Entertainment
Seeing as how they might be engaged after just a month of publicly dating, now is as good a time as any to do a quick review of Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson's relationship timeline. Believe it or not, the couple likely first clicked as far back as 2016, but it'd take two years before they started showing love for each other all over the 'Gram. (Bustle reached out to Grande and Davidson's reps about the engagement reports, but did not receive an immediate response.)
The first time Grande and Davidson were snapped together was when Davidson popped in on Grande's opening monologue on the March 12, 2016 episode of Saturday Night Live. Could they have potentially met before then? Sure. This was the first documented point of contact, though.
Whether or not sparks flew that night remains to be seen, but both Grande and Davidson were in relationships with other people at the time, and both of them would remain in those relationships until May 2018. Slightly suspicious or sweetly serendipitous? TBD.
It's hard to believe that May 2018 was only a few weeks ago. Things between Grande and Davidson escalated really quickly in a short amount of time. In case you've missed any of the updates, here's a quick breakdown of their most important milestones.
March 2016: Grande & Davidson (Probably) Meet For The First Time On 'Saturday Night Live'
Grande was both the host and the musical guest on the Mar. 12, 2016 episode of SNL. Davidson made a pretty hilarious appearance at the end of her opening monologue, asking the singer, “Do you want to smoke some pot or something?”
At the time, though, both Grande and Davidson were basically on the verge of being in committed relationships with other people. There's a chance they were already in relationships with other people during Grande's SNL gig, but neither the singer nor the comedian would publicly confirm anything about their love lives until later.
April 2016-May 2018: Davidson Dates Cazzie David
According to The Cut, Davidson first met Cazzie David back in 2015, when her dad — Larry David, maybe you've heard of him? — was hosting SNL. They first made their relationship Instagram official in April 2016, Perez Hilton pointed out, and would continue to post loved-up pics together over the course of the next two years.
"I just love her very, very much," Davidson said of David to People in May 2016.
The following year, after Davidson reportedly returned from rehab in March 2017, the comedian gave a shout-out to his supportive girlfriend in an Instagram post (which has since been deleted) explaining his recent absence.
"Just wanted to let you guys know I’m okay," he wrote. "I know I've kinda been missing, on social media and on the show. I quit drugs and am happy and sober for the first time in 8 years. It wasn't easy, but I got a great girl, great friends and I consider myself a lucky man."
August 2016-May 2018: Grande Dates Mac Miller
Grande and rapper Mac Miller first appeared in public together as a couple at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. They'd long-been friends before they got together romantically, though, having met way back in 2012 while collaborating on a few tracks.
"We hung out for a long time and everything just happened organically," Miller told People of dating Grande in September 2016. "We love making music together — we do that always. But she’s my best friend in the world."
Grande and Miller — much like Davidson and David — loved to show love for each other on Instagram during their two-year relationship, and made the whole world collectively say "aww" when they performed together at the One Love Manchester benefit in June 2017.
May 10, 2018: Grande Confirms Split From Miller
On May 9, 2018, TMZ reported that Grande and Miller had gone their separate ways. Shortly thereafter, Grande confirmed the split by sharing a photo of her and Miller on her Instagram Story with the caption,
"Hi! This is one of my best friends in the whole world and favorite people on the planet, Malcolm McCormick [aka Mac Miller]," Grande wrote. "I respect and adore him endlessly, and am grateful to have him in my life in any form, at all times, regardless of how our relationship changes or what the universe holds for each of us!"
The singer continued, "Unconditional love is not selfish. It is wanting the best for that person even if at the moment, it's not you. <3 I can't wait to know and support you forever, and I'm so proud of you!"
May 16, 2018: Davidson Confirms Split From David
Less than a week after Grande confirmed her split with Miller, Davidson revealed during an interview with Complex’s Open Late with Peter Rosenberg that he and David had also decided to break up.
"We’re not together anymore," Davidson told Rosenberg. "Very talented girl, she’ll be great and she’ll be fine. Yeah, I think she’ll be OK."
May 18, 2018: The Grande & Davidson Dating Rumors Begin
On May 18, Bossip was the first to report that Grande and Davidson were dating. The world was, well, shook. They didn't exactly seem like the most likely pair, but oh, how wrong we all were.
Fans on Twitter went wild trying to glean insight into whether or not the rumor was true. One fan in particular, @theAGparadise, created a thread with a slew of confirmation clues (including matching cloud tattoos, matching cloud phone cases, etc.) and gave props to an "investigator who predicted things BEFORE Bossip caught on." Hmm, interesting.
May 30, 2018: Grande & Davidson Make It Instagram Official
Lo and behold, on May 30, Davidson posted a picture with Grande that finally confirmed everyone's suspicions. Yes, they were, in fact, together and, as it turns out, they're both huge Harry Potter fans.
That first photo basically opened the floodgates for Davidson and Grande to start sharing cute couple pics (and comments) all over Instagram. There was this video of Davidson talking Harry Potter facts and theories, this pic of the pair pre-kiss at Kanye West and Kid Cudi's album release listening party, and this snuggled-up sweetness, which is almost just too much to handle.
June 11, 2018: They're ... Engaged?
This has got to be some kind of record. On June 11, after a few weeks of dating, Us Weekly reported that Grande and Davidson had gotten engaged. "They are a perfect fit," a source told the publication. "They are not rushing to get married. Their friends are really excited and supportive."
Apparently, People got a confirmation from someone "close to the couple," as well. "It’s a recent engagement," the source said, and like, duh the whole relationship is recent.
They continued, "[Grande and Davidson are] just two people who found love quickly and make each other happy all the time. They both started talking about it this past weekend. It’s nothing they’ve been hiding." (Neither Grande nor Davidson has outright confirmed these reports.)
June 11, 2018: Fans Start Sleuthing For Clues To Confirm The News
Naturally, fans went to work trying to confirm the engagement news pretty much immediately after it broke. TBH, the FBI could probably solve so many more crimes if they just crowd-sourced stuff out to Arianators on Twitter. Their sleuthing skills are seriously impressive.
The first thing they jumped on was an emoji-filled tweet that has since been deleted. Interesting, but not totally convincing. The next tweet-related clue that surfaced, however, was way more telling. Apparently, Grande herself liked one tweet from fan @teasybutera that reads,"honest to god our girl is engaged." *Hits breaks, car screeches to a halt. Jaw drops. Record scratch.*
Then, Grande and Davidson decided to go to Disneyland. As in like, "Ariana! Pete! You just got engaged! What are you two going to do next?" Ariana and Pete, in unison: "We're going to Disneyland!" OK, so, this assumption has by no means been confirmed (yet), but ... still.
Fans will just have to wait and see if the engagement rumors prove to be true. You might want to turn on those Instagram post notifications in the meantime, though, seeing as how that seems to be their preferred confirmation method.