The Moment
Leighton Meester is trying to turn down the volume on a moment that the internet has replayed about 3,000 times in slo-mo.
At the Critics’ Choice Awards in early January, Ariana Grande walked past Meester on the carpet and, according to the viral clip, shouted, “I love you so much, wow, wow, wow.” Meester, laughing, shot back, “Wah, wah, wah.”
Within hours, social media had her pegged as Mean Girl in Chief, allegedly mocking Ariana’s big, breathy fangirl moment. The clip ricocheted around Instagram, including on E! News’ account, and the comments lit up: was Leighton shading Ariana, or just joking around?
Now, on this week’s episode of the Podcrushed podcast, Meester says everyone got it wrong – including her. She says she simply misheard Ariana and thought Grande was gently making fun of her for crying when her husband, Adam Brody, won a Critics’ Choice Award last year.
“I couldn’t hear her,” Meester explained, saying Ariana was already walking away, and she and her publicist both thought they heard something like, “Hi, I love you, wah, wah, wah.” So Meester matched the energy back. Cute chaos ensued.
Later, when they ran into each other again, Meester says Ariana laughed and said, “You thought I said ‘wah, wah, wah’? That’s so funny,” while Meester blamed it on, in her words, “an old person not being able to hear.”
Ariana’s camp hasn’t commented, and there’s no sign of bad blood – just a thirty-second awards-show interaction that the internet decided to turn into a referendum.
The Take
I’m going to say the quiet part out loud: this is not a feud. This is two famous women caught in the world’s loudest game of celebrity telephone.
Watch these awards shows long enough, and you realize half the conversations are just, “What??” “You look amazing!!” “Wait, what??” while people shout over an orchestra and three camera crews. It’s like trying to have a heart-to-heart inside a blender.
What is interesting here isn’t whether Leighton Meester was secretly mocking Ariana Grande – she explicitly says she wasn’t, and nothing we’ve seen contradicts that. It’s how fast we, the audience, are now trained to hunt for beef in every tiny interaction, especially between women.
Two actresses on a red carpet can’t have a slightly weird exchange without everyone suddenly becoming a body-language expert and a lip-reading specialist. A playful “wah, wah, wah” turned into a whole personality assessment: Is Leighton jealous? Is Ariana hurt? Is there hidden drama from some imaginary crossover between Gossip Girl and Nickelodeon?
It’s like watching people read tea leaves in a storm. The cup is literally sloshing. No one can see anything clearly. But everyone still walks away with a Very Strong Opinion.
Meester calling herself “an old person not being able to hear” is the most relatable thing to come out of this. Anyone over 35 who’s tried to catch what someone said across a crowded restaurant table knows the feeling. Add full glam and a step-and-repeat, and now it’s an alleged scandal.
If anything, the moment makes both women look…normal. Ariana’s geeking out over Leighton. Leighton thinks Ariana’s being a little comedy queen and mirrors the bit. Then the internet takes a tiny, slightly awkward misunderstanding and inflates it like a Met Gala gown.
The real story isn’t “Leighton vs. Ariana.” It’s how desperate we are to see a catfight when there are really just two women yelling over background noise.
Receipts
Leighton Meester is clearing up that awkward exchange with Ariana Grande at the Critics Choice Awards 👀
After the viral moment where Ariana shouted, “I love you so much! Wow, wow, wow,” and Leighton cheekily replied, “Wah, wah, wah,” fans thought she was making fun of her — but… pic.twitter.com/YXSSCBr2Yk
— Splash News (@SplashNews) February 19, 2026
Confirmed:
- According to Meester on this week’s Podcrushed podcast, she misheard Ariana Grande during their Critics Choice Awards interaction and thought Grande was playfully imitating her previous emotional reaction to Adam Brody’s 2025 win.
- As recapped by Page Six on Feb. 19, 2026, Meester says she responded “wah, wah, wah” because she believed Ariana had said something like “I love you, wah, wah, wah” while walking away, and that both she and her publicist misheard.
- The brief exchange between Grande and Meester was captured on video and shared by outlets including E! News’ Instagram in January, where commenters debated whether Meester’s tone was mocking or playful.
- Meester says she later saw Grande again and explained the misunderstanding; Grande reportedly laughed and said Meester’s mishearing was “so funny,” according to Meester’s own account.
Unverified / Interpretation:
- Any claim that Meester was intentionally mocking or “shading” Ariana is opinion, not fact; it’s based on viewer interpretation of tone from a short clip.
- We do not have Ariana Grande’s own detailed version of the moment; her rep, per Page Six, did not respond to a request for comment.
- Speculation about tension, jealousy, or an ongoing feud between the two is just that – speculation. There’s no on-record evidence of bad blood.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
For anyone who dipped out after the original Gossip Girl run and pops back in only for the big headlines, a quick reset: Leighton Meester, now 39, is best known for playing Blair Waldorf, queen of the Upper East Side schemers. She’s married to Adam Brody, the former star of teen drama The O.C., and he picked up a Critics Choice win in 2025 for Nobody Wants This, a moment Meester has said made her openly emotional.
Ariana Grande, 32, jumped from Nickelodeon kid star to global pop powerhouse and now movie musical lead, starring as Glinda in the upcoming Wicked films. Both women came up in eras when teen-girl fandom basically ran the internet, which means every interaction they have will be dissected frame by frame by people who grew up with them.
So when a short video of Ariana fangirling over Leighton at the 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards popped up online, people were primed to read into it – especially after Meester’s “wah, wah, wah” reply came off a little sharper on camera than it probably felt in person.
What’s Next
In practical terms? Probably nothing. There’s no lawsuit, no diss track, no icy statement from Ariana’s team. Just a mildly awkward awards-show moment that Meester has now publicly labeled “embarrassing” and chalked up to bad hearing and good intentions.
What could happen is the usual PR clean-up: maybe a cute selfie together at the next event, or a friendly comment thread exchange to show there’s no drama. But that’s optics, not crisis management.
The more interesting “next” is for us as viewers. Do we keep treating every red-carpet interaction like a hidden episode of reality TV, where we’re supposed to decode slights and alliances? Or do we accept that, sometimes, a “wah, wah, wah” is just a misheard “wow, wow, wow” shouted over a very loud room?
If anything, Meester owning the misunderstanding so openly – and poking fun at herself in the process – is a nice reminder that not every viral clip has a villain. Sometimes it’s just two women trying to hear each other over the noise, while the rest of us turn up the volume at home.
Your turn: When you see a tiny celebrity moment blow up online, do you trust your own read of the clip, or wait for the people involved to explain it themselves?
Sources: Meester’s comments as summarized from her appearance on the Podcrushed podcast (February 2026); reporting and quotes via Page Six coverage published Feb. 19, 2026; viewer reactions from the viral clip shared on E! News’ Instagram in January 2026.
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