Ariana Grande is giving Taylor Swift a run for her money when it comes to prolific relationship moves. But recent announcement of her involvement with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater have exposed problematic attitudes towards her love life decisions, with many calling her a ‘homewrecker’.
Let's untangle this messy story, shall we? Ariana recently split from her husband Dalton Gomez, and her newly confirmed relationship with Ethan has been claimed to have influenced his decision to end his marriage to ex-wife Lilly Jay. Ethan has denied this, though, and stated that he was single at the time they started dating. Ethan and his wife recently welcomed a son, causing critics to accuse Ariana of ‘breaking up a happy family’.
One tweeted: ‘ariana grande is actually sh*t now that she just broke a happy family… being a homewrecker is not cute’, while another posted about feeling ‘vindicated’ about never liking the singer after finding out she was a ‘homewrecker/serial cheater’.
Others have presented other potential instances of Ariana cheating with ex-partners (or inserting herself into slightly messy relationship affairs) as further evidence of her status as said 'homewrecker'. The list of accusations is quite extensive, ranging from arguments that Big Sean cheated on Glee’s Naya Rivera with her (an allegation the rapper has denied) to allegedly having an affair with The Weeknd and dating Mac Miller when he still had a girlfriend. Various TikToks have gone viral naming her a ‘serial cheater’.
First of all, the fact that critics are desperate to justify their already-existing dislike for a famous person with shaky reasoning like what may or may not be going on in their love life proves the toxicity of fan culture. It almost feels like critics are just looking for a reason to dislike a famous woman with power, and are seizing on rumours of infidelity to validate this.
And, more than that, let’s break down the misogynistic problem with the term ‘homewrecker’ – regardless of whether or not accusations of Ariana’s behaviour wins her the title or not. Of course, our sympathies are with Lilly, but if Ethan Slater chooses to walk away from his relationship with his wife, he is the person ‘breaking a home’, not the woman he is allegedly walking towards.
c It is not the fault of the supposed ‘other woman’ that a home has been broken. Let’s not take the responsibility away from the person leaving said ‘broken home’. Also, to assume a home is broken because two parents are no longer in a romantic partnership is hardly progressive. It is 2023, after all.
Ariana’s love life, both past and present shouldn’t serve as our means of excusing hate towards a woman we don’t know fully. Shouldn't the scrutiny instead be on the man who is breaking up the relationship in question? Even if her behaviour includes potentially unethical actions or decisions we don’t agree with, we shouldn’t be so quick to load our assessments with such misogyny.