Cynthia Erivo isn’t letting rumors about her friendship with Ariana Grande bring her down.

The Tony award winner—who was incredibly close with the “thank u, next” singer during their November 2024 press tour for Wicked—cleared the air amid speculation that hers and Grande’s “really conscious decision” to build a relationship was only for show. 

“I think that people didn’t really believe that we were actually friends,” Erivo, 39, explained in a Variety interview published May 27. “But that’s also because people don’t know me very well. If I’m a friend, then I’m a friend. If I’m not, then I’m not.”

As such, Erivo’s close bond with Grande hasn’t stopped just because their movie franchise came to an end with 2025’s Wicked: For Good. In fact, the Broadway star shared that she and the 32-year-old still exchange text messages nearly every day. 

“It’s very interesting, watching what people’s perception is versus what the reality actually is,” Erivo mused. “Lots of psychologists seated at home deciding who we were, what we were going through, what we were doing and why.”