Ariana Grande recently appeared on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast. That was where she dramatically changed her entire voice in a matter of seconds. Well, people are still going through the whole interview and they found a particularly problematic section where Ari talked about her youthful obsession with serial killers. One serial killer in particular: Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 17 people (that we know about).
Ariana Grande had a fascination with Jeffrey Dahmer when she was younger, and the admission is rattling some of her fans. The Eternal Sunshine singer was a guest on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed this month, where Grande shocked the hosts with a story about how she once revealed to her fans that Dahmer was her dream dinner date. Grande was asked about serial killers in relation to the supervillain theme of “The Boy Is Mine” music video, which stars Badgley.
“I knew someone was gonna say this,” she said with a laugh just before the 30:00 mark. “‘What’s this pattern, do we need to talk about this pattern here?’ Maybe there’s something to look at. No, I’m kidding… No, but I was infatuated with serial killers when I was younger. Mmhmm. It’s not nothing. … I’m serious.”
Grande told a fascinated Badgley and his Podcrushed co-hosts Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari that she had a story that was “not funny” but perhaps “fine” to share. Ariana once held a Q&A with young fans between her time on Sam & Cat and becoming a pop star and was asked about which living or dead person she’d want to have dinner with.
“I was like, ‘Oh, you’re so cute. Who, um—mom and dad, is it okay if I give the real answer?’ And they were like, ‘Sure, I guess, what’s the answer?’ And I was like, ‘Um, Jeffrey Dahmer’s pretty fascinating, I think I would have loved to have met him. Like, you know, maybe with a third party or something. I have questions I want to…I have a lot to…I don’t know, I would love to…’ And the parents were like, ‘We’ll explain it later, sweetheart.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll just sing “Problem” and go home.'”
What the hell is wrong with her? There’s this whole thing with women (mostly white women) being fascinated by serial killers and obsessively listening to true-crime podcasts and all of that. But I’ve always hoped that for most women, their interest in serial killers is from an investigative and criminal justice perspective, not “wow, serial killers are cool, I’d love to meet one!” And saying she wants to have dinner with one of the most famous cannibals in American history?? Disgusting. Well, the families of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims are mad about it. As they should be!
The family of one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims is speaking out, slamming Ariana Grande for once saying she’d be interested in having a sit down with the late serial killer. That revelation does not sit well with the loved ones of Tony Hughes — a deaf, non-verbal victim Dahmer targeted and killed in 1991.
Shirley, Tony’s mother, tells TMZ … she hopes Ariana understands how hurtful her comments are, noting the confession made her emotional. She was also disturbed when Ariana laughed during the podcast about her Dahmer fascination. Shirley wants the singer, and the general public, to know she and other victims’ families experience very real pain any time Dahmer is brought up.
She adds … “To me, it seems like she’s sick in her mind. It’s not fancy or funny to say you would have wanted to do dinner with him. It’s also not something you should say to young people, which she says she did.”
Shirley says she finds it troubling Ari didn’t seem to show any empathy for the victims’ loved ones. Tony’s sister, Barbara, shares a similar sentiment … saying the comments glamorize Dahmer, who was beaten to death in prison in 1994. She’d love to see Ariana apologize, so her fans know this isn’t right.
Ari absolutely deserves all of this criticism. She should apologize. But mostly, she needs to stop talking about this kind of twisted sh-t. Once again, it’s not like someone merely having an amateur interest in famous serial killers, it’s that Ariana wishes she could HAVE DINNER with Dahmer and that she thinks that’s a story which is funny or quirky.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Ariana Grande on the red carpet of the 96th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855781698, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Ariana Grande Where: New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: Michael Stewart/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Ariana Grande Where: New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: Michael Stewart/INSTARimages.com
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- Ariana Grande watches the Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers during game two of the Stanley Cup Finals at Amerant Bank Area Featuring: Ariana Grande Where: Sunrise, Florida, United States When: 10 Jun 2024 Credit: Robert Bell/INSTARimages
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- Ariana Grande watches the Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers during game two of the Stanley Cup Finals at Amerant Bank Area Featuring: Ariana Grande, Joan Grande Where: Sunrise, Florida, United States When: 10 Jun 2024 Credit: Robert Bell/INSTARimages
I can not believe she said that, I mean, there is no time or person who should but she said this, after what happened at her concert in Manchester, c’mon
What a stupid thing to say…and during Pride! She deserves all the smoke for this.
