What Ethan Slater Has Said About His Controversial Romance With Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater's relationship garnered backlash pretty much from the moment it began. The Grammy-winning singer and Broadway star's paths initially crossed when they both joined the cast of the movie "Wicked" in 2022. At the time, Grande was over a year into her marriage with Dalton Gomez, while Slater had been married to his long-term partner, Lilly Jay, for four years (they also share a son). However, in July 2023, an insider informed People that the "7 Rings" songstress and her hubby had ended their 2-year marriage just a couple of months prior.

And, less than a week after that, another People source confirmed that Slater and Grande had struck up a romantic connection. However, they also stressed that the pop star separated from her ex-husband in January, and she had only started seeing her co-star more recently. Things got even messier when TMZ reported that Slater had filed for divorce a few days later. Naturally, it didn't take long for people to assume that Grande and the "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical" star had blown up their marriages to be with each other. But both kept schtum.

In fact, Slater only addressed the negativity in an October 2024 interview with GQ interview, reasoning, "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."

While speaking to Vanity Fair in September 2024, Ariana Grande acknowledged how disheartened she felt seeing millions of people readily believing that she had broken up a happy family simply because she fell in love with Ethan Slater. The Nickelodeon alum also shared that the real Slater couldn't be farther from the person that the press had made him out to be, proclaiming, "No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about." 

The "Positions" hitmaker continued, "There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bulls*** tabloid can rewrite in real life." Similarly, Slater couldn't help but gush about his partner during the actor's chat with GQ. The Broadway star confessed that he was in awe of Grande's performance in "Wicked" and was honored that he got to watch her in action. When the interviewer asked for his thoughts on her song, "Imperfect For You," which is widely believed to be about Slater, he argued that his partner's songwriting abilities didn't get enough flowers. 

On the contrary, Grande's defense of Slater in her song "Yes, and?" totally backfired. The 2024 track finds the Grammy winner taking aim at the celebrity couple's many critics with the iconic line: "Why do you care so much whose d**k I ride?" Suffice it to say, all the negativity has only brought the "Thank U, Next" hitmaker and Slater closer together and helped them to develop a stronger bond too.