Ariana Grande
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Ariana Grande's split from actor Ethan Slater has prompted a furious reaction from commentator Candace Owens, who used her podcast this week to accuse the singer of having 'daddy issues' and describe the relationship as 'a special kind of evil,' days after reports in the US said the couple had quietly broken up months ago.

For context, the news of the breakup emerged on Monday 8 June, when People reported that Ariana Grande, 32, and Broadway star Ethan Slater, 34, had ended their relationship after nearly three years together. The pair first met in 2022 while working in New York on the film adaptation of Wicked, and their romance later drew intense scrutiny because both were married to other people when they met.

Nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with a grain of salt, as neither Grande nor Slater has publicly addressed the reported split.

Candace Owens Targets Ariana Grande After Ethan Slater Breakup

Owens weighed in on Wednesday 10 June during an episode of her YouTube podcast, recorded in the United States, telling listeners she believed the couple's end was entirely predictable.

'The most obvious split of all time,' she said, reacting to the People report. She went on to focus not on the mechanics of the breakup, but on Ariana Grande herself.

'Ariana Grande has an issue. Her issue is daddy issues, and the sport for her is in breaking up people's marriages,' Owens claimed. 'As soon as she breaks up the marriage, she's not interested in you anymore. As soon as she breaks up the relationship, the fun, the sport of it is over.'

Owens did not provide evidence for her claims about Grande's motivations. Her remarks were framed as opinion, not as fact, and there has been no independent corroboration of the psychological motives she ascribed to the singer.

Representatives for Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have not publicly responded to Owens' comments or to the breakup reports. Without any on‑record response, much of what is being said about the end of the relationship remains firmly in the realm of speculation and punditry.

How Ariana Grande And Ethan Slater's Relationship Began

To recall, Grande and Slater met in 2022 while filming Wicked, in which Grande plays Glinda and Slater appears as Boq. At that time, Slater was married to his high school sweetheart, Lily Jay, 32, with whom he shares a young son. Grande was married to Los Angeles estate agent Dalton Gomez, 30.

In 2023, court records cited in entertainment reports showed that Slater filed for divorce from Jay. Around the same period, Grande's separation from Gomez became public. Later that year, Grande and Slater were romantically linked, and the timeline immediately fuelled headlines that the on‑set friendship had blurred into something more while both were still married.

Jay, speaking in earlier media reports not reproduced in full here, expressed hurt and shock at the new relationship. Grande and Slater did not give joint interviews about their romance and largely stayed silent while commentators, tabloids and social media did the talking for them. That silence has continued into the breakup phase.

It is in that vacuum that Owens has stepped, offering a theory that fits neatly into her broader brand of cultural commentary: famous woman as home‑wrecker, Hollywood as moral hazard. Whether it actually fits Grande's private reality is another matter.

'A Special Kind Of Evil': Owens' Most Damaging Claim About Ariana Grande

Owens' harshest words centred on a detail that has already done the rounds in US celebrity coverage. She referenced reports that Ariana Grande had met Slater and Jay's baby son when he was a newborn.

'She's trying to mend her daddy issues in the most toxic and wicked way possible. And that one with Ethan Slater — that was the highest high,' Owens alleged on her podcast.

She then took it a step further, saying Grande was 'chasing the high of holding the baby' and calling the behaviour 'a special kind of evil.'

'To be able to do that. To hold the baby, to rock the newborn infant, to smile,' Owens continued. 'You are at another level of wicked to hold an infant while you're taking somebody's husband and breaking up a family.'

Again, none of these characterisations has been substantiated by anyone directly involved. Owens did not cite direct messages, court documents or on‑the‑record testimony from Grande, Slater or Jay to support her version of events.

What is documented is simpler, and less dramatic than the podcast rhetoric. Slater filed for divorce in 2023. A relationship between him and Ariana Grande followed and lasted nearly three years, according to People. That relationship has now reportedly ended. Everything else is, at least for now, interpretation layered on top of a rough timeline.

Still, in the age of hot‑take culture, those layers can stick. Grande has faced accusations of being a so‑called 'home‑wrecker' before, and Owens' language, with its talk of 'daddy issues' and 'sport', plugs straight into that existing narrative, fair or not.

Whether Ariana Grande chooses to answer any of it is another question. So far she has stuck to the usual celebrity playbook: work, music, the next thing. Her personal life is being dissected in real time, loudly, by people who have never met her. And, as ever, the only voice missing from the noise is the one at the centre of it.

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