Ariana Grande says choice to step back comes from an ’empowered’ place

Ariana Grande has addressed the news that she will be stepping back from the spotlight and leaving the West End production of Sunday in the Park With George directly with her fans, following intense online speculation.

While on stage in Chicago during the first of a three-show stint of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, the 33-year-old took a few moments to speak to the crowd, saying Monday night: “The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It is something that I had decided to plan … quietly, a long time ago.”

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“I heard my fans were worried negativity was ruining things for me, but … that could not be more than the opposite,” she continued. “I promise you, this is not what that is.”

Confronted by constant speculation about her personal life, the demands of a tour and the release of her new album, Petal, attention on the star has swelled, fuelling rampant online discourse about her health and appearance. Grande has previously expressed discomfort with public discussion around her body.

“Multiple things can be true at the same time…. Boundaries need to be set; human beings do need a break sometimes … but this will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life,” she said in reference to her current, critically acclaimed tour.

Reading from notes written on a phone, Grande assured that her “decision was made from a thoughtful and empowered place,” telling the crowd, “no matter what noises exist out there, nothing will ever be able to distort my reality, or be more real to me than this love that we share.”

“I love you; this is what I want always…. The rest of that [stuff] is not mine to carry,” she continued.

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Grande’s speech came a day after her publicist announced that the Wicked star and Oscar-nominated actor would be taking a “well-earned break” after years of visibility led to “endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” but confirmed that the three-time Grammy winner would see out the end of her sold-out 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,” the statement said.

The actor and singer told her fans she wanted to clear the air because “sometimes when a story comes out that isn’t directly from me, it can get a little blown out of proportion.”

Grande, who released her eighth album Petal on July 31 — in the middle of her 41-show tour, which wraps up Sept. 1 following a 10-night run at London’s O2 Arena — said performing on the tour had been “one of the most healing, beautiful, corrective and special experiences” she’s ever had.

She had been due to play alongside her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George at the Barbican theatre in 2027. She stars alongside Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller in Focker-In-Law, which is set for theatrical release this November.