The Wild Comparison Ariana Grande Fans Made Between Her Brother Frankie & Boyfriend Ethan
Ariana Grande's relationship with her "Wicked" costar and love interest Ethan Slater has been turning heads and raising eyebrows for more than one reason — the most unsettling of which is an uncanny comparison between the Broadway actor and Grande's older brother, Frankie Grande. Soon after Ariana and Slater began dating in July 2023, videos comparing Frankie and his little sister's new boo's physical appearance quickly began circulating the internet.
TikTok user Sam Stryker, for example, posted a simple green screen clip of him in front of side-by-side photographs of Slater and Frankie Grande. "If you too were thinking Ariana Grande's *alleged new BF looks familiar, I got you," the photo's caption read. "Let me introduce you to Ariana's brother Frankie." Stryker sits in silence for the first few seconds of the video before saying what was on all of our minds: "I can't unsee it."
And frankly, he — and the rest of the internet — has a point. The physical similarities between Slater and Frankie Grande speak for themselves.
Fans are put off by Ariana's beau and brother's uncannily similar looks
One needn't be a member of the Arianator nation or a Broadway buff to recognize the shared physical traits of Ariana Grande's older brother, Frankie Grande, and her latest beau, "Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical" star Ethan Slater. Both men have round, hazel brown eyes, a downward-turned nose, and a tilted smile with thin lips — they even share the same small gap between their two front teeth.
"They have the same exact face with different colors," one user commented on TikTok user Sam Stryker's video. "Just falls into the Freud theory ... that we end up falling for similar people to who we were raised by/with," wrote another. "It's not even that they kinda look alike; they look exactly alike," the video's top comment reads.
Adding to the eeriness is the fact that Frankie Grande hosted a "Spongebob Squarepants"-themed podcast called "Spongebob Bingepants," where Frankie and his co-host Hector Navarro rewatched the cult-favorite children's cartoon from start to finish. Slater, on the other hand, had his Broadway big break as the cartoon's titular character in the show's stage adaptation.
Frankie and Ethan's similar look isn't the only thing that's stirred up drama
The drama surrounding Ariana Grande's romance with Ethan Slater doesn't stop at the fact that Slater bears a striking resemblance to his girlfriend's older brother, Frankie Grande. And by comparison, the internet-fueled conspiracy theory is far less damning than other rumors swirling around Broadway's latest "it couple." Both Grande and Slater were in serious relationships just before news of their romance leaked — and for some fans, the timing is a bit suspicious.
Slater married his high school sweetheart Lilly Jay in 2018 after dating for six years, per Hollywood Life. They welcomed their first and only son in May 2023. Two months later, in July 2023, the couple filed for divorce. Slater and Jay's divorce news broke mere days after Grande filed for divorce from her realtor husband of two years, Dalton Gomez. According to Slater's ex, the story of why both couples broke up can be traced back to the "Thank U, Next" pop star.
"[Ariana's] the story, really," Jay told Page Six in July. "Not a girl's girl. My family is just collateral damage." Page Six spoke to a different source who said, "[Lilly] is rightfully upset because her marriage fell apart, but Ariana and Ethan didn't do anything wrong. Ethan is trying to take the high road and hopes he can resolve the situation for the sake of their child." Neither Grande nor Slater have commented publicly on their relationship.