ETA- didn’t mean to reply to you!
I really don’t care for this lady. She strikes me sociopathic.
Right? How would she feel if some famous starlet said they wished they could have dinner with the guy who bombed her concert?
Moronic thing to say, but we all know she takes moronic decisions sometimes. That’s when it shows that her only focus is herself and that she doesn’t really think things over and doesn’t think very far. Immaturity revealed. A crazy azz sociopath obsessed with her could take this as a personal call. Like, this answer is even dangerous for her.
She’s so edgy!
That’s awful.
Time and time again she proves she’s despicable, like the whole affair with Dollar Store Spongebob wasn’t enough…
Dollar Store Spongebob! LMAO !!! Made my day !!! She sounds like a very unpleasant brat. The more she says the more I dislike her. It’s unbelievable that she has still so many fans.
She’s so self-involved, this is another awful chapter
She’s always been this way. From donut-licking to being carried like a baby by her staff, she has always been despicable. Her simpering faces are as bad a JLo’s sessy open-mouthed pose.
Thank you for bringing up the donut licking again, actually it should have been mentioned in the article above too because it shows someone who continues to be unconcerned with consequences, even at her age. But that’s really insensitive to the victims who suffered and their relatives who continue to live with the painful ways they died.
I mean, I’m sure we would all have a lot of questions for the guy, but this is clearly Ariana trying to be edgy and provocative. I have no patience for her at all. She is obsessed with herself and it’s exhausting to watch, even from way back here.
Yeah, I’ll go with “tone-deaf nitwit” on this one. I’m assuming this is akin to someone’s deepest, darkest sex fantasy — something you don’t ACTUALLY want to happen but it’s fun to think about.
And you. Do Not. Tell. People.
Jeebus H Christ.
What’s even worse is that not only was Dahmer a cannibalistic serial killer, but one who targeted gay men and the rampant homophobia at the time made things so much worse for some of the victims.
Apparently one of them managed to escape, naked, in the midst of Dahmer trying to eat/kill him, and the police with whom he sought safety were so disturbed by a naked gay man that instead of keeping him safe and inspecting his claims against Dahmer, they Returned. Him. To. Dahmer.
Who finished the job of murdering him.
(Not unlike how many police respond [or used to, I hope this is no longer happening] to domestic violence calls by claiming they don’t want to get involved in a domestic dispute and leave the woman to continue to be brutalized by her partner.)
And I have no doubt that knowing many of the victims were gay prevented real and thorough investigation earlier, thus allowing Dahmer to murder many more people than if his victims had been, say, wealthy white politicians or something.
And if she was really reading up on him and “obsessed with serial killers,” then she knew this.
Thanks for showing your colors, Ariana.
If we are thinking of the same victim, the story is even worse because he was a very young teenage boy of Southeast Asian descent. He escaped, and some Black women tried to get the police to help him, but the raggedy racist homophobic police took Dahmer’s word for it and let him take the poor boy. And made jokes about it! That Grande would namecheck Dahmer in this way is so vile.
One (John Balcerzak) became president of the Milwaukee police association and the other (Joseph Gabrish) I see became a chief of police. They faced some initial scrutiny and consequences for returning Konerak Sinthasomphone (age 14, naked, clearly in distress) to the killer, but were ultimately protected. It’s so abhorrent!!
He had previously sexually assaulted Konerak’s brother (Somsack) too, before killing Konerak.
All of this. I live in Milwaukee and used to walk by his former apartment building until it was torn down. One of my friends was a reporter who covered the story for the then-morning paper, and I vividly remember the Konerak Sinthasomphone incident – it was Glenda Cleveland’s daughter and niece who told the police something was up, and they dismissed them and took Dahmer’s word that it was a “lover’s quarrel.” Glenda was the woman who called the police and was similarly ignored.
