Ariana Grande is taking steps to legally end her marriage to Dalton Gomez after their “rough patch.”
Grande, 30, officially filed for divorce on Monday, September 18, according to TMZ, listing the estranged pair’s date of separation as February 20. Gomez, 28, filed his response soon after.
Grande raised eyebrows in July when she was spotted without her wedding ring while watching a tennis match at Wimbledon with Wicked costar Jonathan Bailey. At the time, a source exclusively told Us that Grande and Gomez were “having issues for months” that they “couldn’t resolve.”
Per the insider, distance took a toll on the estranged couple while Grande was filming Wicked in London.
A second source told Us that while “things had been going really well” for Grande and Gomez following their May 2021 wedding, the twosome “hit a rough patch” earlier this year and weren’t “able to recover.”
Us confirmed later that month that Grande sparked a romance with Wicked costar Ethan Slater on set of the two-part movie musical. Slater, 31, filed for divorce from wife Lilly Jay on July 26. (The pair had been together for 10 years and welcomed a son in 2022.)
According to a third source, both Grande and Slater “were separated” from their respective spouses “when they started dating,” noting that the duo were “trying to be as respectful as possible” about their romance. A fourth insider, however, hinted that Grande and Slater “weren’t careful” while Wicked was in production.
Us confirmed in December 2020 that Grande and Gomez were engaged less than one year after going public with their romance. Grande teased her engagement news via social media, writing “Forever n then some,” and showing off the large diamond and pearl ring on her left hand.
Grande also teased her engagement news on social media, sharing a series of sweet pics with her fiancé. “Forever n then some,” she wrote, showing off the large diamond and pearl ring on her left hand.
Ahead of their engagement, a source exclusively told Us that Gomez was “different” than any of Grande’s exes. “Dalton will go above and beyond to meet her needs. … They’ve fallen madly in love with each other,” the insider added in August 2020.
The twosome tied the knot the following spring at Grande’s home in Montecito, California.
Before news broke of their split, Grande celebrated the pair’s two-year anniversary with a rare wedding photo. “I love him so,” she wrote via her Instagram Story in May.
Grande previously dated rapper Big Sean from 2014 to 2015 and backup dancer Ricky Alvarez from 2015 to 2016. Following her two-year relationship with the late Mac Miller, she was engaged to Pete Davidson from June to October 2018. Grande later told Vogue their romance was “an amazing distraction” from other aspects of her life.
“It was frivolous and fun and insane and highly unrealistic, and I loved him, and I didn’t know him,” she explained in August 2019. “I’m like an infant when it comes to real life and this old soul, been-around-the-block-a-million-times artist. I still don’t trust myself with the life stuff.”
Ahead of her divorce, Grande hinted at going through challenging times while addressing “concerns” about her appearance. Critics claimed she looked “unhealthy” and “too skinny,” but Grande reminded fans via TikTok in April that “there are many ways to look healthy and beautiful.”
She added: “Personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy. … There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like that I think we should help each other work towards. Just to aim toward being safer and keeping each other safer.”
