Ethan Slater’s ex-wife, Lilly Jay, opened up about her divorce in an essay for The Cut on December 19.
Jay met the Wicked star when they were in high school. In her essay, titled How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?, she reflected upon her past relationship with Slater and wrote:
“No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced, in the same way we don’t board a plane expecting to crash. But I really never thought I would get divorced.”
She pondered about her ex-husband’s relationship with Ariana Grande, mentioning her as a "celebrity." She added:
“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.”
Ethan Slater filed for a divorce in 2023, before he reportedly began dating Ariana Grande, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly. He finalized her divorce with Lilly Jay in September 2024, as stated by People Magazine. Her essay comes after she remained silent for over a year since their split.
So how did Ethan Slater meet his ex-wife? Let us delve into the details.
Who is Lilly Jay, and when did she begin dating Ethan Slater?
Reports suggest that Lilly Jay is a clinical psychologist specializing in pregnancy and postpartum mental health. According to Jay’s LinkedIn profile, she majored in law, jurisprudence, and social thought at Amherst College in 2014. She studied psychology at Columbia University between 2014 and 2015. In 2020, she graduated with a doctor of psychology degree in clinical psychology from Long Island University.
She shared in her essay how her divorce with Ethan Slater impacted her career as a therapist.
“I can’t say for sure how much my career has been impacted by what’s out there online,” she wrote.
“But there have been hints along the way, like the job offer that dissolved without explanation after yet another tabloid news cycle or the patient who’s scheduled for a first appointment but seemingly vanishes.”
Jay and Slater were high school sweethearts. They attended Georgetown Day School together before graduating in 2010. According to a People Magazine report, the couple officially started dating in 2012 when they were sophomores in college.
In November 2018, the couple tied the knot and welcomed their son in August 2022. However, their marriage faced challenges and officially culminated in their split in 2023.
What are the other points that Lilly Jay wrote in her essay?
Jay mentioned in her essay that she suffered from a life-threatening birth complication known as preeclampsia. But, after she gave birth to her son, she described her family as “whole.”
She mentioned how the former couple has divided their time for their kid through co-parenting.
"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. 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."
She continued, reflecting on the film Wicked, which brought her ex-husband and Ariana Grande together,
“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.”
Speaking about the publicity surrounding her divorce from Ethan Slater, Jay wrote that she views it as a challenge and an opportunity. She added,
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"The publicity I did not consent to increasingly feels like both a challenge and an opportunity."
She concluded on an optimistic note that it could foster “connection” rather than serve as a “liability.”
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