Ethan Slater‘s ex-wife Lilly Jay opened up about their divorce and being thrust into the spotlight thanks to his new relationship with Ariana Grande.
The 32-year-old Broadway star and Wicked actor filed to divorce Lilly in July 2023. They had been married for four years and welcomed their first child, a son, in August 2022.
News of their split came as the public was learning that Ethan was linked to Ariana.
In an essay, Lilly discussed the end of their relationship and how it effected her life and career as a psychologist. In the process, she alluded to his high-profile new relationship and the release of Wicked.
Keep reading to find out more…
“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,” Lilly wrote in an essay that was published by The Cut.
In the story, she addressed her own personal relationship with social media and sharing herself online, noting that she’d deleted her Facebook as a teenager.
“My partner was on a different path, in which social media and exposure were not impediments but rather necessities,” she said. “It was a tenuous balance — my profession, which requires privacy, and his, which is measured in applause — but it worked well while life was unfolding according to our plans.”
Lilly noted that she was initially unaware of a growing distance herself and Ethan. Instead, she said that she moved with him and their young son so that he could continue his career.
Faced with their divorce, Lilly wrote that she had to see the end of a relationship with her high school sweetheart. In the process, they had to figure out how to coparent.
“While our partnership has changed, our parenthood has not. Both of us fiercely love our son 100 percent of the time, regardless of how our parenting time is divided. As for me, days with my son are sunny,” she wrote.
She added that Wicked is now “associated with the saddest days of my life.”
The increased interest in her personal life possibly hurt Lilly‘s career. She described a “job offer that dissolved without explanation after yet another tabloid news cycle” and said that some first-time patients cancelled their appointments.
Lilly offered an apology to her patients. She also shared some meaningful lessons that she’s learned from the experience.
“My entire adult life, I feared that loss of control and postpartum depression would destroy me. One day in London, I looked up and found that they had both arrived. And I am okay. If I can’t be invisible anymore, I may as well introduce myself,” she wrote.
Her other lesson: “Some of what you loved most about your partner was actually your own goodness reflected back to you; it’s yours to keep and carry forward.”
The couple finalized their divorce in September 2024.
See what she had to say about the split last year.
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