Ariana Grande’s ‘Don’t Wanna Break Up Again’ Lyrics Detail the Moments Leading Up to a Split

Throughout Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine, the singer explores the feeling of knowing a long-term relationship is no longer right and the grieving that comes after it ends. While track two, “bye,” focuses on the decision to break up, the album’s third track, “don’t wanna break up again,” details why the split needs to be for good.

While it’s not clear if the subject of the song is Grande’s ex-husband, Dalton Gomez, there is some evidence that the lyrics could fit their situation. The married couple did try, while privately separated, to see if they could repair their relationship.

Grande explores the on-off nature of a past relationship in the chorus: “I don’t wanna fuck with your head / It’s breakin’ my heart / To keep breakin’ yours again (Yours again, yours again, yours again) / This situationship has to end / But I just can’t refuse / I don’t wanna break up again (Up again, up again, up again), baby.” She also describes the amicable final end in her bridge: “We both know it’s time / So we say goodbye / Just one kiss goodbye / With tears in our eyes / Hope you won’t, won’t regret me / Hope you’ll still think fondly of our little life.”

In July, a source told Entertainment Tonight that Gomez traveled to Europe so he and Grande could give their relationship another shot while she was filming Wicked.

“Dalton went to Europe recently to be with Ariana and try to work things out between them,” the source said. “But it just wasn’t working. They were having issues for a while, but they are trying to be as respectful as they can and protect each other’s privacy through this breakup.” A separate source told the outlet that Grande and Gomez “were just not a good fit,” following their two years of marriage.

The couple finalized their divorce in October and are both now dating other people. Grande is with Ethan Slater, while Gomez has been linked to Maika Monroe.

Prior to the album’s release, Grande revealed in an interview with Zach Sang that her breakup songs were written with care for Gomez. “The loss and grief that you hear some of the album, some of the heartbreak stuff, there was so much love and transparency,” she said. “That was something I really wanted to make sure was captured, wasn’t like a ‘fuck you’ at all and ever. Even track number 2 [‘bye’], I tried to make sure it was kind and giving credit for trying and for the goodness that there was. So, that was a tricky balance for me, because I definitely had some sessions where I was writing more emotionally and reactively, but that’s also very human, so I didn’t want to erase all of it.”

She also called the album part-autobiographical, part-concept, so some elements are fictionalized. She understandably did not share which. “I’m so nervous, because pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just like, yeah, part of the concept,” she said. “So what is that separation, and it’s so scary to leave it up to these selective memory people to decipher. It’s scary, but I digress. Too late, the vinyls have been printed.”

Read the lyrics, via Genius, and listen to the song below:

Intro
Mm

Verse 1

I fall asleep cryin’
You turn up the TV
You don’t wanna hear me
One more sleepless night
Big day in the morning
So, I take my time to self-soothe

Pre-Chorus

I’m too much for you
So I really gotta do
The thing I don’t wanna do
No, I don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t

Chorus
I don’t wanna fuck with your head
It’s breakin’ my heart
To keep breakin’ yours again (Yours again, yours again, yours again)
This situationship has to end
But I just can’t refuse
I don’t wanna break up again (Up again, up again, up again), baby

Verse 2

I made it so easy
Spent so much on therapy
Blamed my own codependency
But you didn’t even try
When you finally did, it was at the wrong time
Won’t abandon me again for you and I, I

Pre-Chorus
I’m too much for you
So I really gotta do
The thing I don’t wanna do
No, I don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t

Chorus

I don’t wanna fuck with your head
It’s breakin’ my heart (Breakin’ my heart)
To keep breakin’ yours again (Yours again, yours again, yours again)
This situationship has to end
But I just can’t refuse
I don’t wanna break up again (Up again, up again, up again)

Bridge
We both know it’s time
So we say goodbye
Just one kiss goodbye
With tears in our eyes
Hope you won’t, won’t regret me
Hope you’ll still think fondly of our little life

Chorus

I don’t wanna fuck with your head
It’s breakin’ my heart (Breakin’ my heart)
To keep breakin’ yours again (Yours again, yours again, yours again)
This situationship has to end
But I just can’t refuse
I don’t wanna break up again (Up again, up again, up again), baby

Outro
(Hah, hah, hah)
(Hah, hah, hah)
Don’t wanna break up again (Breakin’ my heart)
I don’t wanna, baby
Situationship has to end (Know it has to end)
Just can’t refuse
Ooh