Ethan Slater’s Oscars red carpet interview branded ‘hard watch’ after he’s asked about Ariana Grande

Ethan Slater’s interview with Access Hollywood was branded a ‘hard watch’ by some viewers after he answered a question about his girlfriend, Ariana Grande.

While on the carpet, he chatted with the outlet, and was asked about Grande, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Wicked.

‘How’s your girl feeling tonight?’ the reporter asked the star, which was captured in a clip posted to TikTok. 

In response, he chuckled and said, ‘Oh, you mean Ariana? She’s doing great.’

‘She’s so excited, we’re all so excited, I can’t believe that I get to be in the Oscars, this is amazing,’ he added.

The couple have been dating since the summer of 2023, but it was later alleged that they were involved romantically for months before, having grown close while on the set of Wicked.

Grande was previously married to Dalton Gomez, and Slater to Lilly Jay, who he shares a two-year-old son with.

Jay had moved to London, where Slater was filming Wicked, with their newborn at the time. 

However, as the two have now been linked together for quite some time, it still seems that their relationship doesn’t go over quite too well with fans.

In the comments section of the TikTok, many admitted that it was a hard interview to watch.

‘Hard watch, thanks,’ one person wrote.

‘What other girl does he have lmao,’ someone else typed.

‘Hard watch, they didn’t sit next to or near each other at the Oscars,’ another pointed out.

One user commented, ‘Hey this relationship isn’t cute!’

‘Like who he think they was talking about fr,’ a second person wrote.

In an essay for The Cut in December, Slater’s ex-wife reflected on navigating life as a single mom and the end of her more than decade-long relationship.

 ‘Motherhood, I have learned, fills your time but not your mind,’ she wrote.

‘In the countless hours I spend rocking my son to sleep, pushing his stroller, marveling at his sweaty little hands grasping a crayon, I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage.’

She continued: ‘This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide.’

Jay also reflected how nobody ‘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. 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,’ Jay noted, alluding to his relationship with Grande.

Despite their split, she still praised Slater for being a wonderful co-parent as she stated that while their ‘partnership has changed’ their ‘parenthood has not.’