Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: Our favorite Montecito couple faces divorce rumors, a pop star gets a married boyfriend, and Timothée Chalamet and Adam Sandler play basketball.
Paid subscribers got the breaking news that Ariana Grande has a new boyfriend yesterday — click here to catch up.
Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married in 2018, they have faced just about every conceivable tabloid rumor and still managed to profess their unique and Earth-shattering love for each other at every opportunity. In the last few months, however, their public performances have gotten a bit wobblier, and now even American tabloids are predicting their demise as a couple. Do I think they will get divorced anytime soon? No — they both have too much to lose. But let’s discuss the latest gossip.
Harry and Meg have been on a downward PR spiral for much of this year, from their Manhattan car chase that wasn’t to their canceled Spotify deal. On Tuesday, the usually not relevant or correct Radar Online reported that they are “taking time apart” in the wake of the drama. “They're trying to figure out what hit them,” a source claimed. “Harry doesn't fit in Meghan's tacky Tinseltown world,” the source added, speculating that the prince needs to “find himself.”
The gossip outlet suggested that during this alleged time apart, Harry plans to visit Africa by himself to make a documentary as part of the couple’s Netflix deal, which is at this point still active. Another source told Page Six, however, that Harry and Meg are very much together, and that reports of a separation are false. “It’s not true. It’s literally made up,” the source said. Harry’s polo buddy Nacho Figueras also tweeted succinctly in support of the couple:
So far, Meghan’s friends — who spoke to People on her behalf in 2019 — have yet to weigh in.
So what’s going on? Personally, I think this is probably not the most joyful time in the Sussexes’ Montecito mansion. They are now all-but-excommunicated from the royal family, and they haven’t figured out how to make a lasting career out of being themselves. (Ironically, that would have been easier had they just…stayed royals.) I have heard whispers that they are, in fact, on the rocks, but I think the worst thing they could do now is get divorced — better to succeed at something else first.
One person who is definitely getting divorced: Ariana Grande. Sources connected to the 30-year-old pop-star revealed she was separated from her husband of two years, the L.A. real estate agent Dalton Gomez, on Monday, and by Thursday, the tabloids already had the name of her new boyfriend: Ethan Slater.
The crucial facts: He is Grande’s co-star in the forthcoming Wicked movies, which have been filming in London since December. He is also married and had a baby with his high-school sweetheart wife, Lilly Jay, less than a year ago. Slater and Jay are supposedly separated now, but he just wished her a happy first Mother’s Day back in May. Also, he is perhaps best known for starring in the Spongebob Squarepants musical on Broadway. All of this adds up to Ariana Grande’s type, for better or worse.
Here’s how a source explained the timeline of Grande and Slater’s relationship to Us Weekly:
“Ariana and Ethan are dating; however things are fairly new. Ariana and Dalton split in January, and Ethan is separated from his wife. 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.”
Whatever you say, lovebirds! Grande and Slater have not been photographed together since news of their relationship broke, and Slater set his Instagram to private yesterday. But here they are at a cast dinner together in London in March:
Cute?
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: Hilary Duff sang her classic Lizzie McGuire hit “What Dreams Are Made Of” on the picket line this week.
Finally, I’ll leave you with these photos of Timothée Chalamet and Adam Sandler playing pickup basketball in Manhattan yesterday.
I like Sandler’s shirt.
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i just don’t know how anyone would know that harry & meghan have been “fighting for months”. the deep hatred that people have for them is so unfounded because they have never actually done anything morally wrong.
i think i spent a good few minutes just staring at that pic of ariana and spongebob. my eyes