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Sleb Safari: Ariana Grande speaks up for women in toxic relationships

Maeve Connoly

Maeve Connolly

Maeve is the deputy digital editor at The Irish News. She has worked for the company since 2000.

Ariana Grande in her celestial gown at the Met Gala 2018
Ariana Grande in her celestial gown at the Met Gala 2018 Ariana Grande in her celestial gown at the Met Gala 2018

THIS week’s hat tip goes to Ariana Grande who responded with aplomb when it was suggested she should take responsibility for the actions of an ex-boyfriend with substance abuse problems.

Mac Miller had a car accident while reportedly drink driving and one of his fans tried to lay the blame at Ariana's door. She was having none of it.

“Mac Miller totalling [sic] his G wagon and getting a DUI after Ariana Grande dumped him for another dude after he poured his heart out on a ten song album to her called the divine feminine is just the most heartbreaking thing happening in Hollywood,” the person tweeted.

Ariana sent this measured reply and won the day:

“How absurd that you minimise female self respect and self worth by saying someone should stay in a toxic relationship because he wrote an album about them, which btw isn’t the case (just Cinderella is ab me). I am not a babysitter or a mother and no woman should feel that they need to be.

"I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety and prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course) but shaming/blaming women for a man’s inability to keep his sh*t together is a very major problem. Let’s please stop doing that. Of course I didn’t share about how hard or scary it was while it was happening, but it was.

“I will continue to pray from the bottom of my heart that he figures it all out and that any other woman woman in this position does as well."

Ariana Grande 1. Mac Miller fan 0.

Ariana Grande at the One Love Manchester concert
Ariana Grande at the One Love Manchester concert Ariana Grande at the One Love Manchester concert

Ariana has had a difficult 12 months. It was at her concert in Manchester Arena on May 22 last year that a terrorist detonated a bomb which killed 22 people and injured hundreds.

Only recently has she spoken about it publicly, telling Time magazine that the suicide bombing was "the absolute worst of humanity".

"That’s why I did my best to react the way I did. The last thing I would ever want is for my fans to see something like that happen and think it won”.

Aided by her management team Ariana, who was a traumatised 23-year-old at that point, arranged a fund raising concert in the city two weeks after the atrocity.

“Music is supposed to be the safest thing in the world,” Ariana told Time. “I think that’s why it’s still so heavy on my heart every single day... You think with time it’ll become easier to talk about. Or you’ll make peace with it. But every day I wait for that peace to come and it’s still very painful.”

Earlier this month she rocked up to the Met Gala wearing a beautiful dress screen-printed with images from Michelangelo's fresco The Last Judgement which graces the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.

It was her first red carpet since the Manchester Arena bombing and her celestial dress was perfect. Sleb Safari tips its hat to Ariana for the clear message she's sends to her young fans about respect, self worth, love and compassion.

Simon Cowell's son already shaping up to be a mogul

AND so to Casa Cowell where Simon is “sort of training” his four-year-old son Eric to take over the family business.

Simon opened up to the Loose Women about his hopes and dreams for little Eric and was asked if he would like his son to follow in his footsteps.

“Oh, a million per cent. I think about that all the time. I would love him to take over. He’s really confident. When he comes down here, he knows what everybody does. He likes being in the gallery. That will be my dream.”

Presumably Simon will wait until Eric has at least one year of school under his belt before he lets him loose in the office.

Rebel Wilson wants to remake Crocodile Dundee

Rebel Wilson wants to reboot Crocodile Dundee and play the part of Mick Dundee which sounds like a barking but brilliant idea.

She says she contacted Paul Hogan about the idea but he wasn't keen. Spoilsport. Make it happen Rebel.

Social Media Smut

You have to love Chrissy Teigen using Twitter to call out double standards. She got grief when she and John Legend went out for dinner a week after their daughter Luna was born and so when he appeared on TV a few days after baby Miles was born Chrissy trolled her husband to get her point across.