Ethan Slater Told His Wife About Ariana Grande Just "Days" Before News Broke

If you're wondering when SpongeBob SquarePants actor Ethan Slater told his estranged wife Lilly Jay that he was casually dating his Wicked costar Ariana Grande, the answer is...literally right before news broke on July 20.

Us Weekly reports that Ethan told Lilly about Ariana (and explained that he wanted to split up) just days ahead of time, and explained that he wanted to split up. As a source put it, “Ethan sat Lilly down a few days before the news broke about him and Ariana and said that he wanted a divorce. Lilly never saw it coming!”

This comes amid multiple sources insisting that both Ariana and Ethan had broken things off with their respective spouses before they started dating. And another source stressed this point again to Us Weekly, saying they “were separated when they started dating and the relationship is recent. It’s understandable that its difficult to see an ex move on, especially in such a public way, and they are trying to be as respectful as possible."

So yeah, a lot of conflicting info!

Anyway, this source also notes that “Ariana and Ethan weren’t careful. They’d hold hands on set in between takes. They were sloppy and not hiding it.”

According to the timeline of events, Ariana and her estranged husband Dalton Gomez ended things all the way back in January—and he's also been dating other people. Meanwhile, Ethan was gushing over Lilly as recently as May, when he wrote on Instagram “Happy first Mother’s Day, to the most loving caring and wonderful mom/person in the world, from me and this little guy.”

As of now neither Ethan nor Ariana have said anything about their relationship status, but again...the Wicked press tour should be....interesting!

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