Ariana Grande makes huge change to Ethan Slater romance after wife's heartbreaking admission

Ariana Grande has taken to Instagram for the first time since Ethan Slater's ex-wife Lilly Jay penned a heartbreaking personal essay about her split from the pop star's boyfriend

Wicked star Ariana Grande has seemingly embarked on a new public strategy regarding her relationship with Ethan Slater following the publication of his ex-wife's heartbreaking personal essay.

Dr. Lilly Jay, Slater's childhood sweetheart, broke her silence on the father of son's new romance with pop star Grande on Friday, after separating from the Spongebob Square Pants earlier this year. Slater encountered Ariana on the set of the movie adaptation of the hit musical Wicked in 2022 and the pair went public with their romance this year.

Their relationship sparked controversy as both were still legally married at the time - Slater to Lilly Jay and Grande to ex-husband Dalton Gomez. Following the high-profile release of Wicked, which sees Grande play Glinda the Good Witch, Lily Jay has admitted "days when I can't escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker."

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, just hours on from Lily Jay's essay being published, Grande shared a series of behind-the-scenes snaps from her time shooting Wicked - with boyfriend Slater, who portrays Boq in the movie adaption, noticeably missing from the collection of images.

"one month of @wickedmovie thank you for your overwhelming love and embrace ! i love you, we love you," Grande captioned the collection of shots that included Wicked c-stars Cynthia Erivo, Bowen Yang, and others. The ability to comment on Grande's post has been limited since she first shared it with her 376million followers.

In a deeply personal essay for The Cut, Lilly Jay pondered over the collapse of her marriage. "In the countless hours I spend rocking my son to sleep, pushing his stroller, marvelling at his sweaty little hands grasping a crayon, I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage," she penned.

"This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. Slowly but surely, I have come to believe that in the absence of the life I planned with my high-school sweetheart, a lifetime of sweetness is waiting for me and my child." Despite the end of their romantic relationship, Lilly noted that their commitment to co-parenting remains unchanged.

She passionately declared that they both "fiercely love" their son "100 percent of the time". The single mum opened up about her shock at the divorce, admitting she never imagined her marriage would crumble "especially not just after giving birth to my first child". Engulfed in a year of "shock and mourning" since the split hit the headlines, Lilly expressed her longing for the lost "life of invisibility" she'd cultivated as a psychologist.

Meanwhile, Slater has also previously admitted his struggle with the spotlight on his relationship with songstress Grande. Attending the Wicked premiere solo, while his partner dazzled alongside Cynthia Erivo, Slater spilled to GQ about the challenge of living in the public eye.

Slater stated: "I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public." He lamented the misjudgements made by strangers, saying: "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."

Despite the tumultuous year and the scrutiny over their off-screen chemistry, the couple are reportedly flourishing. Slater initiated divorce proceedings last year and in the same vein, Gomez started her own split from Dalton Gomez in September. She asserted that the parting with her estranged husband took effect in February.

Expressing her exasperation about the conjectured overlap in her new love interest, she said to The Zach Sang Show: "I feel like we don't need to go into any specifics. But of course, there's an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love, and you and anything."

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