Pete Davidson figured his relationship with Ariana Grande was over when her ex, rapper Mac Miller, died of a drug overdose in September 2018.
“I totally got it ‘cause we were only together for a few months,” Davidson said in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God. “I was like, ‘Listen … I get it, do whatever you got to do, I’ll be here.’
“I think I said 'I’ll be here until you don’t want me to be here.’ I pretty much knew it was over after that.”
In a social media post shortly after Miller’s death, Grande wrote: “i adored you from the day i met you when i was nineteen and i always will.”
Davidson described Miller’s death “really horrible” and said Grande’s public grief was genuine. “She really loved the s**t out of him, and she wasn’t putting on a show or anything,” he said.
Davidson and Grande were engaged shortly after they started dating in May 2018 but by October they were done. A month later, Grande released the song “Thank U, Next,” in which she sings: “Even almost got married / and for Pete, I'm so thankful.”
The comedian has come under fire from some Grande fans for cracking jokes about the pop star in his new streaming special.
Davidson said fair is fair. “Stand-up is a part of my life, that was a highly publicized thing [and] I feel like she got her fair run and her fair stab at it,” he explained. “I don’t have social media and I don’t have an outlet really to express my feelings so stand-up’s just how I do it.”
He called Grande “the queen of shade” and said he understands “that’s her job, that’s her aura.” Davidson added: “I hope people feel the same way about my jokes.”
Earlier in the conversation, Davidson opened up about how it felt to be repeatedly identified as Grande's ex. "It hurts. It definitely hurts," he said, adding that he had a career before meeting the singer. "It sucks for like a six-month thing to completely take over that. It’s definitely a little bit of a punch in the gut."