Growing pains. Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande have gone through many obstacles in their friendship over the years.
After scoring scene-stealing roles in iCarly and Victorious respectively, McCurdy and Grande moved on to a spinoff series centered around their characters. Sam & Cat, which ran from 2013 to 2014, made headlines amid rumors of a feud between the costars.
McCurdy, for her part, noted that she formed a close bond with the “Positions” singer behind the scenes.
“We keep each other on track, we don’t really talk much about work stuff, because I feel like we talk about that so much with other people that we like to keep it to family, and just personal stuff,” she told E! News in 2013. “It’s all completely personal, what we’ve done with our friends lately, where we’re going, what we’re getting into, clothes.”
The former actress also gushed about getting to work alongside someone with such a strong work ethic. “She’s extremely strong-willed and she will do whatever it takes to get what she wants if she really believes in something. I think that’s such an admirable quality to have and I look up to her for that,” McCurdy continued. “And I think that’s something, working with her now for a year and a half, that hopefully I’ve adopted a bit of and I hope to get more of it as time goes on.”
After airing one season on Nickelodeon, the series went on hiatus and was canceled in 2014. At the time, the Florida native took to social media to address her time on the show — while notably leaving McCurdy’s name out of the farewell message.
“I want to thank Nickelodeon for making a childhood dream of mine come true, for being a family to me, for being so accommodating and supportive of my multitasking with my music career and for, of course, introducing me to many of my fans however many years ago,” the songstress wrote at the time.
Following the end of Sam & Cat, McCurdy clarified that the costars were on good terms. “I just feel that, you know Ariana and I were and are extremely close and very like-minded in a lot of different ways and then, sorta as the show dissolved, everybody wanted to find some sort of hidden meaning in our relationship,” she explained to E! News in 2015. “I think we butted heads at times, but in a very sisterly way. She knows me so well and I know her so well that I think it was unfortunate that things kind of got misconstrued.”
The “Empty Inside” podcast host pointed out that “it’s just natural” to have ups and downs with a coworker after working 16 hours a day together. McCurdy later announced that she didn’t have plans to return to acting due to her time on Nickelodeon.
“I quit a few years ago because I initially didn’t want to do it,” she shared on her podcast in March 2021. “I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past. … I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing [thing].”
McCurdy added: “Walking away was really difficult but it was something I needed to do for my mental health and for my overall peace.”
Scroll on for a breakdown of McCurdy and Grande’s friendship through the years: