Originally appeared on E! Online
Ethan Slater is always encouragerizing his girlfriend Ariana Grande.
The “Wicked” star, who began dating the “Eternal Sunshine” singer while working on the Jon M. Chu film in 2023, made rare comments about his partner, as well as costar Cynthia Erivo, praising their performance in “Wicked: For Good.“
“Everybody in it, present company excluded, is just so unbelievable,” Slater told Extra during the “Wicked: For Good” New York premiere Nov. 17. “Ariana’s performance is out of this world. Cynthia’s performance in unbelievable.”
Of course, while the couple is particularly private about their two-year romance, Slater has not shied away from praising his girlfriend when it comes to her performance as Glinda the Good. After all, when Grande was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for part one of the series earlier this year, the 33-year-old shared the news to his own Instagram account, gushing in a January post, “Oscar. Nominated.”
READ Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater Prove They’re Still Going Strong
For Grande’s part, she has also heaped on the praise to her man. As she effused in February during an appearance on the Smartless podcast, “He’s amazing.”
Indeed, the 32-year-old also defended her partner amid the backlash he received for his 2023 separation from wife Lilly Jay soon after the former couple welcomed their son a year before.
“That was definitely a tough ride,” Grande reflected to Vanity Fair in 2024. “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him.”
While Grande faced her own fair share of negative press amid her own 2023 separation from ex Dalton Gomez, she was more pressed on setting the record straight about her boyfriend.
“No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about,” she added. “There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no b——- tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
As for where Grande stands when it comes to the public perception of her? She’s got no tears left to cry over that topic.
“I am definitely deeply good, and I’m proud of who I’m becoming,” she shared. “I will never let disreputable evil tabloids ruin my life or my perception of what is real and good.”
PHOTOSAriana Grande; Ethan Slater
Cynthia Erivo stepped in to protect “Wicked: For Good” costar Ariana Grande after a fan jumped the barricade and grabbed the actress at the movie’s premiere in Singapore.
