Everything Ethan Slater’s ex-wife has said about marriage amid Ariana Grande cheating allegations
Despite being published just yesterday (19 December), the powerful first-person piece from Lilly Jay, the ex-wife of Wicked's Ethan Slater, has garnered a lot of attention.
It marks the first time that Jay has given her own side of the story regarding her high profile split from her partner of 12 years, Slater, and his romance with his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande.
Slater filed for divorce when the son he shares with Jay was just two months old, and his romance with Grande was made public.
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The singer also went through a divorce not long before announcing her relationship with her co-star.
He said in an interview for GQ in September of this year: "I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public.
"There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it's really hard to see people who don't know anything about what's happening commenting on it."
Meanwhile, Grande told Vanity Fair that same month: “The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst version of it.
"There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him."
Ultimately, much was being made of Slater's divorce, his romance with Grande, and how Jay felt about all of it - but none of it had come from the latter.
That was, until The Cut published her explosive piece 'How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?'
Within it, Jay bared all about her heartbreak and Slater moving on in the public eye.
Here's what she had to say.
'I didn’t understand the growing distance between us'
Jay, a clinical psychologist in perinatal mental health and child development, began by recounting: "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."
She later mused on her penchant for a private life away from social media, and how that measured up to Slater's profession as an actor.
She said: "My partner was on a different path, in which social media and exposure were not impediments but rather necessities.
"We puzzled through this predicament ... 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."
'I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life'
Jay also opened up about the difficult birth of their son.
She wrote: "When my baby was first placed on my chest, still tethered to me by his umbilical cord, I sobbed with relief. We had done it. He had arrived. I survived preeclampsia, a life-threatening birth complication, and finally, our family was whole," continuing: "Consumed by the magic and mundanity of new motherhood, I didn’t understand the growing distance between us."
Accepting that her life had been thrust into the spotlight, Jay mused: "I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage."
'Some of what you loved most about your partner was actually your own goodness reflected back to you'
"This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. Slowly but surely, I have come to believe that in the absence of the life I planned with my high-school sweetheart, a lifetime of sweetness is waiting for me and my child."
Heartbreakingly, Jay appears to reference the release of Wicked, where Grande and Slater are rumoured to have begun their romance on set.
"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," she admits.
Jay then says she can inform others, 'with personal and professional authority,' that 'some of what you loved most about your partner was actually your own goodness reflected back to you.'
Topics: Ariana Grande, Wicked, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Kya Buller