Lilly Jay, a psychologist and the ex-wife of “Wicked” star Ethan Slater, revealed how she felt about her marriage’s public deterioration amid her husband’s new relationship with co-star Ariana Grande in an essay for The Cut.
In the essay titled “How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?” Jay discusses the difficulties navigating her private life as a therapist after her separation with Slater became tabloid fodder. The media frenzy around their split only heightened as Slater’s relationship with his then-married co-star Grande had gone public too.
Jay and Slater were high school sweethearts and began dating in college in 2012. They married in 2018 and had their first child in 2022.
However, in 2023, Slater filed for divorce amidst speculation that he and Grande had begun a relationship while filming “Wicked.” Reportedly, Grande had separated from her husband, Dalton Gomez. At the time, Jay told Page Six, “[Grande is] the story, really. Not a girl’s girl. My family is just collateral damage.”
In her essay, Jay wrote, “No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced. But 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.”
The therapist detailed that she survived preeclampsia during her son’s birth. While Jay, as a perinatal therapist, knew how vulnerable postpartum was for new mothers and marriage, “I confidently moved to another country with my 2-month-old baby and my husband to support his career. Consumed by the magic and mundanity of new motherhood, I didn’t understand the growing distance between us,” adding, “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.”
Ultimately, Jay wrote, “As for me, days with my son are sunny. Days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker.”
Slater and Jay finalized their divorce in September this year.
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