Ariana Grande she should have the best year of her life. Despite staying out of the limelight since 2020, her latest album eternal sun debuted at #1 in both the UK and US in March, receiving 58.1 million streams on Spotify on the day Alone was released. This week, River — in which Grande, 31, plays one of the main characters, Glinda — arrives in theaters after a colossal multimillion-dollar marketing campaign. It is already predicted to become one of the biggest box office hits of 2024.

Yet suddenly, no one is talking about Grande’s acting. Instead, her recent red carpet appearances to promote the film have sparked a flurry of online comments about her apparent weight loss, as her already petite frame appears slimmer than ever.

Shockingly, many fans openly wondered if the star might be suffering from an eating disorder, and even speculated whether Grande and co-star Cynthia Erivo – who, according to fans, has also lost a significant amount of weight – compete in a troubling “lean”. More critical fans have accused Grande, who last year defended her weight loss in an Instagram Live video saying she’s never been healthier, of promoting harmful body image standards for a young audience who are in a rush to watch Wicked, rated PG. After all, she has twice been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.

It’s the latest in a long line of controversies that have dogged Grande’s career since she found fame on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, after making her Broadway debut at 15 and shedding her girl-next-door image on who cultivated it on children’s TV.

After becoming one of the biggest pop stars of the 21st century, she was labeled a “diva”: rumored to be difficult to deal with, to have a list of forbidden interview questions, even to ask to be photographed only from the left side.