Claim: Ariana Grande DOESN'T have an eating disorder

Question

As the press tour for her latest movie, "Wicked", kicks off, audiences have been commenting on the pop-stars body. With people calling her look disturbing and unhealthy, people are disregarding the fact that Grande has had an extremely thin figure for the entirety of her career. Due to the blonde hair and low-contrast makeup looks in the movie for Galinda, Grande does look different than her usual self, but this is due to bleach and new makeup. Why should audiences have any right to comment on someone's body and call it disturbing?

Answer 1

This claim is not true, rather it is something that can only be determined by Ariana grande or a healthcare provider.

The source of this post is The London Evening Standard which is a UK-based newspaper formatted in a tabloid-like manner, making it less credible from the start. The news outlet covers a wide range of topics including news, sports, business, lifestyle, culture, going out, homes and property and opinion pieces. It doesn’t seem to have any left or right-leaning bias, but it does have the intention of utilizing dramatic headlines and language within their articles to attract an audience. 

What I find interesting is that it is owned by a Russian and son of a former KGB officer, Evgeny Lebedev. That may be the reasoning for its investigative and tabloid-like nature for news delivery. Also, he has had a history with not caring about his women journalists' needs and support due to prioritizing business needs. He did this by cutting off salaries of women journalists on maternity leave since the newspaper’s financial needs were not being met. This lack of respect of women certainly shows this bias in the article linked here. 

Other coverage that I found are largely from other gossip-like outlets like Daily mail, Atlanta Black Star, and Newsweek. These outlets are actually assuming that she does have an eating disorder. They use dramatic and demeaning wording like “painfully thin” and "looking extreme” to describe her since her red carpet for the movie Wicked. They gave no evidence of an actual statement from Arianna or a healthcare statement released. On the other hand, USA Today doesn't outright admit or claim that Arianna Grande has an eating disorder, rather they focus on how the negative body-image comments are damaging and how celebrities are entitled to the same respect as anyone else. They do quote Arianna Grande from 2023 stating “you never know what someone is going through” along with “there are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful.” This shows the outlet is trying to build up compassion and acknowledging multiple perspectives on the issue. This I find to be a more understanding and unbiased approach to Arianna’s situation—whatever that may be. 

Within the actual article of The Standard, they use a very opinion-loaded statement to grab the audience’s attention :“When the American singer and British actress were cast in 2022, they were already Hollywood-thin – now you can see the outlines of their skulls through their hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. We should be concerned for them.”(Block 2024). Their use of overexaggerated adjectives and that they are suggesting that she may have an eating disorder (not supportive of the claim) are things that make the claim that Ariana Grande doesn’t have an eating disorder false and not supported by substantial evidence. The title of the article “Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo look scarily thin – and it makes me uncomfortable” also disputes the claim that Arianna Grande does not have an eating disorder. 

All in all, the claim does not match up with the source’s point of view on the issue and there is no way to realistically determine the condition that someone may be experiencing unless a statement is released from them. 

Sources

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/09/evening-standard-lord-lebedev-accused-closing-news-on-cheap/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2024/11/21/ariana-grande-cynthia-erivo-wicked-bodies/76463422007/

https://atlantablackstar.com/2024/11/13/wicked-co-stars-ariana-grande-and-cynthia-erivos-shockingly-thin-appearance/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14070859/ariana-grande-weight-loss-wicked-premiere.html

Answer 2

To start off, the claim is true. Ariana Grande doesn't have an eating disorder. Ariana's looks have immensely changed over the past couple of years and her appearance in Wicked brought attention to this but it does not mean she is undergoing an eating disorder but that doesn't mean this article is right in the way they approach this situation. 

