Ariana Grande is under fire for admitting she was "infatuated with serial killers" and would have loved to have had dinner with notorious cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer.
The '7 Rings' singer said on former Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley's podcast Podcrushed she had told a young fan about wishing she could have met the killer, who gruesomely murdered 17 boys and men between 1978 and 1991.
"I was infatuated with serial killers when I was younger," Grande said on the podcast.
"Years ago, before the Dahmer series, I was in a Q&A with young fans. With a parent present, someone asked, 'If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be?'
"And I replied, 'Oh, honey, you're so cute. Um, mom and dad, is it okay if I give the real answer?' And they said, 'Sure, what's the answer?'
"I said, 'Jeffrey Dahmer's pretty fascinating. I think I would have loved to have met him, maybe with a third party or something. But I have questions.' The parents responded, 'We'll explain it later, sweetheart'."
The confession has been criticised by online commenters decrying her response as "tone deaf" and disrespectful to Dahmer's victims.
"She is disgusting," one wrote on X.
"Agreed, I genuinely do not understand what she was going for here, the families of his victims are still very much alive and have said they hate that people glorify him and make shows about him and forget the victims. She thinks she's being edgy but she is just a tone deaf person who doesn't care about other people's pain," another wrote on X.
"This is so vile. I have a great interest in crime cases but the LAST thing I'd want to do is have dinner with a serial killer. Jeffrey Dahmer was a paedophile who murdered innocent people, mainly people of colour because he knew police wouldn't take their disappearances as seriously," another wrote.
But one Grande fan said they didn't feel her comments were out of line and demonstrated her long-standing love of true crime and the occult.
"Why would anyone be shocked when someone who's into the occult wants to hang out with a serial killer?"
Grande has not addressed the backlash.
