Ariana Grande is facing accusations of flaunting that she “stole” boyfriend Ethan Slater from his wife through her new single “The Boy Is Mine.” Broadway star Slater, 31, split from his former high school sweetheart Lilly Jay, with whom he has a one-year-old son, after striking up a controversial new romance with Grande, 30, while working on Wicked last year.
Slater, 31, divorced his high school sweetheart of one year and mother of his one-year-old son, Lilly Jay, after becoming involved with Grande, 30, last year while on the set of Wicked. Despite the cheating allegations, it appears that Grande’s latest single has reignited speculation against her. She sings: “Please know this ain’t what I planned for… Something about him is made for somebody like me.”
ariana talking about the boy is mine, “it’s not about what you think it was about”.. TELL THEM!! pic.twitter.com/v2HYm3kHDq
— den (@dengrnde) March 13, 2024
An insider close to Jay told DailyMail.com about the track, “Ariana’s new album just shows what kind of woman she truly is. To sing a song called ‘The Boy Is Mine’ is not only a slap in the face to his still wife Lilly, but a slap in the face to all women.
“As Lilly said from the get-go, Ariana is not a girl’s girl and Ethan’s family is collateral damage. Ariana basically rubbed it in Lilly’s face that she stole Ethan from Lilly then asks her fans to not interpret her song the wrong way. This is not an interpretation. It is her literal words.”
Her second single from her album Eternal Sunshine, “The Boy is Mine,” features Grande singing about a man she shouldn’t date because she doesn’t want to cause a scene because she is “usually so unproblematic.” It includes other lyrics such as: “The boy is mine/ I can’t wait to try him/Le-let’s get intertwined/ The stars, they aligned.”
“Ariana left nothing up to interpretation,’ the source continued to Daily Mail. “She spelled it out and those close to Lilly believe she did this because she is upset that Ethan’s divorce is still dragging out. She wants him all to herself and feels that – because he is still legally married – she cannot truly have him.” They added: “Everyone close to Lilly, and who knows Ethan, is just waiting for karma to slap him and Ariana in the face. It will come.”
According to Grande, “The Boy is Mine” is a “bad girl anthem,” telling Zane Lowe, “This is a very bad idea, I think, but there is a large group of my fans that really, they do love a bad girl anthem. And this is, I think, I kind of an elevated version of that.”
During a recent interview with Zach Sang, Grande implicitly denied the allegations that the song referred to her new relationship with the Broadway star. Regarding “The Boy Is Mine,” “You know, it’s just a sexier, naughtier one. And I think it’s more provocative than the rest. But yeah, it’s not about what you think it was about. And it’s also a song that I’ve always wanted to — interpolate? Is that what the kids are calling it now? I have many different versions of it from years ago.”
However, following the song’s release on March 8, some on social media slammed the “Dangerous Woman” singer for what they viewed as her disrespectful behavior.
“Ariana grande releasing a song called “the boy is mine” after knowingly sleeping with and starting a relationship with a man who had a pregnant wife (yes he’s disgusting for that) is sick, media ploy or not the sentiment is icky and she’s icky,” one Twitter user wrote.
It was first reported that Grande and Slater had been dating in July of last year, shortly after the news broke of Grande’s divorce from ex-husband Dalton Gomez, 28, and Slater announced the end of his marriage to Jay. Slater and Jay are currently in the process of finalizing their divorce, while Grande and Gomez’s divorce was finalized on Oct. 6.