Ariana Grande slammed over 'disgusting' Jeffrey Dahmer confession (2024)

Ariana Grandehas been slammed as 'vile' and 'offensive' after she confessed that her 'dream' dinner guest was serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.

Last week, the 30-year-old pop sensation showed off her dark side while speaking to Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley, who appeared in Ariana's The Boy Is Mine music video.

During an episode of Penn's Podcrushed podcast she recalled the moment she told a 'young fan' she fantasized about dining with the murderer - who raped, dismembered and killed 17 boys and men between 1978 and 1991.

Her macabre admission came after she shared that she was 'infatuated with serial killers' from a young age.

And while the Thank You, Next songstress found the humor in wanting to enjoy a meal with the infamous murderer, her fans were quick to criticize the celebrity as they branded her 'tone deaf.'

'I was infatuated with serial killers when I was younger,' the two-time Grammy winner - turning 31 next Wednesday - revealed in the second part of the podcast.

'Years ago, before the Dahmer series, I was in a Q&A with young fans. With a parent, someone said, "If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be?" And I was like, "Oh, honey, you're so cute. Um, mom and dad, is it okay if I give the real answer?" And they were like, "Sure, what's the answer?"

'And I was like, "Jeffrey Dahmer's pretty fascinating. I think I would have loved to have met him, maybe with like a third party or something. But I have questions." And the parents were like, "We'll explain it later, sweetheart."'

The clip of Ariana sharing the anecdote began circulating around the web as fans took to Reddit to fire off at the pop icon.

In a thread titled, 'Ariana Grande would love to have dinner with Jeffrey Dahmer,' people branded the performer 'horribly offensive.'

One person wrote: 'I didn't even watch the clip because this is exactly what I thought when I read the headline. Unless the question is, "Which serial killer would you have dinner with" and you have a gun to your head there's no damn reason to say this.

Someone else added: 'That was heartbreaking to watch, can you imagine your loved ones being murdered in such horrific ways and then the killer is glorified in the media. I wish people would consider how shows like Dahmer impact the surviving family members.'

'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 social media user commented.

A fourth added: '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 pedophile who murdered innocent people, mainly people of color because he knew police wouldn’t take their disappearances as seriously.

'Joking about wanting to have dinner with him is sick and horribly offensive to the victims' families, who are still alive and affected by the tragedy fyi. Let's stop glorifying these psychos and pretending they are intensely enamoring people - they're not, and if you met them in real life you would quickly realize why.'

Someone else wrote: 'She has such a weird fixation with this type of stuff. It is so tone deaf and dehumanizing/disrespectful to the victims and their loved ones.'

'That's such a disgusting thing to say,' one commenter said.

One person commented: 'Not the funny/cute/edgy anecdote you think it is, Ariana.'

'Some thoughts should stay in one's head,' another remarked.

Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey raped, killed, and dismembered 17 boys and men - Steven Hicks (18), Steven Tuomi (28), James Doxtator (14), Richard Guerrero (25), Anthony Sears (24), Ricky Beeks (33), Eddie Smith (28), Ernest Miller (24), David Thomas (23), Curtis Straughter (18), Errol Lindsey (19), Anthony Hughes (31), Konerak Sinthasomphone (14), Matt Turner (20), Jeremiah Weinberger (23), Oliver Lacy (23), and Joseph Bradehoft (25).

Dahmer - otherwise known as the Milwaukee Monster or the Milwaukee Cannibal - had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and a psychotic disorder before he was beaten to death by a fellow Columbia Correctional Institution inmate in 1994.

In 2022, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan released their dismally-reviewed Netflix crime thriller, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which depicted his unimaginable crimes and the victims desperate for justice.

Evan Peters went on to win the Golden Globe Award for his performance as Jeffrey, thanking everyone who watched the show in his acceptance speech: 'It was a difficult one to make, a difficult one to watch but I sincerely hope some good came out of it.'

And while the showrunners claimed to have contacted 20 of the victims' family members and friends, Rita Isbell - the sister of Erroll Lindsey - told Business Insider she was never contacted about the 'harsh and careless' show, which 'retraumatized' her.

Ariana agreed to do Penn's podcast after he starred in the Christian Breslauer-directed music video for her new single, The Boy Is Mine, which dropped June 7.

Fans can next catch the Florida-born pop star as Glinda Upland alongside her real-life boyfriend, Ethan Slater, in Jon M. Chu's big-screen adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical Wicked.

The first part hits US theaters November 27 followed by the second part on November 26, 2025.