Watch: Frankie Grande Reacts to Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour
Ariana Grandeis singing a different tune these days.
Shortly before her breakup from Wicked costar Ethan Slaterwas made public on June 8, the Grammy winner changed the lyrics to “Thank U, Next”during the opening night of her Eternal Sunshine Tour in Oakland, Calif., alluding to her 2023 divorce from Dalton Gomez as well as her parents’ once-fractured relationship.
As seen in a video of the June 6 posted on X, Grande slightly tweaked the bridge of her song, in which she typically sang, “One day I’ll walk down the aisle holding hands with my mama / I’ll be thanking my dad, ‘cause she grew from the drama.” Instead, the 32-year-old touched on how her mom Joan Grande and dad Ed Butera amicably moved on from their 2002 divorce, singing, “We all grew from the drama.”
And while the next line was, “Only wanna do it once real bad, gonna make that s–t last,” Grande opted not to sing and gave the audience a knowing look as she held up two fingers and laughed.
Grande and Gomez tied the knot during a private ceremony at her Montecito, Calif., home in May 2021. The couple’s split was made public in July 2023 and they finalized the divorce three months later.
Following the breakup, the “7 Rings” singer began a relationship with Slater after the two met on the set of Wicked. However,a source told E! on June 8 the duo were no longer a couple, saying, “They have quietly been broken up after nearly three years together.”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for National Board of Review
Prior to their split, Grande had been candid about the difficulties the two faced during their time together, especially as they both denied that the start of their romance overlapped with their previous marriages. (Slater finalized his divorce from ex Lily Jay in 2024. The two share one son.)
“It definitely doesn’t get any easier, seeing some of the negativity that was birthed by disreputable tabloids,” Grande told Vanity Fair in 2024. “Of course, I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie. A lot of people that were working on it did.”
“There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him,” she said of Slater at the time. “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bulls–t tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
For a look back at Grande and Slater’s relationship, keep reading.
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Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for National Board of Review
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