Lilli Cooper has reacted to her co-star Ethan Slater’s alleged romance with Ariana Grande.
While speaking to Page Six for an interview published on Tuesday, the SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical actress weighed in on her co-star’s rumoured relationship with the Break Free singer.
“I was surprised,” Lilli told the outlet about hearing the news, adding that she hadn’t “spoken to him (Ethan) in a while”.
The actress called Ethan and Ariana “an interesting coupling”, adding that their romance was “for sure, unexpected”.
Lilli played Sandy Cheeks in the SpongeBob SquarePants musical during its 2016 Chicago run and its 2017 Broadway stint alongside Ethan as the titular character.
It was reported earlier this month that Ariana had separated from her husband Dalton Gomez after two years of marriage. It was then claimed that the singer was dating Ethan after meeting him on the set of the Wicked movies, in which she plays Glinda and he portrays Boq.
“Things are fairly new,” a source recently told Us Weekly. “Ariana and Ethan have only recently begun seeing each other but they have a lot of fun together and are enjoying each other’s company.”
Ethan shares a son with his high school sweetheart Lilly Jay. They got married in 2018 and welcomed their first child last year.
Neither Ariana nor Ethan has addressed the reports.