Ariana Grande Says Rumors About Her Relationship With Ethan Slater Were "Hellish"

"I feel like we don’t need to go into any specifics, but, of course, there’s like an insatiable frustration..."

Ariana Grande says tabloid rumors about her relationship with Ethan Slater were "hellish."
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Ariana Grande is opening up about the rumors surrounding her relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.

"I feel like we don’t need to go into any specifics, but, of course, there’s like an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love and you and anything,” the "God is a Woman" singer said during a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show.

“We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based on whether or not we like the person," she continued. “We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance ... (tabloids) don’t leave space for that.”

Grande went on to say that people usually leave that space “for their friends and family,” but “they turn it off when that aligns with the version of a person that they have in their head that they want to believe is true.”

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In September of last year, Grande and her ex, Dalton Gomez, filed for divorce, People reported at the time.  One month later, the couple's split was finalized, Us Magazine reported. At around the same time, Slater filed for divorce from his wife Lilly Jay and as news broke that he had started dating his Wicked co-star, sparking rumors of a possible infidelity.

In August 2023, sources allegedly close to the couple told Us Weekly that there was no relationship overlap.

Grande is set to release her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, and admitted during the same Zach Sang Show interview that releasing an entirely new album in the middle of her "relationship drama" is arguably "the absolute worst idea."

“I’m so nervous, because pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just, like, part of the concept," she explained. "So, what is that separation?”

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Grande does seemingly allude to her new relationship with Slater and the drama surrounding it in her new single “Yes, And?".

In the song, Grande sings: “Your business is yours and mine is mine. Why do you care so much whose d*** I ride?”

The song debuted number one on the Billboard music charts. Grande celebrated her new single's success by posting a video on Instagram and thanking her fans.

"I am so so so……. so emotional," she captioned the post. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my fans, the most incredible angels in the world, for the love you have shown this song and me. It is overwhelming and so sincerely moving to see how many of you this song has resonated with and it is such a gift to feel so seen and held by you!

"Thank you for your positivity, for your support and for everything," she continued. "You have no idea how much you mean to me! This is absolutely because of and entirely for you. Thank you!"

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Danielle Campoamor
Weekend Editor

Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.