Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande met as co-stars on the set of the blockbuster film Wicked, which received 10 nominations for the 2025 Academy Awards on Jan. 23. In the movie, Slater plays the adorable Munchkin boy, Boq, and Grande stuns as bubbly “Good” witch, Glinda. Grande’s performance won her her first Oscar nomination, which she and Slater are overjoyed about. Not long after the nominations were announced, both took to their respective Instagram accounts to celebrate Grande’s incredible milestone. While she “cannot stop crying” over this achievement, Slater couldn’t be happier for his GF.
In her Instagram post, Grande shared a series of photos, including one of baby Ari, along with a caption expressing her profound gratitude to The Academy for the nomination.
“Picking my head up in between sobs to say thank you so much to @theacademy for this unfathomable recognition. i cannot stop crying to no one’s surprise,” she wrote. “I’m humbled and deeply honored to be in such brilliant company and sharing this with tiny ari who sat and studied Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow just before the big, beautiful bubble entered. i’m so proud of you, tiny. thank you again from the bottom of my heart, for this acknowledgement @theacademy.”
Grande went on to offer a thank you to Wicked’s director, Jon M. Chu. She also shouted out her on-and-offscreen bestie, Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba. Erivo also received an Oscar nomination for her Wicked role, scoring recognition in theBest Actress In A Lead Role category.
The “Boy Is Mine” singer wasn’t the only one posting about her nom. Her boyfriend, Slater, was quick to express his joy for Grande, despite the pair having been keeping their relationship relatively lowkey since news of them dating broke headlines in July 2023. Slater couldn’t seem to hold his love for Grande in on Oscars nominations day, revealing his deep admiration and pride for his girl all over the ‘gram. He first reposted a Letterboxd’s post about the Best Supporting Actress Nominees to his IG Story. “Oscar. Nominated.” Slater wrote below a photo of Grande as Glinda while tagging her. He went on to share various posts celebrating Wicked’s nominations, including Grande’s aforementioned thank you post.
Slater’s awe for Grande’s talent and recognition didn’t end there. He even shared a simple Instagram photo of Grand, looking outside and holding pink balloons to his feed. Though the post was captionless, the pic spoke a thousand words of congratulations and pride. Slater tagged Grande, Wicked, and the Academy in the post, which Grande reposted.
With Slater’s congratulatory posts, he and Grande are slowly becoming more open with fans about their relationship. After Slater’s public hype-up of Grande, I’m intrigued to see what 2025 has in store for the happy couple since the year is already off to a spectacular start.