Ariana Grande raised eyebrows after greeting her boyfriend, Ethan Slater, with a handshake at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening.
After the couple opted to walk the red carpet separately, some social media users expressed confusion over the exchange, typically reserved between two people meeting someone for the first time or in a professional setting.
One X user even scoffed that the pair were ‘starting to really look like just coworkers’ as they initially seemed to scale back on their PDA after his ex, Lilly Jay, broke her silence the ‘public downfall’ of their marriage and his ‘celebrity’ romance.
Later in the night, however, the lovebirds showed off their loving relationship as they gazed adoringly at each other and she wrapped her arm around him.
At one point as they walked around, he went into full-on protective boyfriend mode as people got a little too close to his girlfriend.
As the crowd began to ‘push’ them while they were in the audience of the awards show, the actor looked concerned and urged the God Is a Woman songstress to stay close to him.
Ariana Grande raised eyebrows after greeting her boyfriend, Ethan Slater, with a handshake at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening
The tender moment was captured in a short clip that was shared by the Instagram account Deuxmoi.
The footage showed Ethan whispered something to Ariana as he took her hand and lead her through the sea of people.
Nicola Hickling of LipReader revealed to DailyMail.com that he appeared to tell Grande: ‘Stay near, this crowd next to me, they are pushing me.’
The two famously fell in love on set of the movie adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical Wicked.
Their romance was first brought to light in July 2023, just days after it was reported that Ariana had split from her then-husband, Dalton Gomez.
Their relationship caused quite the uproar online – especially because it was said that it began while the actor was still with his now-ex-wife, who he welcomed a son with one year prior.
A source even told DailyMail.com that Ariana ‘hung out’ with Ethan’s wife Lilly, along with their newborn, on set multiple times before it was revealed that she was dating her costar.
‘Lilly hung out with Ethan and Ariana so many times,’ the insider said. ‘Ariana met their baby and even held him.
After the couple opted to walk the red carpet separately, some social media users expressed confusion over the exchange, typically reserved between two people meeting someone for the first time or in a professional setting
One X user even asked why the pair were ‘starting to really look like just coworkers’ as they initially seemed to scale back on their PDA after his ex, Lilly Jay, broke her silence the ‘public downfall’ of their marriage and his ‘celebrity’ romance
Later in the night, however, the lovebirds showed off their loving relationship as they gazed adoringly at each other and she wrapped her arm around him
‘They had dinners together in London – and Ariana told Lilly that she wanted to have a baby one day and that she couldn’t wait to start a family.’
Ariana and Ethan – who insisted their relationship started after they both split from their respective partners – have been going strong ever since, and it’s even been reported that they moved in together.
In December, his ex-wife opened up about feeling unable to ‘escape’ the ‘darkness’ of watching Slater move on with his former co-star.
Lilly, 32, revealed her grief at having to witness her ex-husband promote Wicked around the world with the woman he left her for, calling it a very painful reminder of the ‘public downfall of my marriage.’
She revealed that she had moved to Britain with their newborn baby to ‘support’ Ethan as he filmed Wicked. They were high school sweethearts, however, he then left her for Ariana.
‘I confidently moved to another country with my 2-month-old baby and my husband to support his career’, Lilly wrote. ‘Consumed by the magic and mundanity of new motherhood, I didn’t understand the growing distance between us.’
The two famously fell in love on set of the movie adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical Wicked
Their romance was first brought to light in July 2023, just days after it was reported that Ariana had split from her then-husband, Dalton Gomez (seen in 2024)
In an essay for The Cut, published last night, the clinical psychologist, who shares a two-year-old son with Slater, reflected on navigating life as a single mother and the end of their six-year marriage.
She admitted there are ‘days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker’. Lily also said that as she rocks their son to sleep for ‘countless hours’ she is also trying to ‘accept the sudden public downfall of my marriage.’
‘No-one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced, in the same way we don’t board a plane expecting to crash’, she said.
And in another slight on her ex and his new lover: ‘I really never thought I would get divorced. Especially not just after giving birth to my first child and especially not in the shadow of my husband’s new relationship with a celebrity.’
In December, his ex-wife opened up about feeling unable to ‘escape’ the ‘darkness’ of watching Slater move on with his former co-star in an essay for The Cut; seen in 2018
Over the past few months, Ethan and Ariana have been on front pages all over the world as they embraced on red carpets to promote Wicked, arguably the biggest movie of 2024.
Meanwhile Lily, who was married to Ethan between 2018 and 2024, is bringing up their toddler.
She wrote: ‘Days with my son are sunny.
‘Motherhood, I have learned, fills your time but not your mind. In the countless hours I spend rocking my son to sleep, pushing his stroller, marveling at his sweaty little hands grasping a crayon, I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage.
‘This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide.’
