From innocent friendship at the Wicked filming to an adorable relationship peppered with sweet words and PDA, the Slater-Grande romance has kept Hollywood on its toes.
When the Oscar-nominated musical began filming in late 2022, Ariana and Ethan seemed like an unlikely pair because they were both married. By 2023, both stars had survived the breakup of their marriages, begun dating, and moved in together.
Highlights
- Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater's romance began during Wicked rehearsals in early 2022.
- Despite being married to others initially, their chemistry grew on and off the Wicked set.
- Media speculated on their relationship status, overshadowing professional achievements.
- Grande's album indirectly hints at her budding relationship with Slater.
- Speculation about career motives exists, but their bond seems genuine and rooted in affection.
In 2024, they began to make supportive appearances at one another’s events, go on public dates, discuss their relationship in the press, and pose together at events. They rang in 2025 with an Oscar nomination for Wicked in January and most recently gave the fans a show of tender caresses at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in February.
While their relationship is no longer in question, the story of how it unfolded is a patchwork of different accounts. Here’s a closer look at their full timeline and how it perfectly aligned with Wicked’s soaring box-office success.
November 2021: Wicked Casting Announcements
In November 2021, pop princess Ariana Grande shared her elation on Instagram about being cast as Glinda in the movie version of the global hit musical Wicked.
Grande has always been a theater kid at her core, and in her pre-teens, she even impressed the Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth by singing a bit of “Popular” during their backstage meeting.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URs_h9TTR4c[/embed]
While Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were to play the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba, Ethan Slater, most known for his Tony-nominated Role in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, was cast as munchkin Boq.
The Wicked musical had been a cultural phenomenon for almost 20 years, so there was intense pressure to improve the silver screen version. With more cast members announced, the movie’s hype skyrocketed.
Early 2022: The Yellow Brick Road to Friendship
Rehearsals for Wicked began in early 2022, and it was at about this time that Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater first met. At the start of filming, Ariana had been married to Dalton Gomez, a real estate agent.
Although they mostly kept their marriage out of the spotlight, Grande posted a cute picture of them on a romantic Valentine’s Day date in February 2022 — all seemed rosy for the couple.
However, an insider source told Us Weekly that Grande and Gomez had been “having issues...that they couldn't resolve” well before she flew to London for the filming.
At the time, Ethan Slater was also married to his high-school sweetheart, Lilly Jay. With 10 years together and four years of marriage, Slater and Jay were living a storybook romance.
According to GeeksforGeeks, Grande and Slater started off with a strictly professional relationship, but they got closer as they spent more time together filming. Newly released BTS pictures of them from that period show Slater and Grande taking fun selfies while working on set.
Late 2022: Chemistry On and Off Set
Filming for the Wicked movie kicked off in late 2022 in the UK, and the two leading stars were seen together on multiple occasions.
In November 2022, Jonathan Bailey, who plays heartthrob Fiyero, posted this family shot with Grande leaning sweetly on Slater.
However, Grande and Slater were both still publicly with their spouses. In fact, in November, Slater had just shared a loving anniversary message about Lilly in a now-deleted Instagram post that Grande liked. By all indications, his relationship with the co-star seemed entirely platonic.
Up to this point, everything seemed relatively amicable. Grande and Slater spent a lot of time together on set, and there are photos of them side by side. However, it could all just reflect a close-knit friendship among the cast.
Early 2023: Rumors of Romance Ignite
In January 2023, Ethan Slater posted another Instagram post announcing that his first child with Lilly Jay was born in August 2022. While the post has also been deleted, fans have shared screenshots of it on Reddit.
According to TMZ, Grande and Dalton had failed to settle their long-standing issues through an attempted reconciliation around the same time. Their marriage had been restricted to regular phone calls since December 2022, and they finally separated In January 2023.
In March 2023, co-star Michelle Yeoh shared pictures from the celebration of her Oscar win that showed Grande and Slater sitting close together among other Wicked cast members. In August, An insider source revealed to the Daily Mail that the pair had been “all over each other“ at the party.
The image, posted in March 2023, drove fans to speculate that Slater was in a relationship with Grande.
Mid-2023: Grande and Slater Love Unveiled
It wasn’t until mid-2023 that things started to pick up the steam between Ariana and Ethan. Composer Stephen Schwartz shared in a conversation with Variety that the Wicked production was paused in July with only ten days of filming left because the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors’ Guild had gone on strike.
