Ariana Grande has responded to Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson’s claim that the singer was her “shadiest” celebrity encounter, saying she’s “disheartened” by the story.
A TikTok of Peterson discussing an encounter with Ariana Grande recently went viral. According to Peterson, Grande rejected a photograph with the horror icon at one of her stage shows. The actress alleged that she had taken photos of Grande and her relatives at Grande’s request, but was declined a photo with the singer herself. According to Peterson, Grande rejected her by saying: “No, I don’t really do that.”
After the TikTok gained a lot of attention online, Elvira posted a screenshot of a news story covering the incident on Instagram. Ariana Grande has now responded to the Instagram post, explaining that she was suffering from anxiety during the event, which is why she may have declined the photo.
“i’m so disheartened to see this,” Ariana wrote. “i actually don’t even remember getting the chance to meet you because i had an anxiety attack and to my memory, left before the rest of my family.”
Ariana went on to note that the event in which she apparently snubbed Peterson was “around 7 years ago” and that she was “not really great with being in public crowds or loud places.” This time frame would mean that the event would have taken place shortly after the Manchester Arena attack, in which twenty-two people were killed during an Ariana Grande concert.
Grande continued: “If i’m misremembering this moment, i sincerely apologize for offending you so. thank you for being so nice to my mom, she told me how lovely you were (she might have different feelings about that now but i’ll talk to her… clearly, we all have our days!) sending love always. you’ll always be our queen of halloween!”
Fans also defended Ariana in the comments of Peterson’s post, with one writing: “people are so quick to turn to hatred, for such a petty reason too.”
Peterson has yet to respond to Ariana’s apology.
