Katy Perry’s Reaction to Josh Groban’s Engagement Goes Viral

Only Katy Perry could turn her ex’s engagement announcement into the most entertaining thing on the internet this week.

The pop star posted a TikTok on May 11 reacting to news that Josh Groban had proposed to British musical theatre actress Natalie McQueen after nearly four years together. The video shows Perry — dressed in a white bathrobe — staring at a screenshot of the engagement headlines before slowly pouring herself a comically overflowing glass of what appears to be champagne. She then chugs it, spilling the drink down her face and robe, before dramatically sobbing and walking away.

The soundtrack? Her own 2011 hit “The One That Got Away.” The song she once admitted she wrote about Groban.

She captioned the whole thing simply: “congrats 🥂”

@katyperry

congrats 🥂

♬ The One That Got Away – Katy Perry

The comment section immediately lost it. Many fans were so caught off guard by the video that they didn’t even realize it was actually Perry’s account. “I was like ‘oh she looks like Katy Perry’ looked at the profile picture then the account name and was like ‘wait that is Katy Perry,’” one fan wrote alongside a string of laughing emojis. Another commented, “I DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE THIS IS KATY PERRY’S ACCOUNT.” A third simply wrote: “Katy, you accidentally pressed the post button.”

Others couldn’t get over the song choice. “The song is about Josh Groban,” one fan pointed out, as if helpfully filling in anyone who’d missed the decade-old backstory. Someone else joked to Perry, “This is bold and I love it, maybe they will break their engagement for you.” And a few genuinely seemed concerned: “Baby are you ok?”

The Song, the Confession, and the Double-Take

For anyone who needs the full context: Perry and Groban briefly dated back in 2009. The relationship was quiet — both of them kept it private — and it ended relatively quickly. Then in 2011, Perry released “The One That Got Away,” a sweeping, nostalgic ballad about a teenage love lost. Nobody thought much about who it was written about.

Until 2017, when Perry casually dropped the information during a weekend-long livestream promoting her Witness album, telling fans that Groban was indeed the inspiration.

Groban found out the same way everyone else did. A year later, appearing on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, he was still processing it. “I was not expecting that. That was a double take and a spit of my coffee when I saw that,” he said. “It’s very sweet of her to say that. I’m very flattered by it. But I was very surprised by it too.”

Then he actually went back and listened to the lyrics — and got even more confused. “I’m like, ‘I never owned a Mustang. I don’t have a tattoo. Are you sure that’s about me?’” he laughed. The song’s first verse describes making out in a Mustang, getting matching tattoos on an 18th birthday, and sneaking parents’ liquor — none of which matched Groban’s biography in any obvious way.

Still, he was warm about it. “We’ve been very, very good friends to this day,” he said. “She’s the best.”

On why they split in the first place, Groban kept it simple: “We were both very private and we realized we were better as friends.”

Where Everyone Stands Now

There’s no real heartbreak here — just excellent comedic timing. Perry, 41, has been dating former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the two have been making their public debut as a couple in recent months. Last month, they attended Netflix’s Beef Season 2 Montecito Tastemaker event together at the California home of Netflix executive Ted Sarandos — an evening that also happened to include Perry’s ex-fiancé Orlando Bloom among the guests, though reports didn’t confirm whether the former couple actually crossed paths during the night.

Groban, 45, meanwhile, is very much taken. He proposed to McQueen in April after nearly four years together, and Perry’s TikTok — champagne-soaked bathrobe and all — was her way of sending them off in the most Katy Perry way imaginable.

“We’ve been very, very good friends to this day,” Groban said back in 2018. The TikTok pretty much confirms that’s still true — you don’t post something like that about someone you’re not completely at peace with.

Congrats to the happy couple. And to Katy Perry, for once again making the internet a more entertaining place.