Ariana Grande has fans clinging to their papers and pens to decode her latest lyrics.
After the Wicked actress released her new eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead track, “Hampstead,” March 28, fans quickly began to dissect its lines, finding it to not only be a nod to the end of her marriage with ex-husband Dalton Gomez, but also to the earliest days of her romance with Ethan Slater.
In the first lines, Ariana sings, “I left my heart at a pub in Hampstead / And I misplaced my mind in a good way / Threw away my reputation but saved us more heartache / Yes I know it seems f--ked up and you’re right.”
When Ariana first released the track list for her new deluxe album March 17, the title “Hampstead” immediately stuck out to fans, as it was the last place she was spotted publicly with her ex-husband.
Indeed, in January 2023, just one month before the couple’s date of separation, February 20, 2023, cited on their divorce documents, Ariana and Dalton stepped out in the Hampstead neighborhood of London while Ariana was filming for Wicked.
Meanwhile, Ariana’s line stating she “threw away” her reputation is likely a callback to the backlash that followed her ensuing relationship with Ethan, which began in July 2023, on the curtails of her and Ethan filing for respective divorces. (Ethan filed for divorce from ex-wife Lilly Jay, with whom he shares 2-year-old son, that same month.)
But while Ariana subtly hinted at her own mistake moving on from her husband so quickly in the song, the rest of “Hampstead” is a scathing recount of the couple’s final months together.
“Quite frankly you were wrong about everything,” she sings. “So far off your seat’s nowhere near the table / But I find something sweet in your peculiar behavior / ‘Cause I think to be so dumb might be nice / I do I do I do.”
Fans found the “I do” part of this verse—which is repeated throughout the track—to be a reference to the couple’s 2021 wedding ceremony, with one fan on X writing, “Ariana Grande repeatedly saying ‘I do’ in ‘Hampstead’ as a tribute to her marriage with Dalton and their wedding vows….” (Several fans mimicked the tweet, adding gifs, including one of Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria, of people sobbing dramatically.)
What’s more, one fan on X pointed out that Ariana also alludes to “pov,” a track from Positions, which was released in 2020, just months before her wedding to Dalton, when she sings on “Hampstead” that she’d “rather been seen alive than dying by your point-of-view.” (In the chorus of “pov” Ariana conversely sings, “I’d love to see me from your point-of-view.”)
Ultimately, though, Ariana’s “Hampstead” could be a reference to fans’ tendency to pick apart her lyrics at all—as most of her eternal sunshine era alludes to her disappointment in the tabloid coverage of the end of her marriage. In one portion of the music video film that accompanied her deluxe album release, Ariana plays a Frankenstein-inspired woman who was “torn apart” by stray cats as “Hampstead” plays.
As one fan noted on X, “The ending of the brighter days short film using Hampstead to describe when her father saved her and put her back together after the media tried to destroy her is so…Ariana, you are my sister for LIFE!”
And Ariana herself has directly slammed the portrayal of her divorce and subsequent romance with Ethan in the media.
“Of course, I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie, we were away for two years,” Ariana told Vanity Fair last year. “The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst version of it. That was definitely a tough ride.”
Keep reading to revisit Ariana’s romance with Ethan…
Just A Little Bit Of Her Heart: September 2023
After a source close to the couple—who met on the set of Wicked—told E! News they had “recently” begun dating in July 2023, Grande subtly supported Slater by “liking” a photo announcing his role in Spamalot on Broadway in early September 2023.
Later that same month, the two were seen out together for the first time at, naturally, Grande’s favorite place on Earth, Disney World. In photos shared by TMZ, the duo walked around the Florida theme park arm-in-arm.
A source close to Grande and Slater told E! News after the excursion, “they went with a big group of friends including her mom and brother and are really happy and really good for each other.”
It’s Supernatural: October 2023
The costars engaged in some subtle PDA at dinner in New York City in photos obtained by TMZ. A few weeks later, Grande stepped out to support Slater during previews of Spamalot on Broadway where he played The Historian/Prince Herbert.
Grande was gleaming as she made her way out of St. James Theater alongside friends, sporting a paper crown from the show and clutching a Playbill.
She Loves to Seem Him From Her POV: November 2023
Grande later attended the opening night of Spamalot and shared an Instagram post highlighting her evening. In the photos, Grande sported an elegant black dress and accessorized with sheer black gloves and a Spamalot cup. The last slide of her carousel included a nod to the cast—which included Slater—with a message reading, “Happy Opening of Broadway Show.”
Doing Winter Things: December 2023-January 2024
In a rare life update on Instagram in Dec. 2023, Grande showed off some of her holiday celebrating a photo of a wall Christmas tree with a Spam can ornament. Fans quickly pointed out the connection to Slater, as Spamalot was running on Broadway at the time.
On Dec. 23, 2023, the couple stepped out with Grande’s father Ed Butera for dinner in New York City.
That same month, Grande teased new music and would go on to announce Eternal Sunshine in early 2024. Although no songs are explicitly about Slater on the album, fans pointed out that the album’s initials, E.S., coincidentally—or not—match the initials of Ariana’s boyfriend.
Love Isn’t Completely Off The Table: Summer 2024
In March 2024, Ariana and ex Dalton Gomez finalized their divorce. That summer, Grande’s brother Frankie Grande gave her new romance his stamp of approval.
“I love him,” Frankie said of Slater in a June 2024 interview with TooFab. “He’s a very sweet guy.”
A few days after Frankie’s interview went live, Grande and Slater attended the 2024 Stanley Cup final in Florida together—marking their most public joint outing since their romance debut.
This Is the True Story: September 2024
In an interview with Vanity Fair published in Sept. 2024, Grande addressed her romance with Slater publicly for the first time—pushing back on the speculation of the couple's romantic timeline overlapping with their previous relationships.
“It definitely doesn’t get any easier, seeing some of the negativity that was birthed by disreputable tabloids,” she told the outlet. “Of course, I went through a lot of life changes during the filming of this movie. A lot of people that were working on it did.”
Grande went on to defend Slater against any negativity thrown at him.
“There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him,” Grande added. “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullshit tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
That same month, Slater finalized his divorce with ex Lilly Jay—with whom he shares a young son.
Imperfect For Each Other: November 2024
A month after he showed support for Grande’s October 2024 Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Slater addressed their relationship—and the scrutiny surrounding it—for the first time.
“It was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing,” Slater reflected on falling in love with Grande while filming Wicked in a Oct. 2024 GQ interview. “I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this. She’s poured herself into it.”
Still, Slater admitted he found it difficult to wait for people to like him again as they clung to their papers and pens.
“I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public,” he added. “There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it.”
But he was able to block out the noise somewhat. As he added of Grande’s song “Imperfect For You,” which is rumored to be about him, “I love that song.”
Magical Moments: November 2024
One short day in the Emerald City, or rather in the Australian city of Sydney, Grande and Slater attended a press event for Wicked and wrapped their arms around each other.