Last year, Ariana Grande found herself in the headlines due to her controversial relationship with her Wicked costar Ethan Slater.
The romance raised eyebrows as both Ariana and Ethan were married when filming for the upcoming movie began, and reports that they were dating first surfaced online just three days after Ariana’s separation from her husband, Dalton Gomez, was announced.
Ethan didn’t file for a divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, until six days after he was publicly linked to Ariana. Lilly was Ethan’s high school sweetheart, and the two had recently welcomed their first baby together.
Things got even messier when Lilly spoke out against the pop star in a scathing interview, telling the Daily Mail that Ariana is “not a girl’s girl” and that her family was being treated like “collateral damage.”
While sources close to Ariana and Ethan have repeatedly denied claims that they’d had an affair, Ariana fueled backlash when she released her latest single “Yes, And?” earlier this year.
During an appearance on The Zach Sang Show that was released on Monday, Ariana suggested that she’d been unfairly targeted by the media.
But her comments arguably haven’t landed as anticipated, with social media users accusing Ariana of “gaslighting” them as they commented on a clip of the interview.
“Yeah, no Ariana that is not what’s happening here stop trying to gaslight everyone,” one person wrote. Another added: “her blaming the tabloids for reporting what she did rather than taking accountability is crazy.”
“Obviously not everything said in the media is true, but girl we can see the timelines 😭 its available to the public,” somebody else commented. One more said: “the gaslighting is insane.”
Others referenced the fact that Lilly herself had spoken out about the situation, with one TikToker writing: “Did she forget that the wife came out and told the public…?”
This interview came out just one day before Ariana released the full tracklist for Eternal Sunshine, and there was one song title that particularly jumped out at fans: “The Boy Is Mine.”
