Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater are the couple on everyone's lips at the moment. The pair have been linked since summer 2023 when they met on the set of musical movie Wicked. While Ariana plays her dream role of Glinda the Good Witch in the movie, Ethan – who is also known for playing Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway – plays the Munchkin Boq. Both Ariana and Ethan were married to their respective former partners, Dalton Gomez and Lilly Jay, when filming for the musical began.
The pair shared their thoughts on sisterhood, women stepping into their power, and protecting their mental wellbeing.
Fast forward to now, and the couple have made things official and seem happier than ever. Here’s everything we know about Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s love story.
December 2022: Wicked begins filming. Grande plays the famed good witch Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.
16 July 2023: Grande is spotted at Wimbledon without her wedding ring.
17 July 2023: News breaks that Grande and Gomez have separated. TMZ is the first to report the news, which People quickly confirmed.
26 July 2023: Ethan Slater officially files for divorce from Lilly Jay. Us Weekly confirms that the SpongeBob actor filed divorce papers in New York City on the 26th.
6 September 2023: After private-ing his Instagram, Ethan Slater returns to the platform with a post about his upcoming turn in the Broadway revival of Spamalot.
The post is a blurry photo of his face, followed by a picture of a dog looking out the window, and then a silent clip of him and a costar rehearsing some choreography. Comments on the post are limited, but Ariana subtly showed her support with a “like” on the post.
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22 September 2023: Grande and Slater are spotted walking arm-in-arm at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
7 October 2023: Multiple publications report that Gomez and Grande have settled their divorce.
21 October 2023: Grande and Slater are photographed looking happy and cosy at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York.
31 October 2023: Grande attends the first preview of Slater’s latest Broadway turn in the Spamalot revival.
21 December 2023: Grande is such a supportive girlfriend that she appears to pay homage to Slater’s show on her Christmas tree. Just take a look at her can-of-Spam ornament in her pre-holiday Instagram dump:
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28 December 2023: Grande seemingly addresses critics of her personal life in a year-end letter to fans shared via the pop star’s Instagram story. “I’ve never felt more at the mercy of and in acceptance of what life was screaming to teach me,” she wrote of her transformative year largely spent out of the spotlight. “I have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together and make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life.”
12 January 2024: Grande drops Yes, And? which is both her first solo single in three years and the lead single from her forthcoming album. Slater isn’t mentioned by name, but lyrics like these certainly appear to be nodding in his general direction:
8 June 2024: Grande and Slater are pictured hanging out at the Stanley Cup Final in Florida.
30 October 2024: Ethan Slater responds to a question asking what it was like to ‘fall in love’ while making Wicked, during an interview with GQ. He touched on the difficulty of dealing with the speculation surrounding their romance, too. “Obviously, it was a really super big year,” he said, “and I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public. There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love. So just to address that part of it, that feels really hard."
He added: “But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this. She’s poured herself into it. I’m really proud that I got to be there for that part of it, and I’m really excited to be there for this next step of it when the world gets to see the amazing thing that she did.”
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4 November 2024: As part of a photo dump for the Wicked press tour, Ariana posts the first picture of Ethan that she's ever posted. Cute.
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9 November 2024: Ethan and Ariana share a little embrace at the Los Angeles Premiere of Wicked. On the red carpet, Ariana gushes about how Ethan helped her with the train of her dress: “He’s always that adorable and he’s so amazing in this film. He’s such an amazing person,” she said to Entertainment Tonight. “I’m so happy people are getting to know him. My heart is very happy.”
14 November 2024: Ariana and Ethan exchange a cute moment at the New York Premiere of Wicked.
19 December 2024: Ethan Slater's ex-wife, Lilly Jay, opens up about their divorce. In an essay published by The Cut, the clinical psychologist broke her silence on the end of her relationship with Ethan, with particular reference to the fact that she had just given birth to their son and that his new relationship was so highly publicised. “No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced, in the same way we don’t board a plane expecting to crash,” she wrote. “But I really never thought I would get divorced. Especially not just after giving birth to my first child and especially not in the shadow of my husband’s new relationship with a celebrity.” According to the Daily Mail, a source has stated that Ethan and Ariana are “relieved” that Lilly “didn't throw them under the bus” and that because of her divorce agreement with Ethan, she had been “restricted” from speaking out about certain aspects of the split.
A version of this feature originally appeared on GLAMOUR US.
A “sister scent” to the original CLOUD.
