Ethan Slater has filed for divorce from wife Lilly Jay amid news of his romance with Ariana Grande, Us Weekly can confirm.
Slater, 31, filed the divorce paperwork on Wednesday, July 26, in New York. The reason for the split was not listed.
The pair — who were high school sweethearts — tied the knot in 2018 and welcomed their first child last year. Slater made headlines earlier this month when Us confirmed he was dating his Wicked costar Grande, 30, after she called it quits with estranged husband Dalton Gomez.
“Ariana and Ethan are dating; however things are fairly new. Ariana and Dalton split in January, and Ethan is separated from his wife, ” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “Ariana and Ethan have only recently begun seeing each other but they have a lot of fun together and are enjoying each other’s company.”
Grande and Slater met while filming the Wizard of Oz adaptation and connected while on set. While filming, the duo didn’t hide their feelings for each other in front of other members of the cast and crew. “Ariana and Ethan weren’t careful,” a second source told Us on Tuesday, July 25. “They’d hold hands on set in between takes. They were sloppy and not hiding it.”
The news of Grande and Slater’s relationship didn’t just shock the world. A third source later revealed that Jay learned about her estranged husband’s new relationship right before the news broke.
“Ethan sat Lilly down a few days before the news broke about him and Ariana and said that he wanted a divorce,” the source revealed. Lilly never saw it coming!” (Sources close to Grande have denied the claims.)
While Slater — who is best known for his role as the titular character in Broadway’s SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical — is seemingly happy with his new relationship, his friends are more concerned. An insider told Us on Wednesday that Slater’s pals are “worried” Grande will “break his heart.” His former Broadway costar Lilli Cooper — who played Sandy Cheeks in the SpongeBob musical — was surprised by the new romance.
“I haven’t spoken to him in a while,” Cooper, 33, said to Page Six on Monday, July 24. “It’s an interesting coupling, for sure, unexpected.”
Neither Grande nor Slater have publicly addressed their romance. However, Slater raised eyebrows after he made his social media pages private amid the drama. Jay and Gomez have also not spoken out about their estranged spouses moving on.
