About three weeks ago, we learned that Ariana Grande and Ethan “Spongebob” Slater had broken up. It didn’t come via a formal announcement, but it was clear that Ariana’s people confirmed it. I also believed that Ariana had probably been done with Ethan for months, and that their relationship had basically been limping along for more than a year. Ariana is at best a serial monogamist who puts a two-year expiration date on men. Ethan really dumped his newly postpartum wife for three years with Ariana before she said “thank u, next.” What’s worse is that we ALL knew that Ariana always has a back-up man. She’s never really single, and she loves to “overlap.” So we were waiting to hear the identity of the new guy. Turns out, we didn’t even have to wait a month to find out that Ari is backsliding with an ex.
Ariana Grande was spotted spending time with ex-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez. The former couple was seen grabbing lunch together ahead of Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour stop in Austin, Texas, on Friday, June 26.
“They’ve been hanging out recently,” a source tells PEOPLE. A representative for Grande declined to comment.
Grande recently broke up with her Wicked costar Ethan Slater. In June 2026, PEOPLE confirmed that Grande, 33, and Slater broke up earlier in the year.
The singer dated Alvarez, 33, from 2015 to July 2016. “We’re happy,” Grande told Billboard of the relationship in May 2016. “I’m a very happy girl. I have a healthy life right now, and I think that’s all anyone cares to know. The end.”
After Grande and Alvarez split, she went on to have relationships with Mac Miller, Pete Davidson, Dalton Gomez, and most recently, Slater. However, Grande and Alvarez have maintained a friendship. Alvarez even reacted to his name-drop in her 2018 hit “Thank U, Next” with a cheeky video in an Instagram Stories post.
In his video, Alvarez jokingly listened intensely to “Thank U, Next,” before the camera zoomed in for a close-up as Grande sang, “Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh.”
“Nothing but gratitude,” Alvarez wrote on the subsequent slide, paired with a black heart emoji. “Thank you, next… (those songs are fire tho… you’re welcome).”
Wait, was she with Ricky when her alleged thing with The Weeknd happened? Remember that? Let me look at the timing… no, the prevailing theory is that Ari was with Big Sean when she possibly had a thing with Abel. I’ll admit, I totally forgot about Ricky, who I think was one of her back-up dancers in the 2010s. It’s fine. Ariana just likes to have a warm body around. She’s a lot like vintage J.Lo in that way – can never be alone, isn’t obsessed with her boyfriend’s status, perfectly willing to date back-up dancers. At least Ricky doesn’t look like her brother.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images, Avalon Red.
