Ariana Grande speaks out after comments about her body during Wicked press tour

Ariana Grande has responded to comments about her appearance while on the press tour for Wicked: For Good.

The celebrity is sadly no stranger to unsolicited comments about her body, and over the weekend, she took to her Instagram stories to show how she deals with the unwanted comments.

On 29 November, Grande shared an old post from her press tour for the first Wicked movie last year.

Grande has recently reprised her role of Glinda in Wicked: For Good, a sequel to the 2024 movie adaptation of the hit stage musical, Wicked.

Making a pointed reference to how she now deals with remarks about her appearance, the actor wrote: “Resharing this from last year as a loving reminder to all."

Ariana Grande and her co-star Cynthia Erivo on the recent Wicked: For Good press tour (Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty)

The post showed a screengrab of an interview she had alongside co-star Cynthia Erivo for the web series Oui Oui Baguette, which saw the 32-year-old singer reflect on how the constant stream of comments about her body has affected her.

In an evocative comment, she described herself as being 'in a petri-dish' due to the level of scrutiny that she faces, which she explained is often saying contradictory things.

“I've been doing this in front of the public, and been a specimen in a petri-dish since I was 16 or 17,” she said in the original post.

“So I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what's wrong with me."

Grande reposted an old interview on Instagram over the weekend (Instagram/@arianagrande)

She added: "And then you fix it, and then it's wrong for different reasons.”

She went on to talk about how, while she is more in the public eye than most people, it's horrible for anyone to be subject to that.

“It’s hard to protect yourself from that noise,” she said. "And I think it's something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you're experiencing it on.”

Grande added: “I'm really lucky to have the support system that I have and to know and trust that I'm beautiful.”

The singer has opened up about the public discussion about her body (Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)

Grande previously spoke about the negative impact that attention to her appearance brought in an interview with the New York Times on 5 November, but has since learned to manage the effect it has on her.

“I’ve never felt this connected to my art or inspired, and that’s been such a tremendous gift,” she said.

“It’s like, ‘I don’t actually have to take on those things that were projected onto me. I can focus on my art and that can be a separate entity.’

"But I had to give myself the permission to think that.”