Ariana Grande Spotted With Ex-Boyfriend Ricky Alvarez for Her Birthday

THE RUNDOWN

• A video online showed Ariana Grande spending time with her ex-boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez.
• They were seated together for lunch in Austin, Texas, on Grande’s birthday.
• Though rumors of a reconciliation started circulating, the pair is reportedly just friends.

A video taken of Ariana Grande and her ex-boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez, started circulating on social media. It was reportedly recorded on Friday, June 26, the pop star’s 33rd birthday, in Austin, Texas, just ahead of Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour stop in the city.

The sighting has started rumors of a reconciliation, but a source speaking with TMZ said that Grande is celebrating her birthday by inviting friends to the city and Alvarez was included as one of those friends—and nothing else.

Another source only told People, “They’ve been hanging out recently.”

Grande and Alvarez dated for about a year beginning in 2015. Since then, she has publicly dated Mac Miller, Pete Davidson, and her Wicked co-star, Ethan Slater, following a brief marriage to real estate developer Dalton Gomez. Slater and Grande were confirmed to have split up earlier this month.

Grande and Alvarez have seemingly maintained a friendly relationship over the past decade, even though he was name-dropped in her 2018 hit “Thank U, Next.” At the time of its release, he shared a clip of himself listening to it in his Instagram Stories, showing his reaction to the line, “Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh.”

“Nothing but gratitude,” Alvarez wrote in his next post. “Thank you, next… (those songs are fire tho… you’re welcome).”

Grande reshared both his Stories, commenting, “HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH IM SORRY U GOT THE WORST LINE. It was meant v lovingly.”

During her June 26 performance of the track, Grande shifted the line, singing, “Wrote some songs about Ricky, I know he’s still got my back,” following another show where she sang, “Wrote some songs about Ricky, now they still kinda slap.”