Pop artist manager Scooter Braun has revealed that Ariana Grande once tried to fire him, apparently over a “sh***y boyfriend”.

The 37 year old pop impresario, whose clients famously include Justin Bieber and, on occasion, Kanye West, soon reunited with Grande despite the brief parting of ways, which apparently happened back in 2016.

“With Ariana, I could have said a lot of stuff, and in fact my team wanted me to, because they were so pi****. But I said, ‘We’re not gonna say a word, and this is gonna come back around,’” Braun said during a talk as part of Fast Company’s Innovation Festival on Tuesday (October 23rd).

“They were like, ‘Never take her back!,’ and I just said, ‘Let’s stay quiet and let our truth be our actions’.”

Ariana GrandeAriana Grande performing live in 2016

“And when the sh***y boyfriends leave, she starts to see the light on some stuff, and one day I got a phone call,” he continued. “She said, ‘Can I see you tomorrow?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m busy’ — I actually couldn’t, so I said, ‘I could see you Thursday’ or whatever and I went over there and we had a very honest conversation.”

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It’s anyone’s guess as to who Braun might have been referring to, but it’s unlikely to have been Pete Davidson, the ‘SNL’ star to whom Grande had until very recently been engaged after a whirlwind romance. The couple split suddenly earlier this month, just five months after meeting.

She’s also previously dated the late rapper Mac Miller, who passed away last month following an overdose and whose death hit Grande pretty hard.

“That relationship we had, from being fired and getting back together, really gave us the strength for what we never imagined would come that following year,” Braun continued, referencing the horrific terror attacks in Manchester in May 2017.

“It allowed me know that I can be fired — I had never been fired before,” he finished, talking about how being fired affected him personally. “It made me know that as much as you give to people in a service business — we do a lot of asset business, but this is a service business — you can never expect anyone to reciprocate. You have to do it for the right reasons, and if you get screwed over in the end, so be it, and hope you had a hell of a ride along the way.”

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