By Page Six | Created at 2026-08-08 12:51:45 | Updated at 2026-08-08 15:13:27
3 hours ago
As Ariana Grande prepares to take a step back from performing and public life amidst concerns about her health, insiders say her rekindled romance with Ricky Alvarez is a bright spot during a challenging time.
“He’s been super supportive of her. He’s been showing up on her tour,” said a source close to Grande, 33, whose gaunt appearance in her “Petal” video has drawn widespread concern. “They’ve known each other for a long time and they found their way back to each other.”‘
Alvarez, 35, first joined Grande’s team in 2014 as one of her backup dancers when she launched her hit single “Problem” at the 2014 Radio Disney Music Awards.
The pop star was just 20 years old at the time.
A year later, in 2015, Alvarez was brought on as a dancer for Grande’s Honeymoon tour.
The pair shared a kiss on stage while Grande was singing Madonna’s “Vogue” at a concert during Pride month in New York that June.
The following month, the couple unintentionally hard-launched their relationship on the Fourth of July weekend when a video of Grande appearing to lick a donut at a Los Angeles shop went viral.
While the strange clip eclipsed talk of their private life, it was the first time their relationship was confirmed publicly, with Grande kissing Alvarez inside the storefront.
After about a year together, the pair fizzled out.
“They were both in very different places in their lives,” a second source close to Alvarez told Page Six.
“They were younger, constantly on the road and trying to figure out who they were individually, so the timing just wasn’t right,” the source added. “There was never any bad blood between them, though, and they always cared about each other.”
“It wasn’t the right time for them,” a source close to the couple told Page Six. “Her career was taking off. They couldn’t find time for each other. They didn’t get a chance to see where things could go.”
In the decade that followed, Grande has been through an enormous amount of both professional and personal turmoil.
In May 2017, a suicide bombing at one of her concerts in Manchester, England, killed 22 people and injured hundreds. The singer was devastated.
“Broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words,” she wrote on social media just after.
She spoke more about her grief, PTSD and depression in the wake of the horrific attack on a Hollywood Reporter “Awards Chatter” podcast last year, saying, “I was doing so much therapy.”
More tragedy followed. In the fall of 2018, rapper Mac Miller, a longtime friend Grande had dated for a couple of years, died from an accidental overdose.
“I really can’t wrap my head around it,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “i’m so sad i don’t know what to do. you were my dearest friend. for so long. above anything else.
i’m so sorry i couldn’t fix or take your pain away. i really wanted to. the kindest, sweetest soul with demons he never deserved. i hope you’re okay now. rest.”
That same year, Grande got engaged to Pete Davidson after a whirlwind courtship that ultimately imploded. Then came a two-year marriage to real estate broker Dalton Gomez, followed by a highly publicized relationship with her “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater — and chatter that she was to blame for the dissolution of his marriage.
She and Slater quietly split this past June, after three years of dating.
“This wasn’t a decision they took lightly but realized they were better off friends than in a committed relationship,” a source told Page Six in June.
Meanwhile, starring in “Wicked,” while a dream role, also exacted a heavy toll on Grande.
“These films were a tremendous undertaking in every way for all of us… mentally, physically, emotionally… floating home sleepily at the end of every work day feeling like ‘husks’, we would always say,” the star wrote on Instagram in October 2025, ahead of the film’s release.
” ‘Wicked’ was an incredible experience, but it also demanded so much of her,” the source close to Grande added. “Then she went straight into new music and touring. She hasn’t really given herself much time to slow down.”
Indeed, Grande’s current struggles have been mounting for quite a while.
“People forget just how much Ariana has carried over the years,” the source added. “Between Manchester, losing Mac, everything that followed in her personal life, and then throwing herself into work for years, she’s been through so much. None of those experiences simply disappear just because time passes.”
Thankfully, Alvarez seems to offer a welcome respite from it all.
“Ricky has been someone she feels really comfortable with. He’s not trying to solve all of her problems,” the source said. “He’s just there for her. He’s supportive, encouraging and reminds her she doesn’t have to carry everything by herself.”
On her current tour, Grande has mentioned her new beau multiple times on amended versions of her hit, “Thank U, Next.”
On June 24 at her concert in Austin, Texas, she sang, “Wrote some songs about Ricky / And they still kinda slap.”
Two nights later at another show, Alvarez appeared to be dancing in the VIP section and Grande sang, “Wrote some songs about Ricky / I know he’s still got my back.”
Page Six has reached out to Grande.