I’ve been side-eyeing Ariana Grande for awhile, and even more after reading Jennette McCurdy’s book. But yikes – this…..{no words}
Yeah, its this part of the dahmer story that deeply disturbs me. The fact that the victim was returned and the homophobia that prevented them from catching him sooner. It makes me angry and sad. I don’t want to know anything about that man.
That is horrifying. Those poor men/boys. May they rest in peace.
I find Ariana quite entertaining, in a dry way – she looks like a pop princess but has always shown her psychopathic side fairly obviously, I don’t think she knows how to mask it.
There are other videos from the interview of her making serious eyes at Penn and batting her eyelashes, biting her lip, etc. I think this was an edge lord moment from her in an attempt to impress the hosts with how “dark and edgy” she is. He’s married, so he’s her type. Joking about admiring a man who targeted gay men of color specifically because he could get away with it, during pride month, when many of her admirers and followers are gay men? It’s another level of so beyond gross, perverse, and bizarre. I think she clearly (hopefully) didn’t realize in the moment the gravity of what she was saying though. She was trying to be edgy in front of Penn and she’s just not an intelligent person by any means, was my take on this.
“He’s married, so he’s her type.”
I generally really despise the Man-Stealer label but if the shoe fits…
And it was pretty much the entire pod that was being flirty with Penn. Her weird affectations and baby voice freak me out. Struggling to find something nice here so I’ll end by saying she is a truly gifted singer, even if she isn’t a very good person.
I think she genuinely doesn’t know how to talk to a man without flirting.
Well, first of all, she’s a moron. But there are so many women fascinated by criminals – serial killers, the Mob, etc. Is it the “ultimate bad boy” thing? I don’t get it.
A billion years ago, I worked on a documentary series that included an interview with Sondra London, who was a true crime writer and the fiancee of two serial killers, though not at the same time. The interview started out pretty sane and then it devolved to yikes! So creepy.
It’s really not a mystery and it has nothing to do with Bad Boy whatever–it’s completely psychological, if fairly illogical. Women feel like we are always the victims of violent crime and we often feel powerless to change that. Watching true crime stories gives us a (false) sense that maybe if we learn enough about how other women became victims, we can avoid their fate. Again, that’s not how reality works–we know that women who fight back can still be killed and women who submit can still be killed–there is no surefire way of behaving that will guarantee our safety but subconsciously, we still think that we can learn something.
People have also mentioned “controlled trauma” i.e. a safe way to explore scary things without having to actually endure it and the fascination with the psychological component of what motivates people to do horrific things. But I do think it’s mostly about creating a false sense of control.
That could be so about the attraction to true crime. I don’t know because I don’t watch or read it. But with serial killers, mostly I think it’s a form of romanticism – that the serial killer is misunderstood or can be redeemed or tamed, and sometimes it’s that they want to join in on the notoriety and “fame.”
I think this obsession for most women into the genre so to speak doesn’t center on actually admiring serial killers. I like true crime, I take long breaks because it’s sad and heavy, but my dinner date would be like a criminal profiler. The guys who Mindhunter is based on wrote books about serial killers and they kept emphasizing that serial killers are losers. They are horrible small men who feel an inflated sense of importance. They always say that they couldn’t control their urges, but somehow managed to not murder in public in front of witnesses. Many people experience terrible childhoods and don’t end up murderers. In fact, women experience the same if not higher levels of trauma and rarely end up murderers. So essentially, they’d be terrible dinner guests. There is nothing profound going on in their heads. Even the people who study them don’t think they’re interesting on a personal level, beyond being a specimen.
What?!
I suspected she wasn’t very bright or intuitive but she just confirmed it for me. Who in the world thinks fetishizing a serial killer enough to have as a “dinner date” is cute or funny? Wasn’t her concert a place where a mass shooting took place? How about Dahmer’s victims families?
How callous and inconsiderate of a person is she? I think she just told us…..
