body of female celebrities. It’s very degrading’… I mean, come on,” Greenwald said. “Hollywood is an industry where your physical appearance plays an absolutely crucial role in pretty much everything. If you don’t want people commenting on your physical appearance, don’t go into Hollywood.”
And even for those who are sympathetic to the pitfalls of fame, Greenwald said Grande’s behavior has crossed a line. “If you stick a very well-known figure who has millions of fans in a music video that everybody sees and it’s actually quite shocking and horrifying to see a human being that thin who’s not suffering from some kind of terminal disease, people are going to talk about it,” he explained.
“Then, they come out, as Link said, and she’s like, ‘How dare you? This is not a matter for public discussion.’ Actually, it really is because women like her and the way she looks influences huge numbers of young girls, especially, all over the world, and that is an extremely sickly and unhealthy look,” Greenwald continued. “Of course, we should be talking about that.”
Megyn agreed. “If you want to not have anybody comment on your looks, there are so many jobs in which that will absolutely be easy… But if you’re going to put yourself on camera for a living, you have to expect that some people are going to make comments about your looks… It’s not really a you thing; it’s a life thing… if you are going to be as big a star as Ariana Grande,” she concluded.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Greenwald by tuning in to episode 1,375 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.