Wicked main stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo admired each other’s work but were strangers when they signed on to play besties Glinda and Elphaba. That soon changed.
“They quickly became inseparable,” an insider told Star. “They think of themselves as sisters.”
The two even enjoyed shopping in character, with Grande reaching for Glinda’s signature pink and Erivo opting for darker hues.
Theirs wasn’t the only relationship to blossom on set.
A month after shooting began in London in December 2022, Grande quietly split from her realtor husband, Dalton Gomez. Reports that she was getting cozy with costar Ethan Slater, 32, soon followed, with things getting messy in July, when he reportedly blindsided his wife, high school sweetheart Lilly Jay, by asking for a divorce. (Their son was born in 2022.)
While fans were shocked, the insider said things on set remained professional.
“It didn’t get in the way of filming,” said the source. “Nobody on set really knew what was happening.”
Grande later defended the romance, denying in Vanity Fair that Slater, who plays the Munchkin Boq, deserted his wife and child.
“There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being,” she insisted. “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about.”