Ethan Slater Family: Meet His Parents, Wife and Kid

Ethan Slater became an ultra-famous name overnight after reports surfaced that he is dating his Wicked costar Ariana Grande. However, he has been in the spotlight for years, having starred on Broadway before switching to larger budget productions. Thanks to the support from his parents, estranged wife and the rest of his family, Ethan was able to prosper in his acting career. He also credited his late mother, in particular, after he began booking more jobs in theatre and film.

Who Are Ethan Slater’s Parents?

Ethan’s father is Jay Slater, who works for the Food and Drug Administration. His late mother, Ellen Goldmuntz, worked as a lawyer but died when Ethan was just a child. When he discussed his concept album, Edge of the World, in August 2021, Ethan opened up about how the loss of his mother inspired him to write from that perspective.

“I was thinking about the things that excite me as a writer, and one of the biggest things is imagination,” he explained in an interview. “I was a kid who had a really active imagination, and so I wanted to write about a kid growing up in isolation and using his imagination to cope with his loneliness. … One of the big things is the mining [of] my personal experience for writing. When I was 7 years old, my mom died, and so that’s been a really big, formative thing in my life. She had left this huge imprint on me, even though I had so few memories. And that’s what happens to this character, Ben. He grows up not knowing his mom, being raised by a single dad, and yet the impact she has on his life and his life trajectory is immeasurable. So, those are the two inspirational elements that came together.”

Ethan was born and raised by his parents in Washington D.C.

Who Is Ethan Slater’s Wife?

Ethan married his high school sweetheart, Lilly Jay, in November 2018. In November 2022, the estranged spouses celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary anniversary, with Ethan taking to Instagram to share photos of them together. In his caption, the Broadway alum called Lilly his “best friend.”

The pair ultimately split, though, after nearly five years of marriage after Ethan filed for a contested divorce from Lilly on July 26, 2023, Life & Style confirmed. He did not provide an explanation for the dissolution of their marriage, though, according to court records viewed by Life & Style.

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Ethan Slater and his estranged wife Lilly Jay at the Tony Awards — Andrew H Walker/Shutterstock

Ethan and Lilly’s split took place just days after reports surfaced that he had begun dating Ariana after the two started working together on the set of Wicked in late 2022. In early July 2023, Ariana’s split from her estranged husband, Dalton Gomez, made headlines, and a source exclusively told Life & Style that the two had been “drifting apart” because Ariana was thousands of miles away from Dalton when she was working on Wicked.

One day after Ethan filed for divorce, Lilly broke her silence on the matter by saying, “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl. My family is just collateral damage. … The story is her and Dalton.”