Wait, Is Ariana Telling Us She Was Cheated On In Eternal Sunshine?
“I’ve never seen someone lie like you do.”
After a year darkened by gossip about her love life, Ariana Grande stepped into the light on her new album Eternal Sunshine. And those sunbeams seemed to illuminate a scandal that nobody knew about. As fans parsed through the heavy lyrics to Grande’s new tracks, a few pointed words stood out among the rest. Namely, it sure sounds like Grande is alleging her ex-husband, Dalton Gomez, was cheating on her when they were married.
A lot about Grande’s two-year marriage to Gomez is unknown. Their relationship was fast-tracked by global lockdown, as they got engaged just months after they started dating in 2020. By the summer of 2021, they were married, but their wedded bliss took a turn in 2023 as they filed for divorce amid rumors that Grande had started dating her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.
The bulk of Eternal Sunshine is focused on Grande’s recent romantic experiences, whether she’s cooing love songs like “Supernatural” or laying claim to her man in “The Boy Is Mine.” But the cuts that really stand out are the ones that seem to take aim at Gomez. On revelatory tracks like “True Story” and “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande seems to imply that Gomez cheated on her. Even some of the production moments are suspicious, as fans noticed a sonic allusion to Beyoncé’s Lemonade, the album where the pop star famously exposed her husband’s infidelity.
Here are the songs that seem to dish out the juiciest tea on what really happened between Grande and Gomez.
“True Story”
The most pointed breakup track on the album, Grande asserts that she’s finally ready to tell the truth about a failed relationship. She details how her ex would play games with her heart, and hid late-night encounters from her: “Turnin’ like a dime, wastin’ all their time / Sneakin’ like a creep in the night.”
Grande also addresses how she handled the fallout from the breakup, as the media painted her as the “villain” during the drama. She tells her ex she’ll take on the “bad girl” role, implying that he must not have been so innocent himself: “I’ll play the villain if you need me to / I know how this goes, yeah.”
“Eternal Sunshine”
The title track may sound sunny, but it includes Grande’s darkest allegations of all. “I’ve never seen someone lie like you do / So much, even you start to think it’s true,” Grande sings at the start of the song.
As the confessional continues, Grande make her most explicit claims about an ex cheating on her in her own bed. “Now she’s in my bed, layin’ on your chest,” Grande sings, later adding, “Hope you feel alright when you’re in her.”
The singer mourns how she completely opened up to her partner, but he manipulated her feelings: “I showed you all my demons, all my lies / Yet you played me like Atari.”
“Don’t Wanna Break Up Again”
As the name suggests, “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again” focuses on Grande’s internal struggles over letting go of a past romance. In hindsight, she can now recognize that she was the one putting all of the work into the relationship: “I made it so easy / Spent so much on therapy / Blamed my own codependency / But you didn’t even try.”
The line that has Grande’s fans most upset is when she describes crying in her bed, but rather than console her, her partner turns the volume on the television up to drown out her sobs: “I fall asleep cryin’ / You turn up the TV / You don’t wanna hear me.”
“We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)”
Another emotional track about the confusing feelings at the end of a relationship, Grande sings about having to hide her truth from a world that misunderstands her: “Me and my truth, we sit in silence.”
She alleges that a former partner “made” her into an object that she doesn’t like: “Know that you made me / I don’t like how you paint me, yet I’m still here hanging.” It’s familiar imagery for Grande, who also described herself as a misguided painting in her 2019 song “In My Head.” In that song, rumored to be inspired by her breakup with Pete Davidson, Grande lamented having painted herself to be someone she’s not for a relationship. It sounds like in her latest breakup, it was her partner painting her to be a certain way.
