If you’re even a casual fan of Ariana Grande’s, it’s fairly easy to keep up with her personal life. (Well, the parts that she writes into her songs, anyway; all these years later, I still have “Thought I’d end up with Sean, but he wasn’t a match / Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh” playing on a loop in my head.) Lately, however, Grande’s romantic affairs have recieved a little extra scrutiny, thanks to an ongoing relationship with her Wicked costar Ethan Slater. First linked in 2023, they last stepped out publicly over the weekend, after Grande hosted Saturday Night Live.
But where did this whole thing begin? Read on for all the details.
When did Grande and Slater first meet?
Well, Wicked began filming in December of 2022, so presumably sometime around then. At the time, Slater was still married to his high school sweetheart and now-ex-wife, Lilly Jay, with whom he shares one child, and Grande was married to Dalton Gomez. It’s been noted that Grande liked a tribute to Jay that Slater posted for Mother’s Day in May of 2023.
When did the dating rumors about Grande and Slater start?
“Ariana and Dalton separated in January. She and Ethan recently began dating, and he is separated from his wife,” a source told People magazine on July 20, 2023; further reports of Grande and Slater engaging in PDA on the Wicked set were published in Us Weekly later that week.
When did Slater and Jay get divorced?
Slater filed divorce papers in New York on July 26, 2023. The day after, Jay referred to Grande as “not a girl’s girl” in a statement to Page Six, adding: “My family is just collateral damage.”
When did Grande get divorced from Dalton Gomez?
Grande and her now ex-husband, whom she started dating in January of 2020 and married the following year, mutually filed for divorce in October of 2023. Grande and Gomez’s split was finalized on March 19, 2024 (once the six-month waiting period that is required for divorcing couples in California was up).
When were Grande and Slater first seen in public together?
The pair were seen walking arm in arm at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on September 22, 2023 (and if you’re paying attention, yes, that’s shortly before Grande and Gomez filed for divorce; the heart wants what it wants, okay?). Grande then went to see Slater in Spamalot on Broadway in late October, and when a former theater kid comes to see your show…you know it’s officially on.