Ethan Slater, Lilli Cooper, Ariana Grande Shutterstock(3)
Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande’s budding romance didn’t simply shock followers, it was information to his former SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical costars as properly.
“I used to be stunned,” Lilli Cooper — who performed Sandy Cheeks alongside Slater’s SpongeBob SquarePants on Broadway — informed Web page Six on Monday, July 24.
Cooper, 33, and Slater, 31, costarred within the quirky musical impressed by the Nickelodeon collection by the identical title throughout its Chicago and New York productions in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Whereas Cooper revealed she hasn’t “spoken to him shortly,” she known as Slater and Grande, 30, “an attention-grabbing coupling.” She added that their romance is “for certain, sudden.”
Us Weekly confirmed on Thursday, July 20, that Grande and Slater “are relationship” after rising shut on the set of the upcoming Depraved films. (Grande performs Glinda within the two-part manufacturing based mostly on the enduring Broadway musical by the identical title. Slater, for his half, landed the position of munchkin Boq in November 2022.)
“Issues are pretty new,” the insider mentioned, including, “Ariana and Ethan have solely just lately begun seeing one another however they’ve numerous enjoyable collectively and are having fun with one another’s firm.”
Grande and Slater’s relationship made headlines days after information broke that the “7 Rings” singer and husband Dalton Gomez had been headed for divorce.
Us confirmed on July 17 that Grande and Gomez, 27, known as it quits after two years of marriage. A supply informed Us on the time that the pair had been “having some points for months now.”
The estranged couple “couldn’t resolve” their issues, which started earlier than Grande left for London late final 12 months to movie Depraved, the insider mentioned on July 17. “The space didn’t assist,” the supply added. “They haven’t been talking and are separated.”
Us later discovered that Grande and Gomez “break up in January,” with a supply explaining on Thursday that Slater “is separated from his spouse.”
Slater married Lilly Jay in November 2018. They welcomed their son in 2022 and celebrated 10 years as a pair that November. The next month, Slater jetted off to London to start engaged on Depraved and his relationship with Jay finally fizzled out. (Filming for Depraved was initially slated to start in June 2022. Nonetheless, director Jon M. Chu confirmed by way of his Instagram Story in December 2022 that the “first day of taking pictures” was that month.)
“Ethan sat Lilly down a number of days earlier than the information broke about him and Ariana and mentioned that he wished a divorce,” a supply solely informed Us on Tuesday, July 25. “Lilly by no means noticed it coming!”
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A separate supply near Grande denied the timeline claims, whereas a 3rd insider informed Us that each Slater and Grande “had been separated after they began relationship and the connection is current.”