Actor Shane Powers, one of Mac Miller’s close personal friends, has spoken up about the late rapper’s relationship with Ariana Grande and its stabilizing influence on his life in the wake of fan criticism against the singer after Mac died on Friday.
Overzealous fans attacked the singer’s social media, eager to find somewhere to place blame for their anguish over the loss of one of hip-hop’s top talents in his prime, prompting Ariana to close her Instagram comments. Powers seems to want fans to understand that Ariana isn’t to blame, but that she was a positive factor in his prior sobriety, staying in touch with Powers regarding Mac’s health after the pair broke up earlier this year.
“There was no one… more ready to go to the wall for him when it came to him being sober, and she was an unbelievably stabilizing force in his life,” Powers said on Monday’s episode of his podcast The Shane Show. “She was deeply helpful and effective in keeping Mac sober and helping him get sober and she was all about him being healthy, period, in this area of this life.”
Fans had previously attacked Grande after Mac wrecked his car driving drunk in May shortly after the breakup. She defended herself then, saying “I am not a babysitter or a mother and no woman should feel that they need to be. I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety & prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course) but shaming/blaming women for a man’s inability to keep his shit together is a very major problem. Let’s please stop doing that.”
She responded to his death by simply posting a black-and-white picture without a caption.