The London Evening Standard is a free UK based newspaper that  covers a wide range of topics including news, sports, business, lifestyle containing writers that write very passionately and focus more on media attention and opinions instead of facts. The first alarming thing is this article was the headline, “Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo look scarily thin – and it makes me uncomfortable”. We immediately get the sense about how this article contains personal opinions over facts. The author India Block wants to take a feminist approach but does all the opposite in her favor. To start the article she states, “Commenting on other people’s bodies is extremely rude. But I have found the photos and videos coming from the Wicked promotional tour so concerning that silence would be, on balance, worse”. Throughout the article she continues to name everything wrong in her opinion about arianas appearance, her cheeks, her bone structure, her skull, sunken eyes. She tries to be defensive once again by having small mentions of Ariana's talent and at one point she states that if she were undergoing an eating disorder it would be understandable due to horrific events she's undergone. Block states, “he has had an intensely traumatic passage to megastardom, with a terrorist attack at her Manchester concert in 2017 and the death of her former partner Mac Miller in 2019. I think this is unethical on the author's part as you are stating your harmful opinions and justifying a real world issue to readers. Article:https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/wicked-ariana-grande-cynthia-eviro-thin-b1193895.html

After this article I decided to do outside research on this matter to see if anyone else had done a report and this. I found many articles similar to this one, judging and circulating the rumors but an an article by Parade led me to find a video of Ariana herself addressing the rumors on Tik Tok and saying it is not good to comment on someone's body and that she is the healthiest shes ever been- while the body she is being compared to was her abusing drugs and alcohol. Parade is a media website that specifies on celebrities and up to date trends. They do a good job in this article, basing their information and linking evidence such as the video. 

Article: https://parade.com/news/ariana-grande-addresses-concerns-around-her-body-and-weight

other: https://medium.com/the-virago/ariana-grande-promotes-body-neutrality-in-viral-tiktok-addressing-social-media-comments-ed3903a7bad

Now to connect back to how unprofessional the first article was, this is what Block had to say, “It was shocking when publications uncritically repeated Grande’s claims on TikTok last year that she’s never been healthier. “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly,” she claimed. As if cutting out alcohol and eating more vegetables could give you the figure of a prisoner of war camp survivor”. Even after it is addressed by Ariana herself this author pushes the idea that she might be ill solely on her opinion and disagreements with her looks. 

I came to the conclusion to agree with this claim through outside sources and not this article. 

Answer 3

Honestly, it’s hard to say anything for sure about Ariana Grande’s health since neither she nor her doctors have confirmed anything publicly. The Evening Standard might share opinions or observations, but they’re not a medical source. Ariana Grande herself addressed comments about her body in April 2023, noting that people shouldn’t make assumptions about her health based on appearance. She pointed out that different versions of her body at different times in her life were actually less healthy, and that she feels better now. That’s straight from her Instagram/TikTok messages, not tabloid speculation.

Without an official medical diagnosis or Ariana publicly stating she has an eating disorder, it’s not fair or accurate to claim either way. Health matters are personal and private. So, unless there’s a credible statement from Ariana or a qualified professional, it’s best not to jump to conclusions.

Answer 4

The information in this claim does not entirely align with the content in the source provided. First, the claim refers to Grande having an "extremely thin figure for the entirety of her career." However, the claim fails to acknowledge the article's recognition of the entertainment and media industry's role in actors' body changes (Block, 2024). Therefore, this claim disregards the overall nature of the movie industry in Grande's changing body, as it solely attributes her changes to "bleach and new makeup." Furthermore, the claim ends by stating that "audiences do not have the right to comment on someone's body." While the article used as a source for this claim acknowledges that people are increasingly commenting on Grande's supposed weight loss since her role as Glinda in Wicked, the claim does not accurately justify people commenting on Grande's weight change. More specifically, the article suggests that in our current climate, it is important to acknowledge extreme levels of thinness so that young, impressionable audiences are not negatively impacted, as this may lead them to unhealthy eating behaviors (Block, 2024). Research from NIH, suggests adolescents' increased exposure to celebrity photos is associated with body dissatisfaction (Charmaraman, 2021). Therefore, this claim should include why audiences may remark on Grande's changing weight rather than strongly suggesting that it is unethical and inappropriate for a person to comment on her thinness.

Sources:

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/wicked-ariana-grande-cynthia-eviro-thin-b1193895.html
 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8196598/