Ariana Grande “suffered trauma” and “cried for days” following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.
The singer had just left the stage last May when a suicide bomber triggered an explosion, leaving 22 people dead.
Her manager, Scooter Braun, has now revealed what she went through in the days that followed as she visited 19 injured concertgoers in the hospital and made the decision to continue with her Dangerous Woman tour.
Speaking on the “Big Questions with Cal Fussman” podcast, he said: “When she found out that fans of hers had died, she was so sad.
“She cried for days, she felt everything — every face they announced, every name, she wore on her sleeve. Every bit of emotion because that’s who she is.”
Grande and Braun, who is also Justin Bieber’s manager, visited the families and injured at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital — something which Braun described as the “hardest two hours of either of our lives.”
He recalled: “After the first family, I had to help her, she was distraught and I was lost. It was beyond tough. But every single time we got down, we reminded each other we get to go home.
“Our loved ones are still going to be there. That mother is never coming home, that daughter is never coming home, that son is never coming home, that dad is never coming home.”
He went on to describe the difficult decision Grande faced about whether to continue touring.
“We didn’t have the right to be so sad we couldn’t continue. The terrorist made a mistake … they picked the wrong goddamn show,” Braun said.
“Because if they thought we were going to roll over, they don’t know Ariana and they don’t know me.”
Grande returned to Manchester on June 4 to lead a One Love Manchester benefit concert to raise funds for the families affected by the terror attack.