may to october 2018: together, engaged, tattooed, written about, over. the whole thing lasted less time than most album rollouts.
the short answer
they began dating in may 2018, were engaged by june, and the relationship ended that october — about five months in total. they were never married. it produced a track named after him on sweetener, a large amount of the internet's 2018 output, and one of the four names on thank u, next.
the timeline
| when | what |
|---|---|
| may 2018 | the relationship becomes public, weeks after her previous one ended. |
| june 2018 | the engagement is confirmed. |
| july–august 2018 | sweetener is released, carrying a short instrumental-led track titled pete davidson. |
| september 2018 | mac miller dies. |
| october 2018 | the engagement ends. |
| november 2018 | thank u, next is released, naming him among four former partners. |
why it was so loud
two things collided. the first is that both of them were, at that moment, at the peak of their willingness to conduct a relationship on social media — this was the last era in which that was uncomplicatedly normal for people at that level of fame, and they were extremely good at it.
the second is timing. the five months of this relationship contain sweetener, an engagement, mac miller's death and the writing of thank u, next. that is more consequential events than most careers fit into five years, and the compression is why people's memory of the order is so unreliable.
what it left on the records
- pete davidson — a short track on sweetener, written and titled during the engagement and left on the album afterwards.
- thank u, next — names him third of four, and handles him with more grace than the moment required.
- in my head — the thank u, next track most often read as being about the relationship, though she has never tied it to one person and this page will not either.
what it changed
the most durable consequence is not a song. it is that she has conducted every relationship since almost entirely off the internet. the marriage that followed, to dalton gomez, was announced as a fact after the fact — an engagement in a post, a wedding with fewer than twenty people and no photographs for a week.
read against 2018, that is not shyness. it is somebody who watched a relationship become a public event and decided never to hand over the raw material again, and it is the single clearest before-and-after line in her public life.
questions people ask
how long were ariana grande and pete davidson together?
about five months — from may 2018 until october 2018, with the engagement announced in june.
were ariana grande and pete davidson married?
no. they were engaged for roughly four months and never married. her only marriage was to dalton gomez.
is there an ariana grande song called pete davidson?
yes. a short track on sweetener, written during the engagement and left on the album after it ended.
why did ariana grande and pete davidson break up?
neither has given a single public reason, and the period contained mac miller's death and an enormous amount of public pressure. anything more specific than that is speculation.