Ariana Grande Recalls the Awkward Moment She Once Told Fans Jeffrey Dahmer Was 'Pretty Fascinating'

Grande told the hosts of 'Podcrushed' that she had an old story that was "not funny" but perhaps "fine" to share.

June 25, 2024

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.

In the second part of the interview (above), 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."

The 30-year-old continued, "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.'"

Grande's recollection of a moment that transpired about a decade ago caused a bit of a stir online this week, as comments about Jeffrey Dahmer tend to.

In 2022, Netflix's controversial, popular miniseries led many of the surviving families of Dahmer's victims to protest the dramatization of a man who murdered a confirmed 17 people. Ryan Murphy, the show's creator, claimed that none of them responded to his requests for input.