Ever since it was first revealed that Ariana Grande was dating her Wicked costar Ethan Slater, the pair’s romance – and questions over the timeline of their relationship – quickly overshadowed the project.
With an eye-watering $145million budget on the line and years of delays behind them, studio executives at Universal Pictures were ‘worried’ about the impact their controversial pairing would have on the movie’s success.
When Slater joined the production, which began filming in December 2022, he was married to his high school sweetheart, Lilly Jay, and the pair were enjoying their first months as parents to their newborn son.
In the summer of 2023, news broke that Ariana had split from her husband Dalton Gomez and just days later it emerged that she was dating Slater – who hadn’t yet publicly announced his separation from his wife.
Grande and Slater’s romance sparked uproar among her followers. This was exacerbated when Jay slammed the Thank You, Next singer in a series of disparaging interviews in which she claimed Ariana is ‘not a girl’s girl’ and accused Grande of seeing her family as nothing more than ‘collateral damage.’
Insiders claimed the couple were instructed to ‘disappear for six months’ in the hope that the backlash would die down before the long-awaited musical hit cinemas on November 22, however the couple have not been able to resist piling on the PDA during the Wicked Press Tour.
While the couple have stopped short of hard-launching their relationship on social media, Ariana has been using Instagram to drop clues to her fans that the relationship is serious.
During the Sydney stop-off on their press tour, she shared a snap of Ethan playing the dutiful boyfriend by helping her down the stairs in a voluminous pink ballgown.
And she’s been seen fussing over him on the red carpet, lovingly straightening his bow tie and reaching out to hold his hand.
Earlier this week, she shared snaps to Instagram of her trip back to her hometown Boca Raton, Florida, to watch Wicked.
Fans were quick to notice that Ethan, who plays munchkin Boq, was in the background of a photo she posed for with fans in the lobby of the Cinemark 20 cinema.
Ethan also spent time with Ariana’s beloved grandmother Marjorie Grande, also known as ‘Nonna,’ during the visit.
Ariana made sure to credit her boyfriend as the photographer in snaps of her cuddling up to her grandmother during the screening.
Not all of her tributes have been quite so subtle, however.
Opening up to Entertainment Tonight during the LA premiere of Wicked, she branded Ethan, who is known for playing Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway, ‘adorable.’
‘He’s so amazing in this film, he’s such an amazing person, I’m so happy people are getting to know him. My heart is very happy,’ she gushed.
Ethan has also taken tentative steps into venturing information about the couple’s relationship, confirming to GQ that he had indeed ‘fallen in love’ during fliming.
He added that it had been ‘a really super big year’ while navigating the backlash over them getting together, which had been ‘really difficult’.
‘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,’ he said.
‘But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this.’
Ariana echoed similar sentiments in another interview, insisting the couple have been ‘misunderstood’.
She explained on the Zach Sang show: ‘There’s an instatiable frustration…inexplicable hellish feeling, with watching people misundertand the people you love – and you.’
While fans may now be more accepting of the relationship, Ariana was instantly labelled a ‘homewrecker’ when she was first linked to her co-star.
‘When news of the relationship first broke, studio execs were extremely worried about how it would impact the film,’ a source told DailyMail.com. ‘They were feeling the heat and Ariana and Ethan were instructed to disappear for six months, which they did.’
The co-stars met in December 2022 on the UK set of the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, in which Grande, 31, plays Glinda — the good witch — alongside Slater, 32, as munchkin Boq.
At the time, Grande was still married to Dalton Gomez. She filed for divorce in September 2023 and listed the date of separation as February 20, 2023.
The singer announced her separation from Gomez just three days before confirming her new relationship with Slater.
Meanwhile, Slater was married to his high school sweetheart, Lilly Jay, when he joined the production.
The actor, who welcomed his first child with Jay in 2022, filed for divorce in July 2023 – five years after they tied the knot.
He cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of their son. The pair eventually finalized their divorce in September 2023.
A source close to Ariana and Ethan claimed that the singer ‘hung out’ with Lilly and her newborn baby multiple times before her romance with her co-star was revealed – and reportedly even told those around her how much she ‘wanted a baby one day’ after bonding with Lilly and Ethan’s son.
‘Ariana met their baby and even held him,” an insider told the Daily Mail. ‘They had dinners together in London — and Ariana told Lilly that she wanted to have a baby one day and that she couldn’t wait to start a family.’
In May 2023, two months before news of his realtionship with Ariana emerged, the singer liked Ethan’s Mother’s Day tribute to his wife on Instagram.
‘Happy First Mother’s Day to the most loving caring and wonderful mom/person in the world,’ he wrote.
When news of his relationship with Ariana emerged in July, sources close to the couple were quick to quash any suggestion of an affair, insisting that both had separated from their spouses before getting together.
Following months of ‘homewrecker’ allegations, Ariana hit back in her January 2024 singe yes, and?, which includes the lyrics: ‘Your business is yours, and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose d*** I ride?’
A source close to Lilly Jay, 29, slammed the singer for her ‘disrespectful’ attitude and accused her of a complete lack of ’empathy.’
Following the continuous flow of negative headlines, Grande and Slater refrained from the spotlight making only a handful of public appearances including his opening night in the Spamalot Broadway show.
‘Ariana and Ethan are professionals and know better than to bring their personal relationship to promotional events,’ the insider said.
‘Ariana was terrified that her personal actions would cause this film to bomb. They are both divorced and people have moved on from this.’
Though Slater only broke his year-long silence about their romance last month, the cast has come together to support their costars.
‘Everyone knows that they are in a serious relationship,’ the insider continued. ‘Everyone was instructed to not discuss this with anyone, and they are all well aware that they will answer no questions about this.’
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