And yes, she referenced the Wicked press tour, though she did not mention Grande or the film by name. “As for me, days with my son are sunny,” she wrote. “Days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker.”
Ultimately, Jay says she has worked toward accepting her new normal, writing, “While I still firmly believe in following my patients’ leads and not presuming to know what parts of my personhood resonate with them, the publicity I did not consent to increasingly feels like both a challenge and an opportunity. If I’m discovered—as what, being vulnerable?—perhaps it could be a point of connection rather than a clinical liability.”
She continues, “My entire adult life, I feared that loss of control and postpartum depression would destroy me. One day in London, I looked up and found that they had both arrived. And I am okay. If I can’t be invisible anymore, I may as well introduce myself. You know how a sponge is most effective at absorbing liquid when it’s already a bit wet? Maybe we can think about my messy not-so-personal life in that way: a dose of my own loss, rage, powerlessness, sadness that helps me hold yours.”
You can read the full essay here.
December 2, 2024: With Wicked earning praise and major money, Grande and Slater can coast off goodwill for a while and seem to be settling in for the holidays together. A tipster alerted Page Six that they saw “Ariana Grande and her boyfriend, Ethan, buying a Christmas tree from Yianni Karadimas’s Christmas tree stand on 62nd [and] Broadway.” Apparently the tree cost around $300.
Another source told the outlet, “They are celebrating the success of Wicked and keeping things low-key as they enjoy the holiday season together.” What to put under the tree? Hmm, an enormous pile of Wicked merch!