I think it’ can be interesting too- the whole serial killer thing/ psyche, but certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of person to meet! I find it so strange her hands are covered in tattoos and 4 years ago she was speaking in Ebonics, and now she is a 1950s stepford house wife. Can anyone explain?
Her ex, Pete Davidson, made a joke about her painting herself brown. I think, after that she stopped trying to look like racially ambiguous.
Hand tattoos are all the rage these days.
that may be, but only having hand tattoos makes you look like a poseur. like you want people to think you’re cool and edgy. which brings us back to Ariana.
also she really needs to lay off the lip filler.
Lol I almost spit out my coffee
“There’s this whole thing with women (mostly white women) being fascinated by serial killers and obsessively listening to true-crime podcasts and all of that.”
Actually the demographics for who watches true crime has shifted pretty dramatically over the past few years.
“Around 43% of regular true crime aficionados are Latino and 36% are Black, compared to 34% who are white, according to the 2022 survey of over 5,000 U.S. adults. In the survey, Black and white adults include those who reported being only one race, and Latino adults who self-described as of any race.”
The reason why it was originally consumed by mostly white women is because the stories being told were mostly of white women. If you are deep in the TC shit like me, you’ll notice a lot of pods that are now focusing on the murder of black, brown and indigenous folks and that’s attracting a whole new audience.
But I digress, the fact that Ariana would say this knowing that there are still family members of the victims alive to read this…sigh. She is so crass.
Kitten – Where are you getting a stat that white women are obsessed (more than other racial groups) with serial killers?
Agreed that she is crass and ridiculous
I was quoting what Kaiser wrote in the post– her words, not mine.
I was just trying to explain that while that used to be true, it has changed now that the true crime genre is not solely focusing on white female victims.
Also never liked Katy Perry dark horse for referencing him. Poor victims families having to listen to that song on the radio.
Free speech and all that. I found it very bad taste, however. Netflix and the Dahmer series could’ve pushed him to the front of her mind, and perhaps it should’ve stayed there – known but unspoken? A lot of my girlfriends watched the programme and talked it over. Isn’t it fact that women are drawn to serial killer true story docs far more than men, and that true crime podcasts have a greater female audience, for psychological reasons I’m not sure of so can’t elaborate without google in my corner. Then again, perhaps she simply enjoys shocking people. One of my teenagers said something recently, among zillions of other stop me in my tracks things, that floored me. My reaction was part of the impetus, apparently. He’s a kid, though, and prone to twatting about thinking it’s clever. She’s not. Grow up, was my instinctive thought when I read this.
Someone tried to persuade me to watch the Dahmer series. Nope. Hard pass.
I am up to here with media that examines the lives, the development of, the minds of the (nearly always) men who hurt, brutalize, murder people. Enough! Because all these dark deep dives just allow people to profit off of someone else’s pain, some actor to get his ya yas playing evil and everyone winds up glorifying, fetishizing sick violence.
It’s like interviewing the mythical “disenfranchized Trump voters” Yeah, we see them, we’ve heard them, they’re idiots and A-holes and aren’t adding anything positive to the conversation. They’ve and their hate and bloodlust and willfull ignorance have had enough spotlights and pedestals propped up around them.
Let the serial killers and other violent men waste away in a dark cell somewhere and stop trotting them out for money and attention.
AG has something seriously wrong
Wow she truly is an idiot.
I just realised she had the actor who played Jeffrey Dahmer called Evan Peter as her love interest in the ‘We can’t be friends’ music video and also had the actor playing Joe Goldbery in ‘You’ Penn Badgley playing her love interest in ‘the boy is mine’ music video.
I thought maybe this was for Evan Peters too, to get his attention. She’s trying to net two men in relationships at once while she’s in her own with a man who isn’t divorced yet! I can’t.
There is something seriously wrong with this chick that needs diagnosis STAT.
I’ll start: sociopath. Thank u next
Yeah, between this dahmer comment, plus back in the day when she licked a donut, and her general pattern of stealing other women’s partners… this woman is a sociopath. would not be surprised if she tortured frogs as a kid!
