Between the Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello breakup and Tina Knowles-Lawson aka Beyoncé’s mom ending things with her unaffiliated-with-Beyoncé husband, July has been an action-packed month for famous-people splits. Last month, the Cut posited that the messy celebrity divorce is back, and it’s a take that recent events are proving to be on the money. But the title of America’s Most Captivating Divorce currently rests firmly with pop star Ariana Grande, not least because her situation actually now involves two divorces … as well as SpongeBob SquarePants, a viscount, and the Land of Oz. If you’re just tuning in, here’s a quick guide to what we know.
Didn’t Ariana Grande just get married?
Yup, not too long ago! The 30-year-old singer married real estate broker Dalton Gomez in May 2021. It was a relatively quick romance: They got engaged after about a year together, then married after a five-month engagement. All seemed well as of a few months ago, when Grande marked their second anniversary with an Instagram story. Then, earlier this month, she was photographed at Wimbledon hanging out with Jonathan Bailey, the Bridgerton actor and aforementioned (fictional) viscount, who is also one of her Wicked co-stars. Though the two don’t seem to be romantically involved—he’s gay—it did raise some eyebrows that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.* News of her separation broke the next day.
Why did Grande and Gomez break up?
Some outlets reported that he was having trouble dealing with her fame: Because they’d gotten together during the pandemic, he didn’t realize what a production it was to go out with her in public, surrounded by security. Grande is currently filming the Wicked movies in London, and apparently, the relationship was in trouble by the time she left in December. They separated not long after that. Some reports say he wanted to make things work; others say that he’s moved on.
And she’s already dating someone new?
As if the news about her marriage ending wasn’t abrupt enough for many celebrity watchers, just a few days after that came out, TMZ reported that Grande actually had a new fella, a different Wicked co-star, named Ethan Slater, who is 31. Neither Grande nor Slater has confirmed this, however.
What’s Ethan Slater’s deal?
He’s playing a munchkin named Boq in Wicked to her Glinda the Good Witch. (It’s a take on The Wizard of Oz, based on the hit Broadway play.) It’s his first big movie role—and her first headlining one, come to think of it—but he’s already a known quantity on Broadway, having been nominated for a Tony in 2018 for his starring role in the SpongeBob musical.
His starring role in whatbob the whaticle?
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, where he played the titular sponge. The musical got good reviews upon its Broadway opening in 2017 and ran for about a year.
So, Ariana Grande is dating a man whose roles have included “sponge” and “munchkin”? Can we get a visual?
Yes, you may. His appearance prompted a lot of discussions online—Grande is, in addition to being rich and famous, very beautiful, so many social media observers were, er, surprised that she chose to date someone whom actual casting professionals have deemed fit to play such an array of goofy parts. In truth, he’s not bad-looking, but he’s not movie-star handsome, and his hair really does look a little wild in that one picture that’s circulating online. (This led to a round of discussion on social media about how straight men in musical theater tend to have their pick of women.) It’s worth pointing out that Grande seems to gravitate toward people who might not be considered conventionally handsome—her brief engagement to Pete Davidson several years ago caused a frenzy partly for this reason. In fact, it might even be considered an admirable and relatable quality, that she goes for a diamond-in-the-rough type, if it weren’t for one little problem …
What’s the problem?
Slater was, until very recently by most accounts, not single. He and his now ex, Lilly Jay, met in high school and have been married for four years, and in August 2022, they had a son together.
Yiiiiikes.
Yeah, it’s an unfortunate situation. Reports even mentioned that Grande had hung out with the couple as friends and met their baby. Grande’s and Slater’s camps have asserted their sides of the story, though, which is that the two didn’t begin dating until after their respective relationships were over. But Slater reportedly filed for divorce on Wednesday, lending credence to the argument that all of this is not a settled matter but an ongoing one.
What do their exes have to say about the timeline?
Jay isn’t having Grande and Slater’s version of events, and sources have countered their claims of innocence with reports that the two have been canoodling on set in London for a bit now. After news of Slater’s divorce filing, Page Six reported that Jay blasted Grande as “not a girl’s girl” and blamed her for making her family “collateral damage” in her new romance. Though we don’t have specifics about who broke up when, it’s safe to assume that Jay suspects that Grande and Slater started their thing before Slater’s relationship with Jay was fully over, or she just felt otherwise disrespected in some way by the spectacle he made of his new relationship—and all while having a new baby. You can see why she might be pissed enough to be calling tabloids, or at least agreeing to respond when tabloids called her. Though Jay actually once wrote a piece for Slate about an experience meeting President Joe Biden as a sexual assault survivor and advocate, she did not call us to bad-mouth Grande. (TMZ reported Friday that Slater was surprised by Jay’s comments and that she told him she didn’t realize she was on the record.)
Is it true? Is Grande—gasp!—not a girl’s girl?
Well, that’s a pretty subjective question. But Grande hasn’t classically represented herself as a girl’s girl … it’s hard to do so when you have a song called “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored.” Rumors have also emerged on social media asserting that Grande has a history of being “the other woman” and breaking up relationships—it’s been alleged that it also happened when she started dating people like Big Sean and Davidson. Rumors of this nature are notoriously hard to verify—we don’t know the exact details about how each couple got together, only the people involved do—and her fans are doing their best to fight them by refuting them on social media. These rumors have also prompted a lot of discussion about misogyny and why women bear the brunt of the blame in such situations. I have seen all kinds of weird explanations for this supposed pattern of behavior, ranging from Grande being surrounded by people who don’t tell her no to her being really short and therefore an “evil gnome.” But again, her lyrical output does offer some support to the “attracted to shiny things” narrative: In “7 Rings,” Grande sings about how she can get whatever she wants: “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it.” She’s talking mostly about buying things, but you can see how it might apply to other aspects of her life as well.
Grande is really developing a reputation for having an interesting love life, isn’t she?
She sure is. She’s beginning to rival Taylor Swift circa 2012 in that respect, as her tabloid persona frequently revolves around serial dating and the music she makes about the drama that ensues from serial dating. Swift showed that this can be an attention-getting career move … but it can also have massive fallout in one’s personal life. The similarities may end there, though, as Grande’s image is actually very different from Swift’s. Where Swift positions herself as fans’ best friend and confidant, Grande has always been more of a diva, a mini-Mariah both in pipes and personality. While one wonders what these “other woman” allegations may mean for her stardom, stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Angelina Jolie have been there before and survived it.
Still, all this can’t be good publicity for the Wicked movie.
It is starting to sound as if we might have another Don’t Worry Darling on our hands. It’s set to be a two-part movie, meaning we’ll be talking about this through 2025. Buckle up.
Correction, Aug. 4, 2023: This piece originally misstated that Jonathan Bailey is married to a man. He is not publicly in a relationship right now.
