In case you haven’t heard—and honestly, it’s okay if you haven’t because Everything. Is. Happening. So. Fast.—Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson were rumored to be dating, confirmed their relationship on Instagram (with tattoos!) and are reportedly-maybe-definitely engaged. All within, like, a month. All caught up now?
If you read all that and you’re still thinking, “Uh, who’s Pete Davidson?," settle in: I’ve done a bit of sleuthing and I’ve got all the dirt you need to know about Ariana’s soon-to-be husband.
1. He joined the cast of Saturday Night Live when he was only 20
That’s right; he couldn’t even drink yet! Talk about talent. Pete joined the cast in 2014, and I think it’s safe to say his comedy style has become a fan favorite. In fact, on SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment, he doesn’t even play a character: he just comes on as “resident young person Pete Davidson” and does standup. Pretty impressive.
He is also the first SNL cast member that is a ’90s baby. It’s very easy to imagine him as the leader of the next SNL generation down the line.
2. He uses his comedy to cope with tragedy
Pete’s father was one of the firefighters that died in the 9/11 attacks, and understandably, it had a huge impact on his childhood. He’s used the sensitive subject in his comedy before, most notably at the infamous Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber in 2015. Pete has said before to The New York Times that joking about such touchy subjects actually helps him cope.
Other subjects Pete’s used in his comedy include mental health (more on that later), his relationships, and even his brief time at St. Francis College before he dropped out.
3. He’s gotten a lot of tattoos—including ones of past SOs
Some of his tattoos are sweet, like his dad’s helmet number, or Harry Potter quotes (he’s a huge fan, even if he told Seth Meyers he maybe regrets the tattoos now). Some are a bit more awkward to explain, like that time he got a tattoo of ex-girlfriend Cazzie David’s face on his arm. Cosmopolitan reports that he’s since had that one covered up, of course. Nobody wants to see their man’s ex on his arm.
But, uh, did we mention those Ariana-themed tattoos he got recently? Here’s hoping he won’t have to cover those up, too.
4. He went sober last year
A lot of people probably think of Pete as a stereotypical “pothead,” since that did seem to be his general demeanor earlier in his career. What might surprise people, though, is that Pete’s marijuana use was totally medical: he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when he was a teenager, and has said that smoking weed helped him immensely.
Despite that, Bustle reported that Pete announced on Instagram last year that he was “sober and happy” for the first time in eight years. Some of his more recent Instagrams do show him smoking, however, so it’s hard to say how long his sobriety lasted. Either way, sobriety can be an extremely difficult journey, so good on Pete for making the effort.
5. His last two girlfriends were both comedians
On to his relationship history! (Because of course you’re dying to know.) Pete’s last two exes are Carly Aquilino and Cazzie David, respectively, the latter of which he dated for over two years. In fact, he and Cazzie had only been broken up for about a week when he and Ariana started dating. So, uh, yikes?
Carly is known for comedy series like Girl Code and Gay Girl Straight Girl, while Cazzie is perhaps a bit more high-profile because of her father, comedian Larry David. She is a writer and actress on Eighty-Sixed, a TV mini-series.
But hey, we know Ariana can be hilarious, too (remember her stint as a co-host on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon?)
BTW, it looks like both Carly and Cazzie are handling the engagement news with a good sense of humor: Carly posted an almost-shady Instagram story after she found out, and as for Cazzie, well, a giant glass of wine seemed to do the trick.
6. He actually met Ariana back in 2016
So… maybe this isn’t actually moving so fast? Emphasis on the maybe.
Ariana hosted SNL in March 2016, and Pete made a special appearance during her monologue to ask a question. “You wanna smoke some pot?” counts as a meet-cute, right?
7. He’s been very open about mental health issues
Pete was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder when he went to rehab in December 2016, Rolling Stone reports. He’s also talked about depression on SNL before, again on “Weekend Update.”
It’s really refreshing to see Pete use his platform to engage with the audience about important topics. It’s clear that he understands that talking about mental health helps to destigmatize it, so hopefully he’ll continue doing it in the future.
8. He was a huge Hillary Clinton supporter
I know we already covered tattoos, but I couldn’t not put this one in there: Pete loved HIllary Clinton so much that he got a tattoo of her face on his leg. This Instagram was posted about a year after the election, by the way. Now that’s dedication. We know Ariana demonstrates liberal ideology, so it looks like these two agree on that much.
And that is Pete Davidson in a nutshell! Are you excited for a Pete-Ariana wedding? Rolling your eyes? Just confused? Let us know!