Ethan Slater Given Gift for Ariana Grande From Fan—’She’ll Love It’

Ethan Slater delighted fans after saying he would hand over a gift from a fan to Ariana Grande while at the Wicked premiere in Sydney, Australia.

The Hollywood stars are dating after Slater, a Tony Award-nominated actor for his role in Broadway’s SpongeBob SquarePants musical, met the singer while they were on set filming the upcoming adaptation of Wicked. Slater plays a munchkin named Boq who falls in love with Grande’s Glinda. Their relationship coincided with the end of their individual marriages, leading to speculation and criticism among fans.

The cast of the upcoming adaption has been in Sydney to promote the new film and people online have been praising Slater after his sweet interaction with a fan, with videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) going viral.

Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Slater for comment on Tuesday outside of normal business hours.

X user @melissaapo posted a video of the actor signing her Wicked book at the premiere before asking him to pass on a friendship bracelet she made to Grande. “so so lovely, he truly deserves the world. I hope my bracelet finds its way to u ari,” she captioned the video.

“Is it possible for you to give this to Ari for me?” the woman can be heard asking in the clip.

“I think she’ll be coming if you want but I can do that, do you want me to?” Slater asked, to which @melissaapo responded: “Yes please, pretty please.”

“Yeah of course…She’ll love it, I’m sure she’ll love it,” Slater said before proceeding to take a selfie with another fan.

The video was then reshared by X user @rembehaviour, who captioned the post: “OMG I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM [two crying emojis] he’s so cute and sweet.” At the time of writing, this post had been viewed 7.3 million times.

It was also reposted by the account @wickednewshub who wrote: “Ethan Slater seems like the kindest and most genuine person. The world owes him an apology.” This post had 1.9 million views at the time of writing.

These last two posts refer to the fact that Slater received online hate when it was revealed he was in a relationship with Grande so close after ending his relationship with his ex-wife Lilly Jay. Slater and Jay began dating in 2012. They married in November 2018, and share one child, born in August 2022. Jay spoke out against the relationship after Slater filed for divorce in July 2023, saying her family was “collateral damage.”

On July 20, 2023, it was revealed that Grande and Slater had recently started dating. News of their romance took the media by storm, sparking intense public curiosity and scrutiny and rumors swirled about Grande and her ex-husband, Dalton Gomez.

Slater finally spoke publicly about his relationship with Grande during an interview with GQ that was published on October 30, in which he acknowledged the challenges they’ve faced since going public.

“Obviously, it was a really super big year 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,” he said.

“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, referring to Wicked: “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.”