“The unhealthiest version”: Ariana Grande’s body-shaming clapback goes viral again

Ariana Grande is once again turning pain into power — and reminding millions why commenting on someone’s body is never okay.

A Viral Reminder That Hits Home

A resurfaced video of Ariana Grande addressing body-shaming comments has exploded across TikTok and Instagram this week, sparking fresh conversation about beauty standards, mental health, and the price of fame.

The clip, originally posted in 2023 and reshared by Grande herself during her Wicked press tour, shows the 31-year-old pop star and actress in tears as she confronts years of public scrutiny over her weight and appearance.

“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish really since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said in a 2024 interview with French content creator Crazy Sally, later reposted in November 2025 as a “loving reminder”. “I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons”.

“That Was My Unhealthiest”

The renewed attention comes after Grande’s appearance in her Hate That I Made You Love Me music video and Wicked red-carpet events triggered another wave of online speculation about her “skinny” frame. But as Grande explained in her viral 2023 TikTok — now viewed over 40 million times in 12 hours — the body fans once called “healthy” was actually her lowest point.

“The body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she said. “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”.

Grande has been open about her struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD following the 2017 Manchester bombing at her concert. She also revealed she was diagnosed with COVID around the time fans began commenting on her thinner appearance in late 2025.

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“Be Gentler With Each Other”

Her message is consistent: stop the commentary. “I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” Grande said. “If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is — healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, nonsense — we just should really work towards not doing that as much”.

She pointed out how normalized body policing has become, from family dinners to social media. “Even if you go to Thanksgiving dinner and someone’s granny says, ‘Oh my god, you look skinnier, what happened?’ or ‘You look heavier, what happened?’… it’s something that’s uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on”.

From Petri Dish to Powerhouse

Grande, who landed her first Nickelodeon role at 16, says the scrutiny never stopped. “It’s hard to protect yourself from that noise”. Yet she credits her support system and her work on Wicked with helping her separate her identity from outside judgment.

Fans have rallied behind her, especially during the Wicked press tour when online critics linked her petite frame to eating disorders or Ozempic rumors. Supporters invoked the late Chadwick Boseman’s experience: “You guys learned nothing from Chadwick Boseman,” one wrote, noting he faced similar comments while privately battling cancer.

The Takeaway

As Grande gears up for The Eternal Sunshine Tour, kicking off June 6 in Oakland and ending September 1 in London, her “loving reminder” continues to resonate: “You never know what someone is going through”. And as she put it in her TikTok sign-off: “I think you’re beautiful no matter what you’re going through”.