Here's What We Know About Ariana Grande & Victoria Justice's Complicated Relationship
Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice have known each other for quite some time after meeting initially back in 2010 on the set of the Nickelodeon show Victorious. But since their meeting, there has been a lot of rumored drama around the two women. More recently, the pot was stirred again after Grande invited some of her old co-stars to be in her new "Thank U, Next" music video and seemingly left out Justice. So, what gives? Are Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice friends? Or are they still reportedly feuding with one another after all of these years? Let's do a little bit of digging to find out where they stand.
Let's take things back to when Justice and Grande worked together on Victorious, from its debut in 2010 until the show's cancellation in 2013. Things still seemed to be relatively peachy between the two co-stars until, after it was revealed that the show would end, the pair started something of a Twitter feud, and it looked as though each placed blame on the other for the show's downfall.
Grande reportedly took to ask.fm in February 2013 and allegedly wrote that the reason Victorious ended "is because 1 girl didn't want to do it. She chose to do a solo tour instead of a cast tour. If we had done a cast tour Nickelodeon would have ordered another season of Victorious while Sam and Cat filmed simultaneously but she chose otherwise. I'm sick of this bs."
Justice seemingly fired back at Grande in defense, writing, "Some people would throw some1 they consider a friend under the bus just 2 make themselves look good. #StopBeingAPhony #IfTheyOnlyKnew." Both comments have since been deleted, but we all know that once something is posted to the internet, it stays on the internet. That is, if it's real.
Things only got worse in 2014, when Seventeen interviewed Grande, and she alluded to the fact that she was bullied on set by one of her co-stars. Grande told the magazine,
I worked with someone who told me they'd never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.
Considering this was all just months after their Twitter fallout, it seemed like Justice was the obvious choice, but almost immediately after the interview was debuted, Grande claimed that the magazine misquoted her and twisted her words.
Believable. (???)
Grande took to her Tumblr page to reveal that she wasn't talking about Victorious, and wrote that she was "a little too vague in my interview and conclusions were drawn and fingers were pointed," adding that she was "upset" and "disappointed" with the misrepresentation. She wrote,
My years filming Victorious were some of the HAPPIEST of my life and that cast is family to me. (The stories I were sharing were actually from 2008 when I was on Broadway. Was an amazing experience but a tough time for me.) Please please don’t send hate to anyone. It’s undeserved.
Then in 2015, Justice made an appearance on The Meredith Vieira Show to finally put all the rumors to bed.
"I would love to set the record straight because I feel these rumors have been going on for way too long," Justice told the audience before explaining ~the situation~ between her and Grande.
"So basically, there was an article in Seventeen magazine where [Ariana] had said that she was bullied on set, and the magazine basically alluded to it being me," Justice began. She continued, saying, "Once the article came out — actually before it came out — she texted me privately, and she was like, 'Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. You know how the media twists words. I was not talking about you obviously, I was talking about someone on Broadway I had worked with.' But once it got out there everyone thought that I was this bully and mean to her, which couldn’t be further from the truth."
Justice ended her story by telling the audience Grande's "talked about it, I’ve talked about it, there is no feud."
You can watch the whole thing below:
So, does this mean that the two are BFF's? Wellll. Not quite.
As we all know, Grande's "Thank U, Next" music video was a Victorious reunion, and included former co-stars Elizabeth Gillies, Daniella Monet, and Matt Bennet, who played Jade West, Trina Vega, and Robbie Shapiro on the show, respectively. Notably absent was — yep, you guessed it — Victoria Justice.
Luckily, Justice commented on Grande's Instagram post about the video's release, praising her former co-star's accomplishment. "Congrats," Justice commented on Grande's post, adding "the video is awesome!"
In true Ariana Grande form, the singer replied back with a simple heart, which has to mean that the pair are on good terms, right? Right?
Look. At the end of the day, it's pretty apparent that they're friendly with each other. And, while they're *probably* not first on each others' speed dial, I think I can be cool with that — and so should the rest of the world.
OK? OK.
