Not long after Ariana Grande referred to Jeffrey Dahmer as her “ideal” dinner date, the family of one of the infamous murderer’s victims speaks out.
While appearing on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast earlier this month, Grande stated that she was “infatuated with serial killers” during her younger days. She recalled a Q&A session where a young fan had asked her who she would like to have dinner with, dead or alive.
“I was like, ‘Oh, you’re so cute. Mom and Dad, is it OK if I give the real answer?’ And they were like ‘Sure, what’s the answer?’ and I was like, ‘I mean, Jeffrey Dahmer is pretty fascinating,” Ariana Grande stated.
“I think I would have loved to have met him. Y’know, maybe with a third party or someone involved. But I have questions.”
She then recalled the parents not being too thrilled with her answer. “The parents were like, ‘We’ll explain it later, sweetie,’” she teased. “And I was like, ‘I’ll just sing ‘Problem’ and go home.”
Responding to Grande’s remark, Shirley Hughes, the mother of Dahmer’s victim, Anthony “Tony” Hughes, told TMZ that she thought the singer and actress was unstable.
“To me, it seems like she’s sick in her mind,” Shirley told the media outlet. “It’s not fancy or funny to say you would have wanted to do dinner with him. It’s also not something you should say to young people, which she says she did.”
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered and dismembered nearly 20 men over the course of 13 years. Tony Hughes, a deaf, non-verbal man, died at the hands of the serial killer in 1991.
Shirley also told the media outlet that what Ariana Grande said about Jeffrey Dahmer had made her emotional. She found it disturbing that Grande laughed while talking about Dahmer.
Tony Hughes’ Family Hopes Ariana Grande Will Apologize For Her Jeffrey Dahmer Comments
Tony’s sister, Barbara, also spoke to the media outlet. She stated she hoped Ariana Grande would apologize for her Jeffrey Dahmer remark. “Unfortunately, until it happens to her and her family, she just doesn’t know what we have been through.”
Tony Hughes’ family members were previously critical of Netflix’s miniseries Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. “I don’t see how they can do that,” Hughes said. “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.”
Although she hasn’t spoken much about her son’s murder, She did once reveal that she learned about his horrific death after investigators discovered his skull in Dahmer’s apartment. He was identified through dental records.
“It hurts,” Shirley Hughes shared at the time. “I shed tears. They’re not tears of sorrow, and it’s not disbelief in the Lord. The tears [are] tears of hurt because it hurts. It hurts real bad. But you have to trust and pray and just keep going day by day.”
Jeffrey Dahmer was serving life without parole when he was murdered by a fellow inmate two years after his 1992 sentencing. He was 34 years old at the time.