The Wicked split. Three years with Ethan Slater. Just… gone. Earlier this year they parted ways. It wasn’t a quiet fade, more like a sharp break. Now the dust has settled just enough for someone else to step back in. Not a stranger. Never really. Ricky Alvarez. They dated way back. 2015, really. He was her dancer. He was her boyfriend. Then they split. Years passed. She kept moving forward, famously so, until now she’s turning backward. Slowly. That’s the word insiders keep using. Like walking through wet cement. You move, but carefully. No sprinting.
They’re talking again. Spending time. The vibe isn’t frantic or loud. It’s quiet. Dependable, apparently. People source confirms Ariana is happy to have him in her life. Happy, not head-over-heels obsessed. There’s a difference. She trusts him. Feels like herself. That sounds basic but it’s actually rare in her world. Surrounded by hype and cameras and expectations. She just wants someone who laughs at the same weird, dry jokes she tells. Someone who has “great energy” without the chaos. He seems to provide that. No ill will from their last breakup. She didn’t write him out of her history completely, did she? She literally sang about him.
Which brings us to the stage. The concert tour. The hints. You couldn’t miss them if you were paying attention. She changed the lyrics to “Thank U, Next.” Remember that line? “Wrote some songs about Ricky. Now I listen and laugh.” That was the 2018 version. A nod to the past. A closure. Or was it? At Barclays Center recently. Brooklyn. July 13. She altered the words on the fly.
“Wrote some songs about Ricky.
I know he’s still got my back.”
Later:
“We always find our way back.”
That’s not a joke. That’s not improvisation for fun. That’s a message. Delivered to a stadium full of fans. Delivered to Ricky, presumably in the crowd. She’s signaling. The source says they aren’t jumping into anything “serious.” But what is serious? Does a changed lyric not count as a public declaration of intent? Or is it just playful? Maybe. Maybe she just likes the rhyme. But the consistency matters. One song here, another there. The narrative is shifting.
Ethan Slater is gone. Or at least, they said they were done. Friends think it might not be permanent, rumor mill suggests things aren’t always black and white in Hollywood relationships. But for right now. For this moment. He is not in the frame. Ricky is.
They’re taking it slow. Step by step. It makes sense. She’s been through enough high-profile exits to know that rushing creates cracks. They’re avoiding those cracks. Building something sturdier, maybe. Or just enjoying the comfort of familiarity.
It’s interesting, really. How we circle back. How people re-enter lives not as lovers at first but as old friends who forgot why they left in the first place. Or who remembered exactly why they should return.
No grand wedding announcement. No joint interview. Just a lyric tweak. And a source saying, “She’s happy.”
That’s enough for now. Or is it?
