Ariana Grande is the cover star of the July 2018 issue of British Vogue. Photographed by Craig McDean and styled by Kate Phelan with hair by Chris Appleton and make-up by Mark Carrasquillo, Grande wears a Chanel autumn/winter 2018 lace dress with jewelled straps for her #NewVogue debut.
Inside the issue, the popstar and social-media titan shares details of her difficult and transformative past year with Vogue’s Giles Hattersley, including how she coped with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of the Manchester bombing. “It's hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss. But, yeah, it's a real thing,” she says. “I know those families and my fans, and everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well. Time is the biggest thing. I feel like I shouldn't even be talking about my own experience – like I shouldn't even say anything. I don't think I'll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”
At home in her curiously decorated mansion in Beverly Hills, she goes on to give Vogue a preview of her fourth album, Sweetener. "I think a lot of people have anxiety, especially right now," she says, as a pounding song concludes. How is your anxiety, Hattersley asks? "My anxiety has anxiety… I've always had anxiety. I've never really spoken about it because I thought everyone had it, but when I got home from tour it was the most severe I think it's ever been." She was back in the studio the day after finishing her concert commitments in Asia, South America and Australia in September 2017, a decision, that is, she explains, down to being a workaholic. "Everybody thought I was crazy when I got home and wanted to hit the ground running."
Read the full interview with Grande in the July issue, which is out on newsstands on June 8.