On October 14, 2018, the devastating break-up news of the celebrity couple, Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson, broke the internet. Davidson, 24-year-old Saturday Night Live star and Grande, 25-year-old singer, began their whirlwind summer romance in May which included an engagement a few weeks later in June. The breakup was due to the hard year Grande has encountered in her personal life. Grande needed a break to get herself back in line and felt as though she couldn’t do this while being in such a serious relationship.
Grande returned her $100,000 engagement ring to Davidson. Despite this, an insider told E News! That they aren’t 100% split, but things are very up in the air.
A source told People magazine that, “It was way too much too soon”, which is why the split was not much of a surprise. Grande has had a hard year which has led her to end her engagement. One event that contributed to her hard year includes Grande’s performance on May 22, 2017 in Manchester, England, where a suicide bomber took the lives of 22 innocent people and injured many more. Due to this incident, Grande was left with PTSD.
Adding to this traumatic episode, Grande was faced with more heartbreak when the news of Mac Miller’s death broke on September 7, 2018. Miller died from an apparent overdose at the age of 26. The two artists had dated for 2 years prior to her relationship with Davidson. Grande took to social media platforms to express her sorrows and pain. She tweeted, “Can I please have one okay day. Just one. Pls.” on September 27, 2018.
Both Davidson and Grande kept silent on social media days after the split. On October 20, 2018 Davidson broke his silence on his first stage appearance since the news broke, while co-hosting the comedy show Judd & Pete for America in West Hollywood, with Judd Apatow. He joked by saying, “Um, I’ve been covering a bunch of tattoos, that’s fun. I’m f–king 0 for 2 in the tattoo [department]. I’m afraid to get my mom tattooed on me, that’s how bad it is.”
The tattoo he is referencing is the “Dangerous Woman” bunny mask, which relates to Grande’s album cover, was transformed into a heart before the news of the split had even occurred. The other tattoo mentioned, he had gotten for his previous ex-girlfriend, Cazzie David. Grande also has tattoos that relate to Davidson. She has a tattoo saying “Pete” on her finger as well as having Davidson’s late father’s New York Fire Department badge number tattooed on her in memory of his death in the 9/11 attack in New York. She was seen on NBC’s A Very Wicked Halloween with a band aid covering her “Pete” tattoo recently.
Davidson’s tattoo cover-up was a sign that the couple was beginning to diminish that not many had picked up on. Another sign that the social media world picked up on revolving the split, was that Davidson had deleted his Instagram a day prior to the news being leaked by TMZ. Although their relationship had started quickly and escalated at a fast pace throughout the months, the split was still shocking to many.
