Ariana Grande has revealed that she got a tattoo in honour of her role as Glinda in the upcoming Wicked film, amid her rumoured romance with co-star Ethan Slater.
The singer, 30, opened up about her various tattoos during an interview with Allure, published on 21 August. When asked if she’d get another tattoo, Grande discussed her strategy when deciding what ink to add to her body.
“That’s hard because when they come to me, I just get them. This one I knew I wanted to get for a very long time,” she said, while she described the “most recent one” on the back of her right hand, inspired by her role as Glinda in the upcoming musical adaptation of Wicked.
“It’s Glinda from the original L Frank Baum book,” she said, referring to the 1900 children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. “I waited forever to fill up this hand,” she said. “And I thought: ‘I’m gonna wait for the right thing to come along,’ and yeah, that felt very right.”
Grande’s comments about the new ink come weeks after news broke that she was in a rumoured romance with Slater, who plays Boq - a love interest of Elphaba’s sister Nessarose after his affections are thwarted by Glinda - in Wicked. On 20 July, just days after it was revealed that Grande and her husband of nearly two years, Dalton Gomez, 28, had separated, People was the first to report that the singer had begun dating Slater.
“Ariana and Dalton separated in January,” a source told the outlet. “She and Ethan recently began dating, and he is separated from his wife.”
Another source told Entertainment Tonight that the co-stars “have a lot in common” and “didn’t start dating until both were broken up with their significant others”.
Slater has been married to his wife, Lilly Jay, since 2018, with the actor revealing on Instagram in January 2023 that the couple had welcomed a son together. He officially filed for divorce from Jay on 26 July in a New York City court, according to TMZ.
That same day, a source told People that Slater and Grand were “full-on” dating, and that the “7 rings” singer “really likes” him. The outlet reported that they sparked up a friendship while filming Wicked in London, with claims that it “was obvious on the set from early on” that they were more than friends.
On 27 July, Lilly Jay broke her silence about the rumoured romance between Slater and Grande during an interview with Page Six. “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl,” she said. “My family is just collateral damage.” She added that she’s now focused on raising her and Slater’s son and being “a good mom”.
“The story is her and Dalton,” the musician said, referring to Grande’s split from her husband of two years.
Days after Jay made the comments, TMZ reported that the Victorious star was giving Slater “space” to sort the details of his ongoing divorce. On 29 July, the outlet claimed that Wicked co-stars hadn’t seen each other for several weeks, as Slater had travelled to New York, where he filed for divorce.
Prior to her relationship with Gomez, the “God is a Woman” singer was previously engaged to Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson. However, the former couple called off their engagement in October 2018 after just five months together.
She also dated Mac Miller from 2016 to 2018. The late rapper died in September that year from an accidental overdose at age 26.