Forgot about the donut 🤮
At this point I’m 100% confident in saying she has a personality disorder, either NPD or ASPD. I’d lean toward high-functioning ASPD. That’s not hyperbole or an emphatic way of saying she’s behaved badly, she’s broken in a very specific and dangerous way. Everyone who doesn’t have to work with her needs to stay clear. A pretty, famous, wealthy, woman with ASPD will leave a trail of carnage in her wake, and has.
Emphatically agree
I remember viewing a biography about the actor Peter O’Toole in which he is filmed talking about his obsession with Hitler. H was the ultimate boogie man and the origin of his childhood fears during WW2. Further more, as information came out about all the horrors the Third Reich carried out it solidified H as the ultimate evil, not even human. It even showed O’Toole, with another friend of the same fairly advanced age at that point, shinnying up a wall to peer over and look in windows of places H had visited. It still held a fear and fascination for him many decades later. Weird to be sure but maybe some undiagnosed trauma in there I’m thinking.
Oh sure, saying you want to have dinner with a cannibal is soooo edgy 🙄
She’s in her 30s and witnessed a terrorist attack: she should know better and have realized how freaking traumatic that kind of stuff can be for the victims loved ones
It’s one thing to have a curiosity about such people, it’s another to say something as monumentally stupid as this esp a literal modern day cannibalistic monster.
And I get that she is probably unaware of the stress on the families of his victims over the (Netflix?) series, and this is just more salt in their wound.
She is as dumb as rocks, and also a bit sociopathic herself.
She’s as vapid as she looks
I feel even more for the ex of Spongebob Sidepiece now, she’s got to be reading this and thinking “I do NOT want this freak around my child.”
Yup! Can you imagine having to co-parent with ANYONE who conspired against your family? And one THIS level of disordered? Spongebob is so foolish and short sighted.
Hopefully the ex wife can just use a court approved messaging app and grey rock them as much as possible. She does not owe anyone conscious uncoupling friendliness in the face of treachery
Holy Moly!
That’s her trauma talking.
Funny thing about PTSD, everyone’s wants to treat it and get over it without realizing that it just sits there with you on the stage, quietly in the corner, and shapes a lot of what you are in the future
This is an interesting take, ElleE. My point is different from yours, but what you say has given me pause to think about PTSD.
The girl needs to get some help. For real. That is………disturbing.
The obsession with serial killers I get. I grew up in the hunting area for one, live in an area that has had one for sure (in jail now) and possibly has more, and have been stalked by the brother of one. I swear, if it wasn’t for my interest in them, I would not be near as cautious and I would have had no idea who was stalking me. I have no interest in meeting one though, that I can safely say.
I find that the interest in them, around here at least, cross all race and colour boundaries. The only thing that is common among us all is that we are women.
Listennnn, I HATE telling women, even if I dislike them, to be silent, because it feels like such a misogynistic thing to say by default.
But I’m sorry, if it’s not about her music or performances this woman just needs to shut the hell up. She proves time and time again that she just needs to NOT. Donutgate just manifests itself in so many forms with her. Focus on the music, sis! Women don’t HAVE to be likeable but my god!
White woman here, and I love serial killer documentaries, books, and podcasts. But I would NEVER want to actually meet one!
I like to look at the logic of it all, usually for a killer to become a serial killer there’s some degree of meticulousness involved, logic (if horrific) planning. Then there’s the dive into what shaped the serial killer. What investigators missed during the earlier investigations that we can see in hindsight, how modern technology has changed investigative processes and if they were available then (say during Ted Bundy) how they could have been caught earlier if the tech was used correctly and to its fullest potential.
Again, I would NEVER want to meet an actual serial killer, nevermind go on a dinner date with them.
