Ethan Slater’s ex-wife Lilly Jay has confessed the Wicked phenomenon has left her ‘unable to escape’ the ‘saddest days of my life’ as the spotlight has shone on her former husband and Ariana Grande’s controversial relationship.
The actor, 32, and singer, 31, met on the British set of the film adaptation of the celebrated musical in 2022, when both were married.
And now Ethan’s ex-wife Lilly has broken her silence on the scandal after the pair used the recent press tour to go public with their relationship.
When it was first revealed Ariana, who plays Glinda, and Ethan, who stars as munchkin Boq, were dating, questions over the timeline of their relationship quickly overshadowed the project.
Production were ‘worried’ about the impact their controversial pairing would have on the movie’s success and insiders claimed the couple were instructed to ‘disappear for six months’ in the hopes of swerving backlash.
However, since the film’s release in November Ariana and Ethan haven’t been able to resist packing on the PDA on the press tour.
And Lily has now opened up about her grief at having to witness her ex-husband promote Wicked around the world with the woman he left her for, calling it a very painful reminder of the ‘public downfall of my marriage’.
In an essay for The Cut, published on Wednesday, the clinical psychologist, who shares a two-year-old son with Slater, reflected on navigating life as a single mother and the end of their six-year marriage.
She admitted there are ‘days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker’. Lily also said that as she rocks their son to sleep for ‘countless hours’ she is also trying to ‘accept the sudden public downfall of my marriage.’
‘No-one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced, in the same way we don’t board a plane expecting to crash’, she said.
And in another slight on her ex and his new lover: ‘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.’
When Ethan joined the production, which began filming in December 2022, he was married Lilly, who was his high school sweetheart, and the pair were enjoying their first months as parents to their new𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 son.
She wrote: ‘Days with my son are sunny. Motherhood, I have learned, fills your time but not your mind.
‘In the countless hours I spend rocking my son to sleep, pushing his stroller, marveling at his sweaty little hands grasping a crayon, I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage.
‘This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide.’
In the summer of 2023, news broke that Ariana had split from her husband Dalton Gomez and just days later it emerged that she was dating Slater – who hadn’t yet publicly announced his separation from his wife.
Grande and Slater’s romance sparked uproar among her followers. This was exacerbated when Jay slammed the Thank You, Next singer in a series of disparaging interviews in which she claimed Ariana is ‘not a girl’s girl’ and accused Grande of seeing her family as nothing more than ‘collateral damage.’
Insiders claimed the couple were instructed to ‘disappear for six months’ in the hope that the backlash would die down before the long-awaited musical hit cinemas on November 22, however the couple have not been able to resist piling on the PDA during the Wicked Press Tour.
While the couple have stopped short of hard-launching their relationship on social media, Ariana has been using Instagram to drop clues to her fans that the relationship is serious.
During the Sydney stop-off on their press tour, she shared a snap of Ethan playing the dutiful boyfriend by helping her down the stairs in a voluminous pink ballgown.
And she’s been seen fussing over him on the red carpet, lovingly straightening his bow tie and reaching out to hold his hand.
She also shared snaps to Instagram of her trip back to her hometown Boca Raton, Florida, to watch Wicked.
Fans were quick to notice that Ethan was in the background of a photo she posed for with fans in the lobby of the Cinemark 20 cinema.
Ethan also spent time with Ariana’s beloved grandmother Marjorie Grande, also known as ‘Nonna,’ during the visit.
Ariana made sure to credit her boyfriend as the photographer in snaps of her cuddling up to her grandmother during the screening.
Not all of her tributes have been quite so subtle, however.
Opening up to Entertainment Tonight during the LA premiere of Wicked, she branded Ethan, who is known for playing Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway, ‘adorable.’
‘He’s so amazing in this film, he’s such an amazing person, I’m so happy people are getting to know him. My heart is very happy,’ she gushed.
Ethan has also taken tentative steps into venturing information about the couple’s relationship, confirming to GQ that he had indeed ‘fallen in love’ during fliming.
He added that it had been ‘a really super big year’ while navigating the backlash over them getting together, which had been ‘really difficult’.
‘There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love,’ he said.
‘But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this.’
Ariana echoed similar sentiments in another interview, insisting the couple have been ‘misunderstood’.
She explained on the Zach Sang show: ‘There’s an instatiable frustration…inexplicable hellish feeling, with watching people misundertand the people you love – and you.’
While fans may now be more accepting of the relationship, Ariana was instantly labelled a ‘homewrecker’ when she was first linked to her co-star.
‘When news of the relationship first broke, studio execs were extremely worried about how it would impact the film,’ a source told DailyMail.com. ‘They were feeling the heat and Ariana and Ethan were instructed to disappear for six months, which they did.’
The co-stars met in December 2022 on the UK set of the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, in which Grande, 31, plays Glinda — the good witch — alongside Slater, 32, as munchkin Boq.
At the time, Grande was still married to Dalton Gomez. She filed for divorce in September 2023 and listed the date of separation as February 20, 2023.
The singer announced her separation from Gomez just three days before confirming her new relationship with Slater.
Meanwhile Ethan, who welcomed his first 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 with Lily in 2022, filed for divorce in July 2023 – five years after they tied the knot.
He cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of their son. The pair eventually finalized their divorce in September 2023.
A source close to Ariana and Ethan claimed that the singer ‘hung out’ with Lilly and her new𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 multiple times before her romance with her co-star was revealed – and reportedly even told those around her how much she ‘wanted a 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 one day’ after bonding with Lilly and Ethan’s son.
‘Ariana met their 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 and even held him,” an insider told the Daily Mail. ‘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.’
In May 2023, two months before news of his realtionship with Ariana emerged, the singer liked Ethan’s Mother’s Day tribute to his wife on Instagram.
‘Happy First Mother’s Day to the most loving caring and wonderful mom/person in the world,’ he wrote.
When news of his relationship with Ariana emerged in July, sources close to the couple were quick to quash any suggestion of an affair, insisting that both had separated from their spouses before getting together.
Following months of ‘homewrecker’ allegations, Ariana hit back in her January 2024 singe yes, and?, which includes the lyrics: ‘Your business is yours, and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose d*** I ride?’
A source close to Lilly slammed the singer for her ‘disrespectful’ attitude and accused her of a complete lack of ’empathy.’
Following the continuous flow of negative headlines, the couple refrained from the spotlight making only a handful of public appearances including his opening night in the Spamalot Broadway show.
‘Ariana and Ethan are professionals and know better than to bring their personal relationship to promotional events,’ the insider said.
‘Ariana was terrified that her personal actions would cause this film to bomb. They are both divorced and people have moved on from this.’
Though Ethan only broke his year-long silence about their romance in October, the cast has come together to support their costars.
‘Everyone knows that they are in a serious relationship,’ the insider continued. ‘Everyone was instructed to not discuss this with anyone, and they are all well aware that they will answer no questions about this.’