Ariana Grande gushes over boyfriend Ethan Slater with sweet compliment

Ariana Grande has been notoriously private when it comes to her relationship with Ethan Slater, but this week she publicly gushed over him on social media.

The 31-year-old singer, who attended the Golden Globes luncheon for first-time nominees this week, couldn’t help but compliment her beauty as he shared some black-and-white photos of himself on Instagram on Tuesday, taken for Already! magazine.

Ethan, 32, simply captioned the post: ‘Looking around’ and his pop star girlfriend was quick to comment on the pictures.

‘Today’s Buster Keaton!’ Ariana wrote in reference to the late American actor and comedian, who was known for his silent films in the 1920s.

Ariana followed it up with another comment which included three exclamation points and a heart – both of her comments have been liked over 3,000 times.

Last month, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed how evil bosses covered up the pair’s budding romance for fear it would overshadow the film’s release.

Ariana Grande pictured with her boyfriend Ethan Slater, whom she met on the set of Wicked

Ariana publicly gushed over Ethan in her latest Instagram post, referring to him as ‘the Buster Keaton of today’

The costars met in December 2022 on the UK set of the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, where Ariana plays Glinda – the good witch – alongside Ethan as munchkin Boq.

At the time, Ariana was still married to Dalton Gomez. She filed for divorce in September 2023 and listed the date of separation as February 20, 2023.

The singer announced her split from Dalton just three days before confirming her new relationship with Ethan.

Meanwhile, he was married to his high school sweetheart, Lilly Jay, when he joined the production.

The actor, who welcomed her first child with Jay in 2022, filed for divorce in July 2023 – five years after they tied the knot.

With an eye-popping budget of $145 million and a release date fast approaching after years of delays, studio executives at Universal Pictures were ‘concerned’ about the impact their controversial pairing would have on the film’s success.

Insiders claimed the pair were instructed to ‘disappear for six months’ in the hope the backlash would die down before the much-anticipated musical hit theaters on November 22.

“When news of the relationship first broke, studio executives were extremely concerned about how it would affect the film,” a source told DailyMail.com. ‘They felt the heat and Ariana and Ethan were asked to disappear for six months, which they did.’

Ariana and Ethan pictured with a happy fan in New York City earlier this month

The pop star, pictured here on December 4, has been relatively private when it comes to her current relationship

Ethan was married to his high school sweetheart Lilly Jay when he first met Ariana. The former couple is pictured here in November 2018

But their new romance sparked an uproar among Ariana’s followers.

This was compounded when Ethan’s ex slammed the Thank You, Next singer in a series of disparaging interviews, claiming she’s ‘not a girl’s girl’ and accusing Ariana of seeing her family as nothing more than ‘collateral damage ‘.

After the steady stream of negative headlines, Ariana and Ethan stayed out of the limelight, making only a handful of public appearances, including his opening night in the Spamalot Broadway show.

“Ariana and Ethan are professionals and know better than to bring their personal relationship to promotional events,” the insider said.

Ariana was afraid that her personal actions would cause this movie to bomb. They are both divorced and people have moved on from this.’

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and Wicked has been a huge success since its release, grossing $320.5 million domestically and $455.5 million worldwide.