Search icon

Entertainment

06th Jul 2018

Ariana Grande responds to her fiancé’s controversial joke about the Manchester terrorist attack

During a performance on Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson used the Manchester bombing as a gag in his routine

Paul Moore

She’s not impressed.

Singer Ariana Grande has criticised a joke that her fiancé, Pete Davidson, made about the horrific bombing that occurred at her concert in Manchester last year.

Twenty-three people were killed, including the terrorist (Salman Ramadan Abedi), and 139 were wounded, more than half of them children

During a performance last fall, Saturday Night Live star Davidson used the Manchester bombing as a gag in his routine.

Commenting on Grande’s fame, he joked, “Britney Spears didn’t have a terrorist attack at her concert,” as reported by The Mirror.

The couple have only recently announced their engagement but the singer has said that she “didn’t find it (the joke) funny.”

In a statement on Twitter, she said: “This has been very tough and conflicting on my heart. He (Davidson) uses comedy to help people feel better about how f-ed up things in this world are. We all deal with trauma differently. I of course didn’t find it funny. It was months ago and his intention wasn’t/ is never malicious but it was unfortunate.”

A source close to the comedian told PEOPLE: “The joke was taken out of context. He lost his dad in 9/11 and is close with other victims of violent tragedies. As a way of coping he turns to humour. …He’s obviously sensitive to tragedy as he lost his own father and his intention is to just make people laugh.”