Ethan Slater reportedly found out Ariana Grande was back with ex-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez through friends.
“Ariana hasn’t told Ethan specifically, but mutual friends have told him that she is now dating Ricky again,” an insider told the Daily Mail on Friday.
Other sources told the outlet that the pop star has always kept in touch with Alvarez, but insisted she “never crossed the line while she was with Ethan.”
“It was important to her to still be loosely in contact with him as they still had mutual friends,” a source explained.
That same source claimed that the photographer is “very happy being back in her life and is looking for this second chance to be what he wanted the first time around.”
As the exes are spotted together more and more, a third source told the Daily Mail, “Ariana and Ricky are fully back in each other’s lives and are together.
“What ultimately drew her back was the comfort and familiarity they share,” they continued. “She doesn’t feel like she has to prove herself, and there’s a level of trust that comes with knowing each other so well.”
However, the insider alleged that the duo — who dated briefly between 2015 and 2016 — aren’t just “simply picking up where they left off.”
“They’re revisiting the relationship with a different perspective, openly talking about what went wrong before and making a conscious effort to avoid repeating those mistakes,” the source explained. “They’re approaching the relationship with more maturity and a clearer understanding of each other. Which isn’t usually Ariana’s thing.”
Page Six has reached out to reps for Grande and Slater for comment.
Grande, 33, and her former backup dancer, 35, first sparked reconciliation rumors when they were spotted hanging out with friends at an Austin, Texas, restaurant in late June for the Grammy winner’s birthday.
They were then photographed on a Whole Foods grocery run during the Fourth of July weekend in Grande’s hometown of Boca Raton, Florida.
Adding more fuel to the rumors, the singer made a pointed lyric change to her hit song “Thank U, Next” during her “Eternal Sunshine” tour that ignited her fanbase.
The 2018 tune — during which she name-drops several of her former boyfriends — features a lyric about Alvarez that originally goes, “Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh.”
But during the July 13 show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, a viral social media clip showed that she sang, “Wrote some songs about Ricky / We always find our way back.”
Grande and Alvarez began making headlines just weeks after news of her split from Ethan Slater broke.
On June 6, Page Six confirmed that the “Wicked” co-stars quietly split after three years of dating.
“Ariana and Ethan broke up several months ago but they’ve remained friends since then and have nothing but respect and admiration for one another,” a source told us at the time. “This wasn’t a decision they took lightly but realized they were better off friends than in a committed relationship.”
“Ariana is feeling really happy and focused on the next chapter with her ‘Eternal Sunshine’ tour and the upcoming release of her album ‘Petal,’” the source added.
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