Ethan Slater: Everything to know about the Wicked star, who is he, and why is his relationship with Ariana Grande so controversial | Explainer

It’s a sentence that’s been sung for more than 20 years, but when it left actor Ethan Slater‘s lips at the premiere of Wicked in Sydney, it left some in the audience gasping – and others trying to muffle their awkward laughter.

“I would do anything for you,” Slater’s Boq Woodsman speak-sings to Ariana Grande‘s Glinda the Good (née Galinda Upland) on-screen in Dancing Through Life, an almost 10-minute-long sequence led by Jonathan Bailey‘s charismatic Fiyero Tiggular.

Though it’s a sentiment that’s quickly dismissed by Grande’s fictional facsimile – and, in the Wicked universe, Glinda’s rejection ultimately sparks catastrophic consequences for Boq – in real life, it hits close to home for both Slater, 32, and Grande, 31, whose presence inside Market Street’s State Theatre made the crowd’s reaction all the more uncomfortable.

Watch the video above.

READ MORE: Iconic TV host dies with wife by his side

After all, if you believe the heavily-denied rumours, Slater did do said “anything” for Grande.

What happened between Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater and why is their relationship so controversial?

When the duo first met in December 2022, Slater was married to his high-school sweetheart Lilly Jay. That same year, Slater and Jay welcomed their first child, a baby son.

“My best friend. 4 years married, 10 years together. And this is easily the best and most (*bizarre*) year yet,” Slater had reportedly written on his Instagram in November 2022 about Jay.

The former couple had tied the knot in 2018, six years after they started dating.

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Grande, meanwhile, was married to real estate agent Dalton Gomez. The duo got engaged in December 2020 after 11 months of dating, and later married in her Montecito home on May 15, 2021.

Wicked started filming in December 2022, though by July 2023, production had paused due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

That same month, Grande was spotted out and about with Bailey, 36, at Wimbledon in London – and she notably was spotted enjoying the men’s singles final without her diamond engagement and wedding rings on her left hand.

READ MORE: TV star’s marriage ended the second she picked up her husband’s phone

Ten days later, on July 27, 2023, sources confirmed to People that Grande and Slater were “full-on dating” – though emphasised that their romantic relationship did not begin until both Grande and Slater had separated from their spouses.

One day prior, on July 26, 2023, TMZ reported Slater had filed for divorce from Jay in New York City. The same outlet had reported on July 17, 2023, that Gomez and Grande had been separated since January 2023 and were heading for divorce.

“Ariana and Ethan are dating; however, things are fairly new,” an unnamed source told Us Weekly on July 20, 2023.

“Ariana and Dalton split in January, and Ethan is separated from his wife. Ariana and Ethan have only recently begun seeing each other but they have a lot of fun together and are enjoying each other’s company,” the source said.

On May 15, 2023, Slater had written to Jay on Instagram on behalf of himself and his son: “Happy first Mother’s Day to the most loving caring and wonderful mum/person in the world.”

Jay broke her silence on her former partner’s new relationship with Grande on July 27, 2023, telling Page Six in a statement: “[Grande’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl. My family is just collateral damage.”

READ MORE: She’s the child of a Hollywood hero but there’s one place she’s more famous than him

Are Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater still together?

Amid all the controversy surrounding the perceptions of how their romance came to be, Grande and Slater kept a low profile.

They were spotted every so often in public together – including once on Wicked co-star Michelle Yeoh’s Instagram in a photo taken at a cast dinner and again on Andrew Rannells’ Instagram when seeing Gutenberg! The Musical! together – and Grande was seen watching Slater in Broadway’s Spamalot in November 2023, but neither party commented public on their relationship.

That all changed in January 2024, when Grande seemingly hinted at her relationship with Slater in the lyrics of yes, and?, with the songstress singing: “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply / Your business is yours and mine is mine / Why do you care so much whose d–k I ride?”

In March 2024, Grande and Gomez’s divorce agreement was finalised, and Slater and Jay followed with their settlement reportedly finalised in September 2024.

That same month, Grande overtly addressed her relationship with Slater for the first time.

“It definitely doesn’t get any easier, seeing some of the negativity that was birthed by disreputable tabloids. Of course, I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie. A lot of people that were working on it did. We were away for two years. So, of course, I understand why it was a field day for the tabloids to sort of create something that paid their bills,” she told Vanity Fair.

READ MORE: One thing one of music’s biggest names won’t show her fans

She also hosed down the rumours she and Slater had an affair, telling the publication: “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him…. 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 bulls–t tabloid can rewrite in real life.”

Slater, meanwhile, broke his public silence on Grande the following month, telling GQ in October: “Obviously, it was a really super big year and I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public.

“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.”

“But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited,” he continued.

“I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this. She’s poured herself into it. I’m really proud that I got to be there for that part of it, and I’m really excited to be there for this next step of it when the world gets to see the amazing thing that she did.”

More than a year on from their relationship being confirmed, the couple finally went Instagram official, with Grande sharing a photo of Slater helping her walk in her ballgown at the Sydney premiere of Wicked – the same event where moviegoers gasped and laughed when the couple’s relationship was hinted at on-screen.

READ MORE: Inside the remarkable rise of Chrishell Stause

In the weeks following, the couple stopped being shy about showing PDA at the film’s plethora of premieres around the globe – something Grande’s fans have been lauding.

Slater even praised Grande on the red carpet in Sydney, telling 9honey Celebrity Grande and the Wicked cast were ”warm and welcoming”, adding, “Everybody’s incredibly talented”.

“I do think the theatre kid in all of us was a really helpful bonding thing,” he said. “Cynthia, Ariana, you know, Marissa [Bode] loves doing theatre. Johnny [Jonathan Bailey] obviously does theatre. Jeff [Goldblum] loves it. Everybody is, like, you know, theatre kids at heart. So I think we bonded over time, which is really nice.”

So, who is Ethan Slater anyway?

Slater may be known to many as Boq or Grande’s boyfriend, but he’s forged a career – mainly in theatre – and a name for himself in his own right.

Born in 1992 in Washington, D.C., to a Jewish family, Slater’s mother died when he was seven years old.

Slater told Pop Culturalist in 2021 his mother’s death had a “really big, formative thing in my life. She had left this huge imprint on me, even though I had so few memories.”

READ MORE: Adele cries as she bids farewell to fans in emotional speech

His first role in theatre came in 2015, when he starred as Luis in Claudio Quest at the New York Musical Theatre Festival that July.

Slater’s breakout role, however, is considered to be SpongeBob SquarePants in the Broadway musical of the same name, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination.

What followed was a series of roles in theatre, television and film, though arguably his biggest – professionally and personally – is Boq in Wicked.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.