Singer Ariana Grande "loved" boyfriend Mac Miller before they met.

The Into You hitmaker has been dating the rapper since last year (16), but Ariana first met Miller four years ago and became a huge fan of his music before they really got to know each other.

"I met him when I was 19," she tells Cosmopolitan magazine. "We have loved and adored and respected each other since the beginning, since before we even met, just because we were fans of each other's talent. We weren't ready at all, though, to be together."

But the timing eventually worked out perfectly for the 23-year-old and her man, because she felt she was at a place in her life where she was ready to be in a relationship.

"I've never looked at love as something that I need to complete me," she says. "I would like to be complete on my own first and fall in love with somebody who is also complete. You can still celebrate and be totally obsessed with each other, but I want to feel a hundred per cent myself, so that I can love that person better."

Last year (16), Miller opened up about how music brought them together, revealing he fell for her while they were in the studio.

"We hung out for a long time and everything just happened organically," he told People magazine. "We love making music together - we do that always. But she's my best friend in the world."

"She's just very warm and comforting," he added. "She's very caring but, also, we have a lot of fun. We go on adventures. Adventures can be driving around in the car aimlessly. It's great to be able to do nothing and be doing so much."