EXCLUSIVE: Inside Ariana Grande's Decision to Take Career Break as Appearance Concerns Mount
Ariana Grande has decided to take a career break as concerns about her appearance continue to mount.
Aug. 31 2026, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
The announcement was made Aug. 2. Ariana Grande will be "taking a step back from visibility" once her Eternal Sunshine tour wraps in September, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"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."
Ariana Setting 'Boundaries'
Ariana Grande plans to take a break from public-facing work after her 'Eternal Sunshine' tour ends in September.
The next day, Grande, 33, addressed her fans directly at her Chicago concert, explaining that her decision to retreat from the spotlight wasn't made impulsively but from an "empowered place" and that she needed to set "boundaries."
The break comes after the former teen star, who also pulled out of the West End revival of Sunday in the Park with George, worried fans with her rail-thin figure. And, a source told RadarOnline.com, as fears for her well-being escalate.
"She needs this for her soul as well as her health, both mental and physical," the source said. "As much as she loves her fans and feels grateful beyond words for all the opportunities she's had, it's beyond exhausting and she's no longer willing to hide the fact that it's taken a major toll."
No Tears Left To Cry
Fans raised concerns about Grande's thin appearance after she withdrew from the West End revival of 'Sunday in the Park with George.'
It's been a tough decade. She was roundly criticized for being a diva, including after an infamous moment caught on video in which she licked a doughnut at a California bakery in 2015. In 2017, a suicide bombing took the lives of 22 people and injured hundreds at the Manchester, England, stop of her Dangerous Woman tour.
A year later, her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller died of an accidental drug overdose at 26. All the while, Grande was still making music, releasing the albums Sweetener and the multimillion-selling Thank U, Next. "I was doing so much therapy, and I was dealing with PTSD and all different kinds of grief and depression and anxiety," she revealed in 2025.
"They were dark times, and the music brought so much levity and so did the experience. But it poured out with urgency, and it was made with urgency, and it was a means of survival."
Then, in 2021, Grande landed one of the most sought after parts in Hollywood, playing Glinda in Wicked.
Ethan Slater began dating Grande after her marriage to Dalton Gomez ended during the two-year production of 'Wicked.'
The two-part film took two years to complete, during which time her marriage to real estate broker Dalton Gomez ended and she began dating her newly separated costar, Ethan Slater. Headlines branded the "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" singer a homewrecker.
The press tours were just as grueling, and it was then that fans started to become concerned about Grande's alarmingly thin appearance.
In a 2024 interview with a French journalist, the Florida native held back tears while discussing the comments made about her body. "I've been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been, you know, a specimen in a petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17," the former Disney star noted. "So, I have heard it all. I've heard every version of it, of what's wrong with me."
Weight Concerns for Ariana
Jamela Jamil expressed concern about Grande in a since-deleted Instagram post amid public scrutiny of the singer's appearance.
Her recent return to music was much-anticipated, but when she released the music video for her new single, "Petal," on July 31, fans were taken aback by her frail frame. "I can see her whole skeletal system," a YouTuber wrote in the comment section.
"At what point does somebody step in to help? She's withering away," worried another. Some even compared Grande to the late Karen Carpenter, who died in 1983 of heart failure related to her struggle with anorexia. "This relentless obsession with her weight is so frustrating to Ariana," said the source.
"And as much as she's tried to ignore it, she can't because it's absolutely everywhere."
Even Hollywood has started to weigh in. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Jamela Jamil wrote: "This poor woman is possibly dying right in front of us."
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Grande Pushes Back on Fan Concerns
A source said Grande wants to establish boundaries with fans and reduce the intensity of public attention surrounding her.
Grande, however, "doesn't think she looks emaciated or chronically underweight," RadarOnline.com's source revealed.
"Sure, she's slender and there are some camera angles that exacerbate that, but to her mind, it's pure alarmism and mean-spirited to paint it as a crisis."
At the end of the day, "Ariana adores her fans but sometimes she worries that they're a little too close to her," the source noted.
"It can get a little suffocating, which is why she wants to establish boundaries moving forward and hopefully dial down the intensity."
