Ariana Grande Says She’s Missing “A Few Years” Of Her Life — Here’s Why

Ariana Grande may have had her own “eternal sunshine” moment—except this one involved actual memory loss.

During a conversation on the February 3 episode of SmartLess, the 31-year-old pop star revealed that there are entire years from her past that she simply can’t remember. The surprising admission came up when Will Arnett recalled appearing on a “weird” U.K. talk show with her about a decade ago.

“No, you were great,” Arnett, 54, joked, after calling her behavior at the time “disgraceful.”

But Ariana? She had no memory of it.

“I’m missing a couple of years,” she confessed. “I’m super serious from that time. I’m literally missing a few years.”

Looking back on that time, Ariana admitted that her sudden rise to fame was overwhelming. When her debut album Yours Truly dropped, she was just 19 years old and still very much a theater kid at heart.

“I just never expected it to kind of take over the way that it sort of did in a beautiful way. I just think that there was no way to prepare for that,” she shared.

Before her pop career skyrocketed, the Positions singer had envisioned a different path for herself. It was just crazy because, when I was younger, especially after doing 13 on Broadway, I was kind of like, How cool? I get to be a part of the theater community. I can’t wait to be the understudy for the Thoroughly Modern Millie revival, and maybe be in the ensemble on the days when I’m not being the swing,” she recalled. 

Of course, things didn’t quite go that way. Instead, music took over her life in ways she never could have predicted.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ariana shared a sweet moment with Sean Hayes as they bonded over their love for Ethan Slater. Hayes, 54, called the Wicked star’s boyfriend “one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”

“Yes, he loves you so much,” Ariana responded.

“I love him too,” Hayes said in return, adding,  “He did Good Night, Oscar with me in Chicago. And then he was on Wicked and now you guys are dating, and I love that because you guys make a perfect couple.”