Shady Things About Ethan Slater, Revealed By His Ex-Wife Lilly Jay

It's no secret that Broadway star Ethan Slater, a.k.a. Ariana Grande's new flame, has had quite the run the past few years. Slater landed the role of a lifetime in December 2022 when it was officially announced that he would star in the "Wicked" films, portraying an endearing munchkin named Boq. "He was just so natural and so likable, and you root for him," the film's director, Jon Chu, told GQ in October 2024 about selecting Slater for the role. "I think you root for Ethan Slater as a human being."

Ironically, in a strange case of life imitating art, just as Boq had affections for Glinda, the effervescent and popular good witch, played by Ariana Grande, a then-married Slater appeared to grow smitten with his co-star. On July 20, 2023, TMZ reported that fresh off the heels of her sudden split from husband Dalton Gomez, Grande had already rebounded right into the arms of her then-married co-star Slater. (Alexa, play "Thank U, Next"). Sources, however, were adamant that Slater and Grande did not start dating until he was separated from his wife, Lilly Jay. Alas, Slater's estranged wife begged to differ, offering up to the public a much shadier side of the A-list actor than they had been privy to. Let's get into it, shall we?!

In July 2023, Dr. Lilly Jay seemingly confirmed all of the speculation surrounding the controversial timeline of Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande's relationship and her subsequent divorce from Slater during an exclusive interview with Page Six. "[Ariana's] the story, really. Not a girl's girl. My family is just collateral damage," she told the gossip column. To which we would like to say bravo to Slater's estranged wife for publicly ripping Grande.

But that's not all. A source close to the situation told Daily Mail that on several occasions Jay, Slater, their infant son, and Grande all hung out together. "Ariana met their baby and even held him. 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," the source claimed. The source went on to allege that it wasn't until later, however, that Jay learned that Slater had been having an affair with Grande. "There was a period when they were all going to try and work on their marriages and put the whole thing behind them,' the source alleged. "She thought they were happy. But that did not work out [because Ariana and Ethan] kept the affair going despite [that]."

It wasn't until December 2024, however, when Dr. Lilly Jay, a licensed clinical psychologist and the ex-wife and mother of Ethan Slater's only child, really let it all hang out in a candid personal essay published on The Cut titled "How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?" In the confines of the piece that reads much like a tell-all, Jay revealed even more shady things about the "Wicked" actor, including the not-so small detail that Slater wasted practically no time at all following the birth of their child, quickly moving on to his on-set co-star Ariana Grande. "I really never thought I would get divorced. Especially not just after giving birth to my first child and especially not in the shadow of my husband's new relationship with a celebrity," she noted in the piece. 

Alas, perhaps most damning was Jay's own admission that she willingly moved all the way to the United Kingdom, uprooting not only herself but also their two-month-old child, all in an effort to "support [Slater's] career." (Their son was born in August 2022, and filming for "Wicked" began in December 2022, so, uh, we'll let you do the math on that one.) "Consumed by the magic and mundanity of new motherhood, I didn't understand the growing distance between us," she confessed about not recognizing the tell-tale signs of her own divorce in the making. To make matters worse, Jay claimed her career had taken a major hit in the aftermath of her very public and salacious divorce. "I deeply miss the life of invisibility I created for myself as a psychologist specializing in women's mental health," she lamented. Conversely, Slater's star has only continued to rise following his new high-profile romance with Grande. Shady, indeed.