Ethan Slater’s Former SpongeBob Musical Co-Star Has THOUGHTS About His Ariana Grande Romance!

One of the women who formerly worked alongside Ethan Slater in his past professional life is coming forward with her reaction to his sudden jump into the headlines…

Of course, Slater is the man of the moment — and not exactly in the most positive way — after it was revealed earlier this month that he is dating Wicked co-star Ariana Grande. The duo got together while working on that forthcoming project and absconded from their respective spouses Lilly Jay and Dalton Gomez to pursue shocking love.

Related: Dalton Gomez NOT Handling Ariana Split Well, ‘Still Considers Her His Partner’??

Now, Lilli Cooper is speaking out.

Unless you’re a huge Broadway fan, you might not know that name. But you should! Cooper starred alongside Ethan in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical during its run a few years back. The 33-year-old actress played Sandy Cheeks, a lead opposite Ethan’s SpongeBob, during the musical’s time in New York City and Chicago in 2016 and 2017. And this week, Lilli spoke about what’s going on with Ethan and the other Lilly — from her point of view!

Page Six caught up with Cooper on Monday night at the opening of The Cottage. In addition to Cooper, that play features Laura Bell Bundy and Will & Grace alum Eric McCormack, and it’s directed by Jason Alexander. A strong lineup!

But all the attention (well, at least from our perspective! LOLz!) was on Cooper’s connection to Slater. So, when that outlet asked about Ethan and Ariana, the former SpongeBob star gave her, uhhh, tepid thoughts on the situation:

“I was surprised. … I haven’t spoken to him in a while.”

That last part is definitely true. After all, Cooper and Slater were co-stars six years ago and haven’t worked closely since!

Still, she clearly sounded less than enthused about the reports flying around regarding Ethan and the 7 Rings singer. When pressed for her thoughts on the shocking new couple, Lilli said:

“It’s an interesting coupling, for sure. Unexpected.”

Oof.

It’s usually never a good thing when people are saying you make up an “interesting” and “unexpected” coupling. Don’t you want to be described as “perfect” or a “good match” or “cute together” or something?? Yeesh!!

Related: What Kind Of Woman Is Ariana Grande? This Is Not A Good Look!

Of course, the Thank U, Next singer and the Broadway actor getting together is pretty “interesting” and “unexpected,” to put it very mildly. So, Cooper certainly isn’t wrong there.

As Perezcious readers will recall, earlier on Wednesday morning, we reported shocking new details regarding the reaction to all this from Slater’s estranged wife. In that report, insiders claim Jay is “devastated” and “betrayed and heartbroken” over the breakup of her family. She and Ethan share a son, who was born last August, and now would seem to be moving towards co-parenting as the actor moves on with Grande.

As for Ariana’s side of things, an insider in that same Wednesday morning report said this about the Side To Side singer, who recently split from her own now-estranged husband Dalton Gomez:

“It’s understandable that emotions are high and it’s hard seeing your ex move on, especially in such a public way, and her friends are trying to protect her. But Ari and Ethan are just trying to lay low and be respectful of their exes as they pursue this new relationship.”

Not sure they’ll have much luck laying low, but OK… Anyways, what do U make of these very, um, cooled-off comments from Ethan’s ex-costar, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF with your take on everything (below)!

[Image via Joseph Marzullo/MEGA/WENN/Avalon]