Ariana Grande Breaks Her Silence on Public Perception of Her Relationship With Ethan Slater

Ariana Grande and boyfriend Ethan Slater's romance was confirmed in July 2023.

By Anna Rumer

Ariana Grande is shutting down "disappointing" rumors about her boyfriend Ethan Slater. Grande, 31, spoke about her headline-making relationship with her Wicked co-star in a new interview with Vanity Fair published Monday, Sept. 30, calling out what she thinks is an inaccurate perception of the 32-year-old Broadway star. 

"The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst version of it," she told the outlet. "There couldn't be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him." 

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(Photo: Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images)

The Grammy-winning artist, who plays Glinda in the upcoming musical movie adaptation, continued, "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."

Grande and Slater's romance, which sparked after the two met filming Wicked, was confirmed in July 2023 in the wake of splits from both their respective spouses – Grande's ex-husband Dalton Gomez, and Slater's ex-wife, Lilly Jay.

Despite reports claiming that Grande and Slater's relationship only became romantic after their mutual separations, Jay told Page Six shortly after Slater's divorce filing that her family was "just collateral damage" in the situation, blasting the "God is a Woman" singer as "not a girl's girl." Slater and Jay, who tied the knot in 2018, finalized their divorce earlier this month and share one son, born in August 2022. 

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(Photo: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images, Dominik Bindl/WireImage via Getty Images)

Grande, whose divorce from Gomez was finalized in October 2023 after two years of marriage, addressed the speculation surrounding her relationship with Slater after releasing her album Eternal Sunshine earlier this year. "I feel like we don't need to go into any specifics, but, of course, there's like an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love and you and anything," Grande said on a February episode of The Zach Sang Show. 

She added that her album referenced the controversy, explaining, "Pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just like ... part of the concept. So what is that separation? And it's so scary to leave it up to these selective memory people to decipher. It's scary. But I digress. It's too late. The vinyls have been printed." 

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