Why Ariana Grande Skipped Met Gala in 2023
Ariana Grande’s grand return to the Met Gala will have to wait another year. Unsurprisingly, the singer who has been shooting the Wicked movies in London did not fly to New York City to attend this evening’s fashion event.
Grande has been photographed on set in the last week in full costume as Glinda. It’s not a Met Gala gown, but it is absolutely exquisite costuming. See photos here. Grande shared the first look at herself from the film on April 16, where one of her pink gowns can be seen:
Grande last attended the Met Gala in 2018:
While Grande has been focused mainly on the film, she did take time to address fan concerns about her body in a candid TikTok video. She implored people to stop making comments of any sort about other people’s bodies.
“I know personally for me, the body that you have been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she said at one point. “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact, wasn’t my healthy. And I know I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I thought that maybe having an openness and some kind of vulnerability here would be—that something good might come from it, I don’t know. But that’s the first thing: Healthy can look different.”
“The second thing is you never know what someone is going through,” she continued. “So even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person is probably working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with, and you never know.”
You can watch her full message below:
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.