A day after the release of her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, Grande took to her Instagram Story to ask fans to stop sending “hateful messages” amid mounting speculation that the record is about her divorce from Dalton Gomez, as well as her ongoing relationship with Broadway star Ethan Slater. She explained that while the album covers a lot of “painful moments” for her, she doesn’t want to see her fans using this as a reason to make hurtful comments about anyone she knows.
“I just wanted to say anyone that is sending hateful messages to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage,” her message began. She went on to explain that it’s “also entirely misinterpreting the intention behind the music.”
She continued, “I ask that you please do not [do that]. It is not how to support me. It is the opposite. Although this album captures a lot of painful moments, it also is woven together with a through line of deep, sincere love. If you cannot hear that, please listen more closely. Thank you.” The 30-year-old singer concluded her message on a second slide, which read, “Thank you! I love you!!!!!!!!”
Grande’s Eternal Sunshine dropped on March 8, 2024, about six months after she filed for divorce from Gomez, her husband of two years. Fans of the singer quickly pointed to songs like the record’s title track, which seems to suggest that one of Grande’s ex’s was unfaithful during their relationship, as offering potential new insights to their split. “I’ve never seen someone lie like you do / So much, even you start to think it’s true / So now we play our separate scenes / Now, now she’s in my bed, mm-mm, layin’ on your chest / Now I’m in my head, wonderin’ how it ends,” she belts on the track.
Later, she appears to reference her romance with her Wicked co-star, Slater: “Hope you feel alright when you’re in her / I found a good boy and he’s on my side,” she sings.
Before releasing her album, Grande opened up about her experience of working on the record during a difficult time in her life. “Even at my most heartbroken or my most pained moments of the past few years, there was so much kindness, there was so much love, there was so much honesty and transparency and respect,” Grande said in an interview on the Zach Sang Show in March 2024. “So even at the hardest moments of the loss and the grief that you hear on some of the album, some of the heartbreak stuff, there was so much love and transparency.”
She also explained that she never wanted her songs to be interpreted as an attack on any of her past relationships. “That was something that I really wanted to make sure was captured,” she said. “It wasn’t like a ‘F**k you’ at all, or ever… I tried to make sure it was kind and giving credit for trying and for the goodness that there was,” Grande explained.
“That was like a tricky balance for me, because I definitely had some sessions where I was writing more emotionally and reactively,” she continued. “But that’s also very human. So I didn’t want to erase all of it.”
