Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater Call It Quits For Good
As all theater kids know, the more dramatic the showmance, the more surely it will come to an end.
Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty CelebritiesDirt Bag
That relationship we all kinda always knew was going to end…has ended. Yesterday, news broke that Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater called it quits after three years of dating. According to a source in Page Six, the couple actually broke up “several months ago,” after deciding “they were better off friends than in a committed relationship.” A lackluster end for a relationship that (allegedly) ended a family, sparked at least one viral essay, fueled thousands of hours of online discourse, and brought undue hatred toward the SpongeBob musical (it was good!)
For those who don’t remember, Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater first met on the set of Wicked in November 2022, when they were both still married. Ethan Slater was an up-and-coming actor best known for playing SpongeBob on Broadway (quite well, actually! Sorry, haters!) Ariana Grande was…well…Ariana Grande. While the pair has always maintained they were both separated from their partners when they officially got together, speculation of overlap has always hounded the couple. This was made worse by the fact that Slater’s wife, his high school sweetheart, Dr. Lilly Jay, had only just given birth to their first son at the time that filming for Wicked began.
Speaking of Dr. Lilly Jay, she did not fly quietly off into the westward sky. Instead, she called Grande “not a girl’s girl,” in Page Six (one of the worst insults you can level at a woman in this modern age), and went on to write about the experience of her very public divorce in The Cut. And for those who need a refresher on their basic math:
Homewrecking allegations + bad dad allegations + “not a girl’s girl” allegations = enough TikToks to last a lifetime.
This toxic combination of allegations made the relationship a sore spot in the press, meaning the couple kept it extremely low-key for the majority of their relationship.You probably could have watched the entire Wicked Part One press tour—and many did—without clocking that Ari and Ethan were a couple. In fact, the two didn’t hard launch (if you can even call it that) until the film’s November 2024 premiere, when Ari included a single photo of Ethan helping her down the stairs embedded in this photo dump:
Meanwhile, the two had already been living together in New York City for over a year.
The pair would continue to keep it low-key for the rest of the relationship, occasionally being photographed at the premieres of various musicals, hockey games, Disney trips, and dinner dates. (Yes, that counts as “low key” for celebrities.) Despite constant speculation that the two had quietly broken up, the couple made it through a whole second Wicked press tour, and the haters had to at least begrudgingly admit they seemed to be doing well.
Until they weren’t.
As all theater kids know, the more dramatic the showmance, the more surely it will come to an end. News of the split comes as Ariana is embarking on her Eternal Sunshine tour—her first since Wicked. She’s also dropping a new album, set to be released July 31, which supposedly is “not inspired” by the breakup. Ouch. I’m not sure what would be worse, (allegedly) breaking up your family just to get dumped by a pop star who then writes an album about it, or (allegedly) breaking up your family just to get dumped by a pop star who doesn’t say anything about it at all.
Either way, I’m sure Dr. Lilly Jay’s group chats are going crazy right now.
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