28 December 2023: Grande seemingly addresses critics of her personal life in a year-end letter to fans shared via the pop star’s Instagram story. “I’ve never felt more at the mercy of and in acceptance of what life was screaming to teach me,” she wrote of her transformative year largely spent out of the spotlight. “I have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together and make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life.”
12 January 2024: Grande drops Yes, And? which is both her first solo single in three years and the lead single from her forthcoming album. Slater isn’t mentioned by name, but lyrics like these certainly appear to be nodding in his general direction:
8 June 2024: Grande and Slater are pictured hanging out at the Stanley Cup Final in Florida.
30 October 2024: Ethan Slater responds to a question asking what it was like to ‘fall in love’ while making Wicked, during an interview with GQ. He touched on the difficulty of dealing with the speculation surrounding their romance, too. “Obviously, it was a really super big year,” he said, “and I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public. There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so 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. So just to address that part of it, that feels really hard.”
He added: “But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this. She’s poured herself into it. I’m really proud that I got to be there for that part of it, and I’m really excited to be there for this next step of it when the world gets to see the amazing thing that she did.”
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At the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena in Florida on 8 June 2024Elsa/Getty Images
