Love is in the air — defying gravity, one could say — on the set of Wicked. According to multiple reports, Ariana Grande is dating her 31-year-old costar Ethan Slater following her recently reported split from husband Dalton Gomez.
Slater, who starred on Broadway as the titular character in the SpongeBob SquarePants musical, is also reportedly split from his wife, singer Lilly Jay, with whom he celebrated his four-year wedding anniversary in November 2022. Both TMZ and People report that he and Grande started dating after both of their previous relationships were over; the “Thank U, Next” singer reportedly called it quits with Gomez in January, though they have yet to announce their split.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Grande and Slater for comment.
Grande plays Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba (aka, the Wicked Witch of the West) in Jon M. Chu’s upcoming pair of live-action films based on the Broadway show Wicked, which itself was inspired by the best-selling novel of the same title by Gregory Maguire. Slater is playing Boq, a munchkin boy who, ironically, harbors a crush on Glinda. He was spotted with Grande and others in a photo posted on Instagram in March by Michelle Yeoh, another Wicked costar.
The reported romance comes just days after reports surfaced that Grande and Gomez, who married in 2021, were separating. One day prior, the pop star was spotted at Wimbledon with Andrew Garfield, Tom Hiddleston and fellow Wicked star Jonathan Bailey, her left hand visibly missing her wedding ring.
The pop star is reportedly on good terms with her soon-to-be ex-husband.
