Edward Butera Biography

Edward Butera first surfaced in the media in 2014 when his daughter Ariana Grande, revealed in an interview with 'Seventeen' magazine that the toughest thing she had ever had to deal with was losing contact with her father a year ago. It was a rare admission, given that she hardly ever talked about her father who had left the family when she was only eight years old. She further added that it took her a lot of time to be okay with the fact that "a lot of my traits come from him", and that one can still love someone even if he or she doesn't get along with the person.

Much later, in November 2018, Grande's relationship with her father again made news after the release of her song 'Thank U, Next'. While in the song she primarily talked about her past relationships with the men in her life, like former flames Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, ex-fiancé Pete Davidson and the late Mac Miller, talking especially about what lessons she had learnt from each of the affairs, one section of the song brought up reference to another man from her past: her father. At the end of the song, she mentioned her father stating, "One day I'll walk down the aisle/ holding hands with my mama/ I'll be thanking my dad/ 'cause she grew from the drama".

Edward Butera was born on September 19, 1958 in Maplewood, New Jersey, United States. He attended New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York, from where he graduated with a degree in advertising and design in 1981. Following graduation, he began working at different design companies in New York City. Later in 1990, he founded his own graphic design company, IBI Designs Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida.

Edward Butera met Joan Grande in the early 1990s when he was working as a graphics designer in New York City. They got married in Manhattan in 1992 and moved to Boca Raton, Florida the following year, when Joan was pregnant with their daughter Ariana Grande-Butera, who was born on June 26, 1993. At the time, Joan already had a 10-year-old son named Frankie Grande from her previous marriage with Italian-American physician Victor Marchione. They all lived together in Boca Raton until 2002, when Edward and Joan got divorced, and Edward moved out. According to Zillow, he lives in Florida in a 2-bedroom condo with ocean-front views. He loves to go fishing and often shares pictures from his fishing trips, and once shared that he intends to teach his daughter Ariana how to fish. He also often shares pictures of his pet dog Sunny on social media.

Ever since Ariana Grande opened up about their falling out in 2014, his relationship with his daughter has been much talked about in the tabloids. While neither of them has opened up about what caused their rift in the first place, when they stopped talking initially in 2013, or when they got back in touch, as of now, they seem to be quite close. He posted a picture of them together in December 2016, even though he did not mention when it was taken. The next June, she made a post on her Instagram on Father's Day, sharing a photo of her father holding her as a baby with the caption, "Happy Father's Day. I love you." A few days later, on her 24th birthday, he shared a photo of the two of them on Twitter with the message, "Happy Birthday Ariana…love Daddy." Over the Christmas Holidays in 2018, she was seen FaceTiming with her father in an image she shared. He went to Ariana's Miami show in her 'Sweetener World Tour' on June 1, 2019. Weeks later, on Father's Day, she shared an Instagram Story in tribute to her father.