Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater were seen together this past weekend on a rare hockey date.
On June 8, during Game One of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, the singer and the Broadway star, who started dating last year, were spotted sitting together and grinning.
The couple, who started dating in 2023 after meeting early on the set of the upcoming two-part Wicked film, in which they play Glinda and the Munchkin Boq, respectively, considered this one of their most public joint sightings.
A person who knew the situation revealed that the 30-year-old singer was dating Broadway actor Dalton Gomez in July 2023, just days after E! News revealed that she had separated from her now ex-husband after two years of marriage. The 32-year-old filed for divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, later that month; they have a son together. A different source told E! News that Ariana and Ethan “were both separated before they got together.”
The following October, the singer, whose new song “The Boy Is Mine” was influenced by the hit 1998 song by Brandy and Monica, was spotted cheering on her boyfriend during his performance in the first look of Broadway’s Spamalot revival.
The couple was seen out on a few more dates in New York City over the winter, including an evening get-together with Ariana’s mother. When Ariana posted her first image of Ethan on Instagram in April, it was of them and other cast members from the movie Wicked.
Meanwhile, Ariana and Ethan’s romance continues to draw scrutiny.
“We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based on whether or not we like the person,” she said on the Feb. 26 episode of The Zach Sang Show. “We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance. Like, they don’t leave space for that—well, they do for their friends and their family.
It’s selective. 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.”
The “Problem” singer continued, “there’s an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love, and you and anything.”
Ariana’s brother, Frankie Grande, is singing Ethan’s praises. “I love him,” Frankie told TooFab in an interview published June 5. “He’s a very sweet guy.”
The Big Brother alum, who has appeared on Broadway himself, added that he’s been Ethan’s “big fan” since seeing him in The SpongeBob Musical, which ran from 2017 to 2018.
“All I want is for my sister to be happy,” he added. When she’s happy, I’m happy, so I’m very happy.”
