Women's Lifestyle July 28, 2026 0 Comments

Why Ariana Grande’s Ex Hangouts Are Breaking All the Rules—and How You Can Do It Too!

So, Ariana Grande is tearing up stages on her Eternal Sunshine tour, but that’s not the only headline-making move lately—she’s also caught up in a whirlwind reunion with Ricky Alvarez, her backup dancer beau from years back. Spotted strolling NYC’s Upper West Side with her dog in tow, these nostalgic escapades have got me wondering: why is the world so fascinated when celebs cozy back up with their exes, while the rest of us side-eye the idea like it’s romantic Russian roulette? It’s a curious paradox — we might shy away from texting an ex ourselves, yet we binge-watch and cheer when it happens in the spotlight. Could it be that watching famous folks dabble in “what if?” scenarios feels like vicarious thrill-seeking without the heartbreak baggage? Or maybe it’s just the ultimate pop culture rollercoaster we secretly crave. Either way, these celebrity reunions are stirring up more than just gossip—they’re reminding us all of the magnetic pull between risk, romance, and redemption. Fancy unpacking this celeb love labyrinth a bit more? LEARN MORE

4 min read

Ariana Grande is currently wowing fans with the long-awaited Eternal Sunshine tour, but there is another development that has my news feed buzzing: Grande’s reunion with Ricky Alvarez, a backup dancer who she dated from 2015 to 2016. The couple was spotted on a walk in New York City’s Upper West Side with Grande’s dog, and in a string of public outings, including a dinner for the pop star’s birthday.

Grande isn’t the only celebrity who seems to have rekindled things with an ex recently. Last week, Australian pop prince Troye Sivan—coincidentally, her friend and frequent collaborator—posted a selfie with Jacob Bixenman, who he dated from 2016 to 2020. Fans immediately demanded that he and Grande release a track about getting back with your ex, and some even asked: “Does this mean I should text my ex?”

Of course, getting back with your ex is a famously terrible idea, at least according to conventional wisdom. But there tends to be a supportive reaction when famous people do it. We may be risk-averse in our own romantic lives, but we love watching our fantasies play out on the pop cultural stage.

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Bennifer in 2024

Back in the mid-2010s, when Grande started to free herself from the very PG-13 confines of Nickelodeon stardom, I was struck by the sense of liberation in her music. Songs like “Into You” and “Side to Side” weren’t just sexy bops; they were a mission statement for the confident young woman she was becoming. And as she continued to carve out her own distinct niche—R&B-infused pop tracks that let her vocals shine—her romantic relationships became her main source of inspiration.

Whether it was her whirlwind engagement with comedian Pete Davidson, her short-lived marriage to Dalton Gomez, or more recently her (heavily scrutinized) union with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, Grande’s relationship timeline has often felt like a form of performance art. In 2019, she nodded to this crossover herself with “thank u, next,” a song about being “so fucking grateful” for her exes and the lessons she had learned from them.

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Grande and Alvarez on stage together in 2015

Now that Grande is back with Alvarez—the second guy she name-checked on the 2019 bop—I’ve been fascinated by the fan reaction. In the “real world,” there is a stigma to getting back with your ex. It depends on the circumstances, of course, but it’s often perceived as a sign of weakness to take someone back, especially if they have mistreated you. We all have that friend who can’t seem to stop giving assholes another shot—because it’s so different this time!—only for it to implode even worse the next time.

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Troye Sivan and Jacob Bixenman in 2019

Fans seem to be much more supportive—celebratory, even—when celebrities get back with an ex. The most famous example here is, of course, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who famously got back together and married in 2022—a whole two decades after they were originally engaged in 2002. Following their 2024 divorce after just two years of marriage, “Bennifer” have remained on good terms and are frequently spotted together. And honestly? I wouldn’t be surprised if they had one more reconciliation in them, because they’re basically Gen X’s answer to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

There are countless other celebrity couples with an on-again, off-again history. Justin and Hailey Bieber broke up for two years—which the skincare mogul described as a “dramatic excommunication”—before getting back together and tying the knot. Rap royalty Cardi B and Offset have broken up, filed for divorce, and gotten back together multiple times, rekindling their tumultuous romance as recently as 2026 before reportedly breaking up yet again.

And speaking of (literal) royalty, Prince William and Kate Middleton famously broke up in 2004 and 2007, before eventually reuniting and marrying in 2011 in front of a global audience of two billion people. (Now how’s that for a fairy-tale ending?)

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Cardi B and Offset in 2023

When it comes to the fan support of celebrity reunions, there are a couple of things happening here. From Shakespeare to Emily Brontë, the most enduring stories about romance rely on the narrative device of breaking up and getting back together. In romantic comedies, it’s expected that there is an inevitable fall (the breakup) before the happy ending (the reconciliation). And from sitcoms like Friends to hospital dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy and ER, mainstream culture’s most iconic IP loves nothing more than an on-again, off-again couple at the center of a story.

What’s changed more recently is that, as a downstream effect of social media—and our increasingly parasocial relationships with celebrities—we tend to view famous people as real-life characters acting out these narratives for our entertainment. And this is a two-way street, with pop stars like Taylor Swift and Grande feeding into this process themselves by writing songs about their relationships.

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Alvarez and Grande at the airport in 2016

There’s something even deeper going on, though. The frenzied level of interest when a famous couple gets back together isn’t driven just by a collective yearning for a happily-ever-after, but by the knowledge that we’ll all be far removed from the fallout if and when it all goes wrong. It’s like how horror movies allow us to engage with our worst fears, such as violence and death, in a safe way. If you’ve ever had a subconscious voice ask “Should I text my ex?”, watching Ariana and Troye reunite with their exes is a thrill because it lets you live out the fantasy without risking the heartbreak or embarrassment yourself.

It’s the risk of getting back with an ex that we’re most drawn to in this scenario. In a throwaway dating culture, perhaps the most alluring fantasy of all is that you don’t need to search for “the one.” What if you’ve already found them?