Ethan Slater’s ex-wife Lilly Jay says she is ‘focused on rebuilding a life for her son as a single mother’ after he blindsided her with divorce amid his shock romance with Wicked co-star Ariana Grande.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the estranged spouse of the Broadway star – who welcomed a baby with Ethan in August – said she is determined to move on with her life as a single mother, without her ex-husband.
‘I am focused on rebuilding a life for our son and rebuilding a life for him,’ she said. ‘This is what I am trying to do and this is my only focus.’
Lilly’s admission comes as a source close to Ariana and Ethan claimed that the singer ‘hung out’ with Lilly and her newborn baby multiple times before her romance with her Wicked co-star was revealed – and even told those around her how much she ‘wanted a baby one day’.
The 30-year-old singer shocked the world earlier this month when it was revealed that she had moved on from her recent divorce from husband Dalton Gomez with her married Wicked co-star Ethan, 31, who welcomed a baby with his wife in August.
Now, a source close to Lilly has alleged to DailyMail.com that Ariana and Ethan’s relationship has taken a brutal toll on the new mother – who spent time with the singer on multiple occasions while visiting her husband on-set in London.
Ethan Slater’s ex-wife Lilly Jay says she is ‘focused on rebuilding a life for her son as a single mother’ after he blindsided her with divorce amid his romance with Ariana Grande
It comes as a source close to Ariana and Ethan claimed that the singer ‘hung out’ with Lilly and her baby multiple times before her romance with her Wicked co-star was revealed
‘Lilly hung out with Ethan and Ariana so many times,’ the insider claimed. ‘Ariana met their baby and even held him. They had dinners together in London – and Ariana told Lilly that she wanted to have a baby one day and that she couldn’t wait to start a family.’
According to the source, Lilly and her newborn son traveled to London with Ethan when he began filming on the project in April of this year – just eight months after she had given birth.
The insider claims that Lilly discovered her husband had been having an affair with Ariana after that visit – but that she and Ethan made the decision to try and ‘put it behind them and work on their marriage’, only for her to later discover that he had continued his romance with the singer.
‘There was a period when they were all going to try and work on their marriages and put the whole thing behind them,’ the source said. ‘She thought they were happy.
‘But that did not work out [because Ariana and Ethan] kept the affair going despite [that].’
The source says that Ethan then blindsided his wife by filing for divorce, insisting that the decision to officially end the marriage was made entirely by the actor.
‘Lilly did not file for divorce from Ethan, he filed for divorce from her,’ they said.
The source noted that Lilly believes her husband was ‘starstruck’ by Ariana and that he was bowled over by the glamour of being on a movie set with so many major stars for the very first time.
‘He was starstruck, he was a new dad in a new country who had never been on a major movie set before,’ they said.
However, a second source insisted that Ariana and Ethan ‘did not start dating until after he had separated from Lilly’.
According to the source, Lilly and her newborn son traveled to London with Ethan when he began filming on the project in April of this year – just eight months after she had given birth
While Lilly was initially determined to try and repair her marriage, the first insider says that there is now no hope of reconciliation as far as she is concerned – explaining that she is now focused on raising her son as a single mother.
‘Lilly never wanted to be a part of [the celebrity] world,’ the continued. ‘She doesn’t want her name or her child’s name dragged into this.
‘She is now raising her son as a single mother and there is no chance of redemption for Ethan as far as she is concerned.
‘What this has done to her family is absolutely disgusting.’
DailyMail.com has contacted Lilly as well as representatives for Ariana and Ethan for comment.
Ethan officially filed for divorce from his wife of five years on Wednesday, just one week after his romance with Ariana was officially revealed to the world.
The Broadway actor and Ariana met on the set of the upcoming Wicked adaptation, in which he plays the role of Boq while she takes on the part of Glinda.
News of the couple’s shock on-set romance came just days after it was revealed that Ariana had split from her husband, real estate agent Dalton Gomez, with sources claiming that the couple’s marriage struggled to last in a ‘post COVID world’.
Ariana and Dalton were said to have been ‘everything’ for one another during the pandemic lockdown, but once the COVID restrictions were lifted, their fundamental differences started to become more apparent.
The realtor was said to be ‘taken aback’ by his wife’s fame, having never dealt with her schedule and paparazzi while in lockdown, with sources claiming to TMZ that he would question why she needed a security detail to go out in public.
However their marriage is understood to have begun truly unraveling when she traveled to London back in December to begin working on Wicked – with the starlet then meeting Ethan just a few months later.
