Scooter Braun and Ariana Grande may be thick as thieves today, but two years ago, the pop star and her manager weren't in the best place, professionally speaking.

Talking at Fast Company's Innovation Festival on Tuesday (October 23), Braun, who also manages Justin Bieber, opened up about the time Grande fired him in early 2016,  hinting that their brief client-manager split may have ultimately been the result of a "sh---y" boyfriend's bad influence over the singer.

"With Ariana, I could have said a lot of stuff, and in fact my team wanted me to, because they were so pissed. But I said, ‘We’re not gonna say a word, and this is gonna come back around.' They were like, ‘Never take her back!,’ and I just said, ‘Let’s stay quiet and let our truth be our actions,'" Braun shared.

"And when the sh---y boyfriends leave, she starts to see the light on some stuff, and one day I got a phone call," he continued. "She said, ‘Can I see you tomorrow?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m busy’ — I actually couldn’t, so I said, ‘I could see you Thursday’ or whatever and I went over there and we had a very honest conversation."

While Braun didn't go into detail as to which boyfriend he was referring to, it likely wasn't her ex-fiancé Pete Davidson, who Grande only began seeing (publicly, anyway) this year.

Prior to Davidson, Grande dated rapper Big Sean as well as late rapper Mac Miller.

While Braun and Grande eventually mended their relationship and began working together again, it was the brief firing that made them stronger than ever—something that proved important following the 2017 Manchester bombing, which killed 22 people.

"That relationship we had, from being fired and getting back together, really gave us the strength for what we never imagined would come that following year,” Braun explained. "It allowed me know that I can be fired — I had never been fired before,” he said. "It made me know that as much as you give to people in a service business — we do a lot of asset business, but this is a service business — you can never expect anyone to reciprocate. You have to do it for the right reasons, and if you get screwed over in the end, so be it, and hope you had a hell of a ride along the way.”

Ariana Grande's Dating History

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