Ethan Slater isn’t letting his recent breakup from Ariana Grande get him down.
The Wicked actor, 34, made his first public appearance since news broke of the former couple’s separation, attending Free Shakespeare in the Park’s production of Romeo & Juliet at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in New York City on Thursday, June 11.
Slater was seen posing for photos at the production’s press night, sporting a plain white T-shirt, black pants and white sneakers, per footage posted by People on Instagram.
The sighting comes the same week that Grande, 32, began her Eternal Sunshine Tour in Oakland, California. The singer kicked off her tour on Saturday, June 6, at the Oakland Arena. She will next perform on Saturday, June 13, and Sunday, June 14, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
News broke on Monday, June 8, that Grande and Slater had called it quits after nearly three years of dating.
“It’s amicable. They gave lots of time and careful consideration and decided to go their separate ways,” a source told Us Weekly at the time. “They are still friends and very supportive of one another. They have been quietly broken up for several months.”
The stars met on the set of Wicked in 2022. Grande played Glinda the Good Witch in 2024’s Wicked and 2025’s Wicked: For Good, while Slater played Boq.
“After their press tour [for Wicked: For Good] died down, they had been spending more time apart than usual,” an insider told Us of the end of their romantic relationship. “They both agreed they wanted different things and had been working through what the future holds together.”
Cynthia Erivo is reflecting back on how her friendship with Ariana Grande captivated fans during their Wicked press tour. “At first, I think people didn’t understand how it was possible for two women to be friends – close – and not lovers,” Erivo, 39, told the U.K. outlet The Stylist in a Tuesday, February 10, […]
“They both care about each other and hoped things would work out,” the source shared.
Slater was previously married to clinical psychologist Lilly Jay, with whom he shares a 3-year-old son, from 2018 to 2024, while Grande was married to real estate broker Dalton Gomez from 2021 to 2024.
“No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced … but 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,” Jay wrote in a December 2024 essay for The Cut titled “How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?”
“Days with my son are sunny. Days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker,” Jay wrote, referring to the press tour for Wicked.
