Ariana Grande has been spotted hanging out with ex-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez in Austin, Texas, but sources are moving quickly to shut down any suggestion of a romantic rekindling.
Photos circulating on social media showed the Thank U, Next singer smiling and chatting with her former backup dancer at a restaurant on Thursday, sparking immediate speculation.
Grande is currently in Austin for her Eternal Sunshine tour, and a source told TMZ she was simply celebrating her 33rd birthday with friends.
There “is nothing romantic between Ariana and Ricky this time around,” the source said. She was also spotted taking photos with fans during the outing.
Grande and Alvarez, both 33, were briefly romantically linked after he joined her Honeymoon Tour in 2015.
They have remained friends since, and Grande referenced him warmly in her 2019 hit Thank U, Next, singing “Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh.”
The pair were also seen spending time together in New York in 2019, prompting similar rumour spirals, which Grande swiftly shut down at the time via a since-deleted tweet declaring she was dating “no one.”
The latest sighting comes just weeks after news broke of her split from Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, 34, with whom she had been quietly broken up for several months before the story became public earlier this month.
“Ariana and Ethan broke up several months ago but they’ve remained friends since then and have nothing but respect and admiration for one another,” a source told Page Six on 8 June.
“This wasn’t a decision they took lightly but realized they were better off friends than in a committed relationship.”
Grande, by all accounts, is in a good place.
The same source noted she was “feeling really happy and focused on the next chapter with her Eternal Sunshine tour and the upcoming release of her album Petal.”
A birthday dinner with old friends, however it might look to the internet, appears to be exactly that.
