Ethan Slater's Ex Feels She "Can't Escape" Wicked Promotion

Lilly Jay is finally telling her side of the story. A year and a half after her divorce from Ethan Slater set off a media firestorm, the psychologist penned a personal essay detailing how the unwanted attention has affected her personal life and career. In her Dec. 19 The Cut essay, Jay shared how it’s been particularly hard to see Wicked promo all over the place in recent months.

“Days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker,” Jay wrote. However, she’s been able to deal with the difficult situation by focusing on her two-year-old son, whom she continues to co-parent with Slater. “Slowly but surely, I have come to believe that in the absence of the life I planned with my high-school sweetheart, a lifetime of sweetness is waiting for me and my child. While our partnership has changed, our parenthood has not. Both of us fiercely love our son 100 percent of the time, regardless of how our parenting time is divided.”

Throughout the essay, Jay refrains from directly referring to Ariana Grande, whom Slater began publicly dating around the time of the divorce in mid-2023, but does emphasize how “the shadow of my husband’s new relationship with a celebrity” seemed to negatively affect her work as a psychologist.

“I can’t say for sure how much my career has been impacted by what’s out there online. But there have been hints along the way,” Jay wrote. “Like the job offer that dissolved without explanation after yet another tabloid news cycle or the patient who’s scheduled for a first appointment but seemingly vanishes.”

She concluded her writing with a resolution to try to embrace the newfound difficulties as a psychologist whom patients may recognize from tabloids, rather than run from them. “I’m sorry I can’t be invisible anymore,” Jay wrote to any future patients. “If you want to or need to, we can acknowledge what you now know about me, and then we’ll quickly work our way back to your story.”