Big Sean and Ariana Grande break-up: 5 potential reasons why they've called it quits

After eight months together, Ariana Grande and Big Sean have decided to call off their relationship. The pair officially began dating in 2014 when they collaborated on the song Best Mistake.

They were seemingly loved-up in March when Big Sean joined Grande during her Honeymoon tour and planted a passionate kiss on his girlfriend right there on stage, but just over a month later a source has confirmed to US Weekly that they are over.

IBTimes UK looks at some of the reasons why the relationship could have turned so sour, so fast...

Age gap

While six years may not sound like such a big gap to slightly older couples, when one of the pair is 21 (Grande) and the other 27 (Big Sean), it's easy to see that they might be at different stages in life that they just can't avoid addressing if they're going to embark on a long-term relationship.

Not to say, of course, it can't work with the years between them, but it's more than likely come up a few times in conversation.

Justin Bieber

At an Ariana Grande concert in Los Angeles on 8 April, pop star Justin Bieber came on stage to duet on the track Love Me Harder with Grande. Bieber seemingly got a little carried away during the performance and couldn't keep his hands off the Bang Bang singer, angering boyfriend Big Sean. The rapper took to Twitter following the concert tweeting: "This kid is about to learn not to touch my girl like that. Beliebe that." (However, he later deleted the tweet and sources close to the star suggest that the tweet that went viral was in fact, a fake).

Ariana's protective father

A week ago, Big Sean posted a photograph of himself captioned: "I give her that D...#Detroit". Assuming it was in reference to Ariana, and not too keen on the way his daughter's boyfriend was talking about her, Grande's father Edward Butera decided to give the hip hop artist a telling off through the comments directly on the picture! Butera wrote: "that D. better be Detroit, Sean".

This (like the reason above) is arguably just speculation as Grande's father took to Twitter after the Instagram remark hit headlines to state that the comment was not made by him and that the account was made by an imposter.

Photos of other women on Sean's phone

Back in February, a source close to the couple told Star magazine that Grande had discovered photos of other women and flirty conversations on Big Sean's phone around Christmastime. Despite the couple appearing to have moved past that, since being seen together many times, perhaps this was a case of "there's no smoke without fire" and more things have come to the attention of the Problem hitmaker that she doesn't want to discuss publically.

Clashing schedules

As both of their careers hit the big time with their music, the couple have spent much time apart recently with their overlapping tour schedules. Their separation may have been one of the reasons behind the two deciding to end their relationship, dedicating more time to their music and, ultimately, their success.