Ariana Grande has taken legal action in Los Angeles County Superior Court, filing a lawsuit Monday against a group of unidentified hackers accused of stealing and distributing private material tied to her career. The complaint seeks to reveal the names of the unknown parties, listed in court documents as “John Doe 1 and John Does 2 through 100,” and alleges a sweeping pattern of leaks. According to the filing, “45 unreleased songs” were hacked, taken, and shared in 2023 alone, with hundreds of similar unauthorized releases allegedly occurring since Grande first launched her music career in 2011.
The Ariana Grande lawsuit says the compromised material goes well beyond songs. The allegedly stolen content includes unfinished masters and demos, recording-session footage, music videos, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, along with unused album materials and photoshoot outtakes.
Grande’s legal team claims the hackers not only posted the private content online but also attempted to profit from it by selling the material. The complaint points to platforms including X, TikTok, and YouTube as places where the leaks were allegedly shared. It argues that the conduct violated Grande’s privacy and ran afoul of California’s Comprehensive Data Access and Fraud Act, a statute focused on unauthorized computer access that has also surfaced in major tech-related cases, including Sony’s lawsuit against George Hotz and Meta’s case involving Pegasus spyware.
As Variety previously reported, the filing also alleges that hackers repeatedly went after members of Grande’s professional circle. In 2019, private photos of the pop star were allegedly taken from a photographer’s Dropbox account. A year later, unreleased footage was reportedly stolen after a producer’s mobile device was hacked. The complaint says the targeting continued in 2024, when phishing emails were allegedly used to obtain unreleased photos from a technician working with one of Grande’s photographers.