The break in the filming schedule gave the Wicked stars, including Grande and Slater, plenty of time to frolic around the UK. A few days into the break, Grande was spotted without her wedding ring at Wimbledon alongside co-stars Jonathan Bailey and Andrew Garfield.
Four days after she was photographed at the tennis match, Teen Vogue reported that she deleted all photos of Gomez from her Instagram as the news broke that they had officially ended their relationship.
Grande had been separated from her husband since early 2023, but according to Us Weekly, Slater only informed Lilly of their split just days before TMZ reported that he and Grande had started dating.
Close family friends confirmed to People that Grande and Slater hadn’t started dating until he was separated from Lilly Jay in a bid to be “respectful to all parties involved.“
However, sources at Daily Mail claim that Grande and Slater were “sloppy on set...while he [Slater] was was still supposedly happily married to Lilly.“ Insider sources at Us Weekly also claim that the duo didn’t hide their relationship during the filming and often held hands between takes.
On July 26, about a week after his relationship with Ariana Grande became public, Ethan Slater filed for divorce. According to People, the settlement terms were sealed, and the reason for the split was not stated. The case was finalized on September 12, 2024.
Grande and Dalton simultaneously filed for divorce on September 18, 2024, with Grande citing irreconcilable differences in her filing. TMZ claims that Ariana and Dalton still have healthy love and respect, especially since they had a prenuptial agreement.
The filing was delayed because they wanted to work out their differences and settle before going to court.
Late 2023: Love In The Spotlight
October 2023: First Public Appearances as a Couple
On July 27, 2023, Ethan’s ex-wife, Lilly Jay, broke her silence, telling Page Six that her family was “collateral damage” in a story centered around Grande.
Jay, a clinical psychologist in perinatal mental health and child development, published an essay in The Cut titled “How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?“ In the emotional piece, she discussed her work as a psychologist, the contrast between her private life and Ethan’s celebrity over the years, and her struggles with life-threatening pre-eclampsia and post-partum depression.
She said, “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.
In this season of shock and mourning, over a year after the end of my marriage was made public, I deeply miss the life of invisibility I created for myself as a psychologist specializing in women’s mental health.”
Grande and Slater, on the other hand, kept things pretty quiet. They weren’t photographed together until September when an anonymous source shared media of Slater and Grande at Disneyland with DeuxMoi via Instagram.
A TMZ source corroborated the news, stating that the couple went on the trip with friends and family, including Ariana’s brother, Frankie Grande.
Late October 2023, TMZ released exclusive pictures of Grande and Slater sharing drinks during a private date night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Eyewitnesses confirmed they were very affectionate during the date, smooching and whispering sweet nothings for nearly two hours.
On October 31, Grande attended the first preview performance night of Spamalot, Slater’s Broadway show. An attendee’s Instagram video showed her smiling from the crowd and cheering for Slater.
In November, she also showed up in style at the show’s opening night, as reported by People.
December 2023: Ariana’s Music and Public References to Their Relationship
In December, she posted a Christmas tree decoration in the shape of a tin of spam with a matching ornament. With the brand Spam being an official partner of the Spamalot revival, the post was certainly a homage to Spamalot and Slater.
2024 Sightings
The flames of romance between the lovers burned strong into 2024. In early April, Grande attended the final performance of Spamalot in New York, where she posed for pictures with Slater’s co-stars backstage, as shared by a fan account on X.
The couple exited the theatre hand-in-hand, and fan videos showed them greeting showgoers outside the venue as they left.
In June, Slater and Grande publicly appeared at the 2024 Stanley Cup final at the Amerant Bank Arena in Florida. Photos from the E! News shared on the Access Hollywood YouTube channel showed them wearing Panthers merchandise and happily cheering during the game.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sMDYbYRFuU[/embed]
It was only in late 2024 that Grande and Slater began talking about each other publicly. During their press tours for Wicked, Ethan praised his girlfriend’s talent and discussed how much he enjoyed working with her.
In September, Grande opened up to Vanity Fair on her relationship with Slater and the “tough ride” of navigating a new relationship, fraught with scandals, under the global media spotlight.
Addressing rumors that he had left his wife and child to be with her, she said, “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him.”
While insisting that she would “never go into certain details“, Grande strongly vouched for Slater, saying “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullshit tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
In October 2024, Ethan publicly discussed their relationship for the first time. In his interview with GQ, he also avoided going into details but gushed over his partner.
In his words, “Ari’s Ari, and she’s amazing. She’s...one of the best comedians that’s been in a movie in a long time...who’s also got this crazy voice that can do anything.“
In the public’s opinion about their relationship, Slater said that having his personal life dissected by the public, most of who didn't understand what was happening, was a difficult change. In his words, “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.”
