Ariana Grande Makes Powerful Statement for Mental Health Support

Ariana Grande is using her voice once again for the greater good— this time advocating for record labels to take artists’ mental health more seriously. In a new podcast episode for WTF With Marc Maron, the pop princess echoed sentiments first broadcast by Chappell Roan at the 2025 Grammys.

Grande stressed, “It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make it a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale.”

She added, “You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week,” explaining how fame quickly changes a person’s life and how everybody is vulnerable to struggling with mental health.

The Wicked star first launched her Hollywood career as Cat Valentine in the hit Nickelodeon series, Victorious at 16. She revealed how there was “no limit” to the mass after leaving the network to become a full-time singer. “I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me, and it’s just a crazy piece of the puzzle. It’s something you work so hard to try and understand, and it will never make sense to me,” the singer expressed.

Additionally, Grande has been open about her struggles with mental health as a young star in the past. In her BBC special in 2018, Grande was quoted, “It feels so silly because I feel like the luckiest, most blessed girl in the world, so I almost feel guilty that I have [anxiety] because it’s just in your head and it’s just so crazy how powerful it is, no matter how good things are, it can totally change everything,”

After the horrific attack in Manchester at her Dangerous Woman Tour in 2017 that killed 22 people, Grande struggled with PTSD, and the Sweetener album was part of her therapeutic process. The critically acclaimed album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2018 and received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. The song “Get Well Soon” was inspired by those PTSD struggles. The r.e.m beauty founder went on to orchestrate the One Love Manchester benefit concert which raised millions of British pounds for the families of the victims.

She suffered another loss the following year when rapper and ex-boyfriend Mac Miller died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. The two dated for two years and broke up amicably. The loss hit Grande hard, and she adopted Miller’s dog after his death.

In a separate interview, Grande explained music being her survival: “I was doing so much therapy, and I was dealing with PTSD and all different kinds of grief and depression, and anxiety. I was, of course, treating it very seriously, but having music be a part of that remedy was absolutely contributing to saving my life.”