Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s friendship reigned over social media throughout the press tour for Wicked, and arguably created more noise than the movie itself.
In interviews, the 39-year-old actress and singer was often seen being protective of Grande, 32, or the costars voicing their affection towards each other.
While it seemed wholesome to many people, some were dissecting the nature of their friendship, either calling it fake or something more than a friendship.
Addressing the whole debate on the internet, the Broadway star recently said in an interview, “It’s very interesting, watching what people’s perception is versus what the reality actually is. Lots of psychologists seated at home deciding who we were, what we were going through, what we were doing and why.”
Erivo continued, “I think that people didn’t really believe that we were actually friends. But that’s also because people don’t know me very well. If I’m a friend, then I’m a friend. If I’m not, then I’m not.”
This was not the first time the Harriet star has spoken about the out-of-context commentaries over her friendship with the Side to Sidehitmaker.
She previously shut down the comments accusing them of pulling a PR stunt and claimed that the reason people don’t consider their bond normal is because they’re not used to seeing healthy, close platonic friendships among women.
2026-05-27 22:20:00
