She congratulated him on his last show. He skipped her tour. Somewhere between the red carpets they stopped showing up, and nobody said a word.
Image Source: Instagram
Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have been quietly broken up for several months, according to TMZ. Sources close to the former couple told the outlet the split was amicable and that the two still remain friends and are very supportive of one another. They gave the breakup careful consideration but ultimately decided to end the romantic relationship.
Neither Grande nor Slater has issued a public statement about the breakup. No official confirmation has come from their representatives.
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Grande, 32, and Slater, 34, were first publicly linked in July 2023 while both were navigating the ends of their respective marriages.
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The two met on the set of the film ‘Wicked’, which was shot in London. As TMZ previously reported, Ariana and Ethan first connected while working together on ‘Wicked’. Sources told them at the time that the two did not begin dating until after both marriages had ended.
Grande’s divorce from Dalton Gomez was finalized in October 2023, while Slater filed to end his marriage to Lilly Jay on July 26, 2023. Slater and Lilly Jay had been married since November 2018 and share one child, a son born in August 2022. Their divorce was finalized on September 12, after five years of marriage. The terms of the settlement are sealed.
The couple kept their romance largely out of the public eye for most of its duration. Since Grande and Slater’s romance became public, the couple tried to keep their relationship out of the spotlight and keep things low-key.
The couple made their relationship Instagram official in November 2024. That same month, both were promoting ‘Wicked: For Good’, the sequel to their 2024 film. The last time they were photographed together in public before late 2025 was at the 2025 Oscars in March, where they shared some PDA inside the ceremony, hugging, holding each other at the waist, and sitting next to each other.
Rumors that there was trouble in paradise had been swirling since late 2025.
Breakup chatter surfaced as early as October 2025, when tabloid sources claimed Slater was struggling with Grande’s public life. During the ‘Wicked: For Good’ press tour that November, the pair largely avoided posing together and Slater was notably absent from many of Grande’s red carpets, though sources indicated they were still together at the time.
When Slater appeared on ‘Today’ in November 2025 and was asked what it was like working with his girlfriend every day, he shifted the conversation to praising the cast as a whole. This only added fuel to the rumors.
At that time, sources shut down the speculation, telling TMZ and PEOPLE that the relationship was still strong and that they were supporting each other throughout the massive ‘Wicked’ rollout.
Grande’s last public acknowledgment of Slater came on March 22, with an Instagram Story congratulating him on the closing night of his off-Broadway show ‘Marcel on the Train’, writing: “congratulations on a beautiful run of this very beautiful show.”
Slater was notably absent from her Eternal Sunshine tour, which kicked off over the weekend in Oakland, California.
Sources told TMZ that Ariana’s new album was not at all inspired by the breakup, nor is the music about her relationship with Ethan.
Considering that’s where most artists get their inspiration, people are already dissecting lyrics. In “hate that i made you love me,” Grande sings about moving on, seeing through someone’s insecurities, and finding her way away from a relationship. The song’s title alone has been enough to generate widespread speculation online.
Grande is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, with a career spanning over a decade. Slater is a Broadway actor best known for his Tony Award-nominated role in ‘SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical’. The two crossed paths professionally when they were both cast in Universal Pictures’ ‘Wicked’, directed by Jon M. Chu.
The ‘Wicked: For Good’ stars were reportedly once talking about marriage. Those plans, if they existed, have now been set aside.
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