Ariana Grande’s seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, dropped on Friday to glowing reviews, and its subject matter—a mix of musings on a controversial new relationship and heartbroken assessments of a love gone sour—has inevitably spurred analysis from fans. In particular, many listeners are postulating that the pop star’s lyrics reveal that her ex-husband, real estate agent Dalton Gomez, may have cheated on her.
On the album’s second track, “bye,” Grande begins on a magnanimous note, singing, “I know how hard we tried, both you and me.” But as the song progresses, her tone shifts: “Maybe someday we’ll look back with love / Didn’t think you’d lose me / Now it’s just too late to choose me.”
Grande announced last summer that she and Gomez had split after two years of marriage. She officially filed for divorce in September 2023.
On the album’s title track, Grande gets more explicit about a past flame. “I don’t care what people say / We both know I couldn’t change you… I’ve never seen someone lie like you do… So now we play our separate scenes / Now, now she’s in my bed, mm-mm, layin’ on your chest.”
“Hope you feel all right when you’re in her,” Grande trills on the song’s chorus.
Potentially even more damning are the bars that allude to a partner’s indifference to her pain. On “don’t wanna break up again,” for instance, she sings, “I fall asleep cryin’ / You turn up the TV / You don’t wanna hear me.”
Fans are also coming to the conclusion that Eternal Sunshine functions as a rebuttal to the tabloid rumors plaguing Grande’s recent romance with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. The actor reportedly separated from his wife, with whom he shares a young son, shortly before his relationship with Grande became official.
“Ariana was being called a homewrecker by the ENTIRE internet only for HER HUSBAND TO HAVE BEEN CHEATING ON HER????” one outraged fan posited on X. “LIKE DONT PLAY WITH ME RN.”
Last month, Grande touched on the tabloid speculation about her new relationship when she said in an interview, “We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based on whether or not we like the person. We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance… Of course, there is an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling in watching people misunderstand the people you love—and you.”
