From Teenage Romance to 30s Glow-Up: Jai Brooks Then and Now

Remember when Ariana Grande was dating a guy named Jai Brooks? Yeah, that era. The pop star’s“Eternal Sunshine”era has everyone digging through the vault of her past relationships, and now we’re getting a proper look at where one of her earliest flames ended up.

Back in 2012, when Jai Brooks was just 17 years old, he and Ariana Grande started dating. It was that sweet, early-2010s Disney-adjacent romance moment—the kind that felt significant at the time but eventually became a historical footnote in a very prolific dating timeline. The relationship lasted until 2014, giving them a solid two-year run before they called it quits for good.

Fast forward more than a decade, and Jai Brooks is now in his 30s—and apparently looking nothing like the fresh-faced teenager who dated one of pop’s biggest superstars. The contrast between then and now is exactly the kind of transformation that makes these“where are they now”features endlessly compelling. Everyone changes, obviously, but there’s something oddly fascinating about seeing someone you remember from the early days of social media culture standing in their adult era, fully formed and far removed from that moment in time.

It’s the kind of nostalgia hit that hits different when Ariana’s music is actively nodding back to her exes in performances. Timing is everything in pop culture, and sometimes the internet decides it’s the right moment to resurrect your old boyfriends on the timeline. Welcome back, Jai Brooks.