In early November, Slater was also a guest on the Jennifer Hudson Show, where he called Ariana Grande “a comedy genius.” Later that month, Grande posted her first picture featuring Ethan Slater on her Instagram.
In the picture from the Journey Through Oz press tour for Wicked, he affectionately held the tail of her train as she walked down the stairs of the Sydney State Theatre.
About a week after, Grande was pictured adjusting Slater’s bow tie at the LA premiere of the movie, as reported by People. However, the couple didn’t pose for pictures together.
In March 2024, Grande released her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine. According to E! News, fans speculated that the album's initials, E.S., were a reference to Ethan Slater. The song's themes also resonate with her divorce and the beginning of a new relationship.
For example, in the operatic opening track, “Intro (End of the World),” Grande sings:
“How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?
Aren’t you really s’posed to know that s–t?
Feel it in your bones and own that s–t?
I don’t know
Then I had this interaction I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout for like five weeks. Wonder if he’s thinkin’ ’bout it too and smiling,
Wonder if he knows that that’s been what’s inspirin’ me,
Wonder if he’s judgin’ me like I am right now.“
Soon after the release, Grande asked fans through her Instagram stories to stop sending vicious messages to whomever they thought the songs were about. In her statement, she claimed that such behavior could only come from a misinterpretation of the lyrics because the album “captures a lot of painful moments, [but] it also is woven together with a through line of deep, sincere love.“
In December 2024, a fan posted pictures she took with the couple while shopping for Christmas trees on Instagram.
A source explained to Page Six that they were “celebrating the success of ‘Wicked’ and keeping things low-key as they enjoy the holiday season together.”
Present Day: Where They Stand in 2025
January 2025: National Board of Review Gala Appearance
Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater rang in the New Year by making their first joint red carpet appearance at the National Board of Review annual awards gala in Manhattan.
In photos from Kevin Mazur featured in a Harper's Bazaar review, Grande’s baby pink Loewe dress and Slater’s crisp black suit stole the show as they posed for pictures alone and with the rest of the cast.
The couple spent the rest of the night exchanging loving looks, caresses, laughs, and even a dance.
On January 23, Grande received her first Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda in the category of Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 2025 Academy Awards. As the LA Times reported, this was one of the ten Wicked nominations.
Grande told Hollywood Reporter that the nomination was surreal because playing Glinda was the ”greatest gift of her life.” Slater celebrated his girlfriend’s big win with an Instagram post of Grande holding pink balloons, the color of her character.
February 2025: Oscar Nomination and Public Support
At the Artios Awards on February 12, Ethan Slater told Us Weekly that he was “unendingly proud“ of Grande, as she and her co-star Cynthia Erivo had “worked so unbelievably hard to not only make this movie and be the best versions of Glinda and Elphaba, but to promote it.“
Earlier in the month, he had joined Grande at the Critics’ Choice Awards, where Cosmopolitan reported that the couple cuddled and made conversation through the night.
In Chelsea Handler’s opening monologue, she said, “And now, Ariana has even found love with a munchkin.“
According to People, when the couple didn’t seem to find it funny, and the audience only gave a few laughs, Handler added: “That's good news, everybody!“
The couple also attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards together on February 23. While they posed separately on the red carpet, Elle reported that Grande kept her arm around her boyfriend for most of the night.
Deuxmoi on Instagram posted a clip showing Slater leaning in to whisper to Grande while the crowd buzzed around them during a break in the ceremony.
A lip reader with Daily Mail analyzed the clip, revealing that Slater took Grande’s hand and protectively asked her to stay near him.
With these growing public displays of affection and the couple opening up more to the press, their low-key phase might be behind us.
Present Day: Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s Live Together Now
An insider source revealed to Us Weekly in October 2024 that Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater now live together in New York full-time.
The couple stunned at the premieres of the first part of Wicked until the run ended in London on November 18, 2024. According to Forbes, the second part, “Wicked: For Good, “ will be released on November 21, 2025, and we expect to see more of Slater and Grande in a press run.
Ariana Grande and Ethan Slayter have definitely weathered the rocky start of their once-controversial relationship as both their fans and loved ones have come to accept their coupling.
According to Us Weekly, Ariana Grande’s mother and brother approve of Ethan as she becomes “her authentic self“ with him, sharing a connection that is “not superficial, but more intellectual and emotional.”
Grande is said to be “finally fulfilled in a relationship,“ so we’re excited to see more of the adorable couple in due course.