Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater split after more than 2 years

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have split after more than 2 years together. The breakup ends a relationship that began on the set of Wicked in 2022 and had stayed under scrutiny as the two kept showing up less often in public together.

Wicked set to split

The pair began dating in the summer after they met on Wicked in 2022, and their relationship quickly became part of the film’s off-screen story. Public interest never really faded, in part because the romance surfaced amid speculation that it overlapped with Slater’s marriage to Lily Jay, even as both said their time together did not overlap with their prior relationships.

Slater and Jay finalized their divorce in 2024, and Grande and Dalton Gomez also finalized their divorce in 2024. Those timelines kept the relationship tied to a wider round of personal upheaval around the film, which is why every new public appearance carried extra weight.

November appearances

Grande and Slater still appeared together in November at Wicked: For Good’s London premiere, where she posed with him on the carpet. Slater also praised her work at the film’s New York premiere that same month, saying, “Ariana’s performance is out of this world,” and calling Cynthia Erivo’s “unbelievable.”

He later described Grande’s 2026 Academy Awards nomination as “It’s a really emotional thing and it’s beautiful.” That made the split more noticeable, because the pair had just spent months presenting themselves as professionally aligned while the personal relationship was no longer moving in the same direction.

Public scrutiny and private life

Grande spent September 2024 pushing back on the tabloid narrative around the relationship, saying, “It definitely doesn’t get any easier, seeing some of the negativity that was birthed by disreputable tabloids.” She added, “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him,” and, “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 made the same point in Oct. 2024, saying, “I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public.” He also said, “It was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing.” The breakup now closes a relationship that was always read through the lens of Wicked, the scrutiny around their private lives, and the fact that both had already moved through divorces in 2024.

Grande and Slater’s reps had not responded to the request for comment, leaving the split as the only fresh development that matters now. For readers tracking the story, the important shift is simple: the relationship is over, and the public chapter around Wicked has moved from romance back to promotion.