Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater ‘quietly’ separated months ago, reports say
- Last updated: June 10, 2026 | 13:28
Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have reportedly ended their relationship after nearly three years together. The two are “still friends”, a source told People.
“It’s amicable, they gave lots of time and careful consideration and decided to go their separate ways,” the source said. “They are still friends and very supportive of one another. They have been quietly broken up for several months.”
The Independent has reached out to representatives for Grande and Slater for comment.
Grande and Slater met while working on Universal's two-part film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, which began filming in the UK in late 2022. Grande played Glinda the Good and Slater starred as Boq, a Munchkin who later becomes the Tin Man.
Reports about the pair being involved romantically first emerged in July 2023, shortly after news of Grande's separation from her then-husband, Dalton Gomez, and Slater’s separation from his wife Lilly Jay. Grande and Slater kept much of their relationship out of the public eye and became Instagram official in November 2024.
The source said Grande is “doing great” and “incredibly focused” on her ongoing Eternal Sunshine tour, which opened at Oakland Arena in California earlier this week and marks her first tour since 2019.
“She’s seemed very happy. It’s all been very positive vibes,” the source told People. “Being able to reconnect with fans after so many years made her very excited.”
They added: “She’s been wanting to give her fans an amazing show and has put so much work into the show. Kicking off her tour was very emotional for her.”
The 41-date arena tour will visit Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Montreal before ending with a 10-night residency at London’s O2 Arena between 15 August and 1 September.
Away from the stage, Grande is preparing to release her eighth studio album Petal on 31 July. Last month, she released the album's lead single, “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” which debuted at No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer's 10th chart-topping single in the US.
Slater, meanwhile, recently completed a run in the Off-Broadway play Marcel on the Train at New York's Classic Stage Company. The actor co-wrote the production with director Marshall Pailet and starred as the French mime Marcel Marceau, focusing on the performer’s work helping Jewish children escape Nazi-occupied France during the second world war. The show ran from February until March this year.
In March, Grande congratulated Slater after the production closed, writing on Instagram: “Congratulations on a beautiful run of this very beautiful show. So very proud.”
In 2023, Slater’s ex-wife, clinical psychologist Dr Lilly Jay told Page Six that Grande was “not a girl’s girl.” “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl,” Dr Jay told the outlet. “My family is just collateral damage.”
Since news of their relationship emerged in 2023, the pair have faced intense public scrutiny, including allegations that Slater supposedly left his family to pursue a relationship with Grande. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2024, Grande defended Slater, saying: “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him,” she said, before adding that she “will never go into certain details” about the criticism regarding her relationship.
The Independent