Ariana Grande has long been the subject of comments and concern about her weight.
A family member recently appeared to confirm that the star is “struggling” with her health and the scrutiny surrounding her body.
The Wicked actress frequently receives remarks about her small frame, with observers claiming she looks unhealthy and pointing to her visible chest bones, collarbone, and sunken cheeks as signs that she may be underweight.
Highlights
- Ariana Grande is “not in a healthy place” and is struggling with her mental health, a family member said.
- The source claimed that the actress and singer struggled during the chaotic ‘Wicked’ press tour.
- Ariana is reportedly affected by people commenting on her appearance and expressing concerns about her weight.
Ariana Grande's family members have expressed concern about her health
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Some are even drawing comparisons to Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters, who passed away at 32 due to complications from an eating dis*rder.
These conversations intensified during the press tour for Wicked and its sequel, Wicked: For Good, where Ariana’s multiple interviews and red carpet appearances turned her health into as loud a talking point as the films themselves.
Someone close to the singer has now told The Daily Mail that Ariana is "not in a healthy place," and that her loved ones are urging her to take better care of herself.
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“Ariana did not handle [the press tour] well at all,” the family member said.
“It bothered her a lot - from the red carpet incident [in which a man rushed her] to what people were saying about her online. She can be very thin-skinned, and people commenting on how skinny she is was really troubling to her.”
During her Wicked press tour, fans commented on what they describe as an underweight, unhealthy appearance
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At the premiere of Wicked: For Good last month, Ariana was ambushed by Johnson Wen, a repeated red-carpet intruder who jumped the barrier and grabbed her. Ariana’s co-star, Cynthia Erivo, quickly intervened, wrapping her arm around Ariana as bodyguards restrained the man.
At the time, a separate source revealed that the incident had triggered Ariana's post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which she has been battling since the 2017 attack at her Manchester concert that claimed 22 lives.
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“She’s not in a healthy place and she knows it. Everyone around her knows it,” the insider continued. “Her anxiety is through the roof. She over-exerted herself and the cracks started to show pretty quickly.”
Ariana has called the remarks about her body "horrible" and "uncomfortable"
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The family member emphasized that Ariana has a strong support system that looks out for her well-being and isn’t afraid to tell the star what she needs to hear.
“Everyone is encouraging her to take care of her own mental health - because she needs to.”
According to the family source, the 32-year-old "has leaned on Cynthia a lot" throughout the press tour, and her co-star "checks in" with her multiple times a day.
Image credits: arianagrande
Ariana recently addressed the speculation about her appearance directly in an Instagram post. On November 29, she shared a 2024 interview in which she became emotional discussing how she copes with negative comments about her weight.
“Resharing this from last year as a loving reminder to all,” she captioned the clip.
In the interview, Ariana, who rose to fame as a teen on Nickelodeon, said she has felt like a “specimen in a petri dish” since she was 16 years old.
She also urged people to be more mindful before discussing someone else’s body, even when the comments come from a place of care or concern.
The Grammy winner's family members claim she's not "in a healthy place"
Image credits: arianagrande
Image credits: arianagrande
“I think in today’s society, there is a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all — commenting on others’ looks, appearance, what they think is going on behind the scenes or health or how they present themselves,” Ariana said.
To illustrate how common these remarks are, she mentioned the example of a family member telling someone they look “skinnier” or “heavier” during Thanksgiving dinner.
“That is something that is uncomfortable and horrible no matter where it’s happening,” she said.
The source shared that Ariana has a strong support system that encourages her to prioritize her mental health
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She also encouraged anyone struggling with intrusive comments about their body to tune them out, stressing, “You keep yourself safe because no one has the right to say s**t.”
The We Can’t Be Friends singer previously addressed body-shamers in a 2023 video, explaining that the body people perceived as “healthy” actually reflected a very different reality.
Ariana has faced comments about her body ever since she rose to fame as a teen on Nickelodeon
Image credits: arianagrande
“The body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly,” she said.
“[I was] at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy. I know I shouldn’t have to explain that. But I do feel like maybe having an openness and some sort of vulnerability here, good might come from it.”
The Grammy winner concluded her message by urging fans to think twice before speculating about someone else’s appearance and to be “gentle with each other and yourselves.”
Social media users are divided over whether “concerned” comments are another form of body-shaming
