Ariana Grande Breaks Silence on Rumors Ethan Slater Cheated on His Wife to Date Her

Ariana Grande has ~broken her silence~ on rumors about her relationship with Ethan Slater—aka her Wicked costar and leading man/*the* sponge in SpongeBob SquarePants the Broadway Musical.

During a convo with Vanity Fair, Ariana said, “It definitely doesn’t get any easier, seeing some of the negativity that was birthed by disreputable tabloids. Of course, I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie. A lot of people that were working on it did. We were away for two years. So, of course, I understand why it was a field day for the tabloids to sort of create something that paid their bills.”

ICYMI, Ariana split from her ex-husband Dalton Gomez well before she got together with Ethan, but rumors that her current boyfriend cheated on his now ex-wife remain persistent.

“The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst version of it,” Ariana mused. “That was definitely a tough ride.”

Elsa//Getty Images

While commenting on Ethan specifically, the Eternal Sunshine singer added (while not going into “certain details”), “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him....No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullshit tabloid can rewrite in real life.”

The musician then went on to say, “Honestly, it’s taken me a lot of hard work to be able to last this long and to heal certain parts of my relationship to fame and to what I do because of these tabloids that have been trying to destroy me since I was 19 years old. But you know what? I’m 31 years old and I’m not a perfect person, but I am definitely deeply good, and I’m proud of who I’m becoming. I will never let disreputable evil tabloids ruin my life or my perception of what is real and good.”