Hi Heather. I listen to true crime podcasts and yes I agree with your take. I also love more unusual event stuff. There’s a brilliant podcast called Radio Rental on spotify. It’s got a weird hosting bit at the front, but the stories, told by the actual people involved, can be fascinating. Some include having narrowly escaped criminals without knowing who they were. Completely off topic, nothing to do with serial killers, but Laura of the Woods on Radio Rental is probably one of the weirdest and scariest stories I’ve ever heard, and it is pretty simple and not really that frightening when you sit back and take it in.
@Sparrow1 Laura of the Woods on Radio Rental is in the queue!
ElleE. You probably won’t see this now. If you do, let me know what you think on a kind of related post on here one day. So weird.
I have an amateur interest in true crime and I never understood people who are groupies for serial killers like that. Out of all the answers she could have given. Perhaps she was trying to make a connection with the fact that Penn Badgley plays a psychopath in You but she just sounds out of touch and wrong.
That’s disturbing. It’s definitely not funny, edgy, or endearing or whatever she was going for.
She is not mentally stable – she shows this in so many ways. This comment is both disgusting, sick, and a huge insult to so many victim’s families.
I used to like her and her music but after the husband stealing BS she’s pulled in the past year or so, now this trash, I’ve lost all respect for her. She deserves to be cancelled, at least temporarily, but her legions of blindly sycophantic fans likely won’t let that happen. Le sigh.
I hate when celebrities say problematic disgusting things like this. Usually because they’re so boring and undereducated that they want to sound interesting or to deflect from questions like “why did you hook up with your married costar who left his wife and newborn for you?” Her whole underfed whisper girl persona just bugs the hell out of me. Just disgusted with her. She really wants Wicked to tank.
She is simple and dumb and wanted to come across as cool and edgy. I truly don’t think there is more to that. And it fits her behavior over the years. Absolutely disgusting and zero consideration for the whole context.
She showed who she was when she licked the donuts…. Childhood celebrity/media attention warps some people and makes them unable to mature or develop self-awareness and empathy. Mean girl gonna mean. She would probably be this way without fame.
Be careful what you wish for.
I’m sure she has a couple of unhinged fans out there, this might be a dog whistle for them.
Such a stupid and offensive remark, and also pretty dangerous for her as a famous person.
I can understand people being interested in serial killers, what motivates them, how they get away with it, etc. But I just don’t get how some people have a real fascination with them – admire them, glamourise them, even.
I read a book about Dahmer many years ago, it was interesting and well researched, and tried to find some answers. But I’d never have wanted to meet the man. What is wrong with her? Is she one of those people who somehow thinks she’d have got through to him?
One of the best true crime things I’ve seen was a Danish series called The Investigation, a dramatisation of the investigation into the so-called submarine killing, the murder of a young female journalist. In that series, they did not even depict the perpetrator – he never appeared on screen and was not even named. The makers of the series didn’t want to feed his ego, they wanted to focus on the police, the victim and her family. It was a very refreshing approach and I wish more shows did that.
Gawd she just doesn’t learn or grow, does she? WTF is that?
I watched “Mind Hunter” and found it fascinating. It’s OK to want to learn about and understand the psyches of these monsters. But I didn’t watch the “Dahmer” series and I cannot fathom saying you had an “attraction” to serial killers or wanted to share a meal with one. Especially one who was a cannibal, FFS.
I cannot with this woman.
Kaiser – can you share more on that data re race and interest in true crime you mention? That is new to me.
She’s gone through some major trauma but instead of growing and maturing from it she appears to have regressed. It doesn’t help that she was never the brightest bulb either.
Talented but this plus her behavior in her personal life has really turned me off.
You’re 31 Ari.
Time to grow up.
@Keaton just FYI: trauma is never a teachable moment.
There is nothing to be learned.
Idk what her story is though.
People trying to explain her behavior here is because of her Manchester trauma are wrong, she said this to young fans years before that happened.
She is the ultimate pick me girl, that she could get this guy to love her and not be eaten.
He is the ultimate in unattainable, ever more of a notch on her bedpost than getting a married man in a happy marriage
Plus I also think she has a cluster B personality disorder and is fascinated with someone she sees has similar traits to her.
Such a child, forever a child
She’s insipid, a moron and completely lacking in empathy.