Meet Ariana Grande’s Boyfriend—She’s Dating Her Wicked Co-Star Amid Her Divorce (2024)

Ethan Slater (2023 - present)

Ariana Grande’s boyfriend is Ethan Slater. The two are co-stars in the new Wicked movie. “She and Ethan recently began dating, and he is separated from his wife,” a source told People referring to Ethan’s estranged wife Lily Joy.

Grande will be portraying Glinda in the movie adaption of the hit Broadway musical. Slater plays Boq, the love interest of Elphaba’s sister Nessarose. Slater rose to fame playing the titular role in The SpongeBob SquarePants Musical. He also welcomed his first child with Joy earlier in the year.

According to some sources to People, Ariana’s filming schedule is partially to blame for her divorce with Gomez. “She was happy in Los Angeles for a couple of years. She wanted to make a life there with Dalton,” the source said. “He is super focused on his career and needs to live in Los Angeles. It’s definitely been an issue for them. Dalton’s career is demanding and he can’t leave Los Angeles often. So when [Grande] started filmingWickedin England, they were in for a long-distance marriage.”

Dalton Gomez (2020 - 2023)

Ariana Grande married Dalton Gomez in 2020. Grande first started dating Gomez, a real estate agent who represents celebrity homes, in January 2020. The “Thank U Next” singer confirmed their relationship in May in her music video for “Stuck with U” with Justin Bieber. The video saw Grande and Gomez slow-dancing. The confirmation came after speculation the two were dating from Grande’s Instagram posts, which showed her and Gomez quarantined together amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, Grande confirmed that she and Gomez are engaged via an Instagram slideshow of photos of them together. Among the pictures was a shot of her engagement ring, which featured an oval-shaped diamond and a pearl given to her by her late grandfather. “forever n then some,” she captioned the post. The two got secretly married in 2021.

On July 17, 2023, TMZreported that Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez were divorcing after she was seen without her wedding ring at Wimbledon. The two have been together since 2020. According to sources, the coupe just couldn’t make it work post-COVID and the level of Grande’s fame wasn’t something Gomez was at all prepared for. “When Covid restrictions lifted, we’re told their differences became alarmingly apparent. Dalton, an L.A. realtor, was taken aback by Ariana’s celebrity. He had not dealt with her schedule, the paparazzi and the various opportunities that took her out of L.A.,”TMZ reported. “We’re told Dalton would sometimes question why they needed to go around town with security, something that was a must for Ariana. Their differences started to make the marriage unravel, and it was greatly exacerbated when she went to England last December to begin filmingWicked.”

ET also confirmed the news of the breakup and that Gomez has been dating since their separation. “They’ve been quietly and lovingly working on their friendship,” the insider said. Another source said, “Ariana and Dalton’s friends have always been concerned by their whirlwind romance and felt their relationship would ultimately be short-lived.Their relationship has been rocky at different points, and they’ve had trouble making time for each other with scheduling issues.”

Pete Davidson (2018)

The two met in 2016 when she performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, of which Davidson is a cast member. They didn’t begin dating until May 2018, the same month that Grande confirmed her breakup with Miller, and news broke that Davidson and his then-girlfriend, Cazzie David, had split. After two months of dating, Davidson confirmed that he and Grande were engaged in June 2018 on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. No word yet on when the wedding will be (or if Grande will wear her signature high ponytail for the ceremony). The couple split in October 2018. Grande went on to reference Davidson and other exes in her song “Thank U Next.”

Ricky Alvarez (2015)

Grande and Alvarez’s relationship was short-lived and not known by many of her fans—until Donutgate, the singer’s 2015 scandal in which she was videotaped licking a doughnut that she didn’t buy and calling America “fat.” The video also happened to feature Alvarez, one of Grande’s backup dancers, whom she was dating at the time. The two first sparked rumors when they kissed onstage for the first time at a 2015 Pride festival in June. Grande and Alvarez dated for about a year until July 2016 when Grande tweeted cryptic thoughts about “change” and liked fans’ tweets speculating that the two were no more and that Alvarez somehow did Grande wrong.

Big Sean (2014)

The two first met in 2014 when they collaborated on Grande’s song “Right There” from her debut album Yours Truly. After months of dating rumors (including about Grande’s getting into her first car accident on the way to Big Sean’s house), the two made their official debut as a couple at the 2015 Grammys. After eight months of dating, including Big Sean’s surprise appearance on Grande’s The Honeymoon Tour to perform “Best Mistake” and “Right There,” the two called it quits in April 2015. According to a source for E! News, the breakup was over conflicting schedules. Both artists planned to be on tour for the next year, which would make it hard for them to be together.

Nathan Sykes (2013)

Grande first saw Sykes on a red carpet in early 2013 (“I saw him on a red carpet, and we locked eyes with each other all night. I thought he was cute as hell. Nothing happened obviously,” Grande toldEntertainment Wise), but they didn’t properly meet until months later when they filmed the music video for their song “Almost Is Never Enough.”

After the singers reconnected as opening acts for Justin Bieber’s Believe tour later that year, they began dating while she was on a break with Jai Brooks. The two dated for about five months until they broke up at the beginning of 2014 due to the strain of dating long distance. There were no hard feelings, however, as the singers reunited as friends in 2016 to sing the duet “Over and Over Again” for Sykes’s debut solo album.

Jai Brooks (2012 - 2014)

Brooks and Grande’s relationship began in 2012 when Brooks and his twin brother Luke, two members of the Australian boy band Janoskians, competed in a contest for who could get Grande’s attention first. The contest led to the trending Twitter hashtag #JaiVsLukeForAriana, which caught the attention of Grande’s mom, who showed her daughter the boys. Grande then messaged Brooks her phone number and the two began dating a few months later. After two months of phone and Skype calls, the two met in person for the first time in January 2013, which Grande documented in a video.

They continued dating long distance for a while, with the two flying back and forth between Australia and America, until the end of 2013 when Grande accused Brooks of breaking up with her over text in an interview withComplex. Shortly after, Brooks responded in atweet, accusing Grande of cheating on him with Nathan Sykes, her duet partner. After a few months apart, the couple reunited at the beginning of 2014 and dated for around six months until they quietly broke up again.

Graham Phillips (2008 - 2011)

Best known for his role on CBS’s The Good Wife, Phillips was Grande’s first famous boyfriend. The two met in 2008 when they starred in the Broadway musical 13 (whereGrande had her first kiss) together when they were teenagers. After remaining friends for a year, Phillips and Grande began dating. After three years of dating—including an appearance at the 2010 Emmys together and several duets—the two amicably split in December 2011. Five years after their breakup, they reunited in July 2016 for a13cast reunion.