It’s not surprising that friends of Ethan Slater ‘have concerns’ about his romance with the pop star — after he reportedly broke up his marriage and family to be with her.

It’s a cautionary tale as old as time, but Ariana Grande’s reported new boyfriend, Ethan Slater, has evidently thrown caution to the wind by leaving his wife and baby son to be with the pop star, the glamorous and exciting “other woman” in this scenario.

This tale usually ends with the man’s family left devastated and him ultimately being left alone because the other woman, who might have a history of cycling through lovers, gets tired of the relationship. Slater’s friends are afraid that this will be the Broadway actor’s fate, especially since he’s filed for divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, after reportedly “blindsiding” her with the news that he was involved with Grande, according to Us Weekly.

Meanwhile, Jay isn’t holding back in sharing how she feels about Slater, 31, ending their four-year marriage and 10-year relationship to be with the pop star, 31. Jay told Page Six that Grande isn’t “a girl’s girl,” and said: “My family is just collateral damage.”

In another interview, Jay tried to put on a brave face, telling The Daily Mail that she is determined to move on with her life as a single mother to their son Ethan, who was born last August.

“I am focused on rebuilding a life for our son and rebuilding a life for him,” Jay said. “This is what I am trying to do and this is my only focus.”

Right now, Grande and and Slater, who met while working together on the film adaptation of “Wicked,” are said to be “very much in love.” But Slater’s friends “have concerns” about the romancing lasting, Us Weekly said, because Grande seems to have a history of breaking up relationships, another report said. The friends fear she’ll eventually tell him, “Thank U, Next.”

“They’re worried she’ll break his heart,” a “inside” source has told Us Weekly.

But sources close to Jay said that she and her son should be the focus of people’s sympathy. A source told TMZ Wednesday that she is “devastated that her family’s been torn apart” and feels the actor has “abandoned his family.” Slater and Jay were high school sweethearts who married in 2018 and welcomed their son last year. Jay is trying to deal with the fact that her young son “won’t have both his mom and dad around constantly,” TMZ said.

Grande and Slater’s romance became known after reports emerged earlier this month that Grande and her husband Dalton Gomez were calling it quits after two years of marriage. It was initially reported that Grande and the luxury real estate agent, whose romance blossomed during COVID-19 lockdown, had separated in January and had been “having some issues for months.”

News came quickly that there could be a third party in this split, Grande’s “Wicked” co-star Slater, who is best known as the star of Broadway’s “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Grande moved to the U.K. in late 2022 to work on “Wicked,” an update on the “Wizard of Oz” story that got its world premiere at San Francisco’s Curran Theater. Reports say that Grande and Gomez already were having problems before she reported to work on the “Wicked” set.

There have since been conflicting reports about when Grande and Slater’s professional relationship turned personal. Some sources have tried to downplay suggestions that the two cheated on their spouses, with an “insider” telling Us Weekly that Grande and Slater “were separated when they started dating and the relationship is recent.”

However, Us Weekly also reported Tuesday that Grande and Slater “connected” on the set. While filming, the pair didn’t hide their feelings for each other in front of other members of the cast and crew.

“Ariana and Ethan weren’t careful,” a source told Us Weekly. “They’d hold hands on set in between takes. They were sloppy and not hiding it.”

Another Us Weekly report confirmed accounts that Jay was in the dark about her marriage being in trouble or that her husband was desirous of another woman. A source told Us Weekly that Jay only learned that Slater was involved with the pop star right before news broke about their relationship.

“Ethan sat Lilly down a few days before the news broke about him and Ariana and said that he wanted a divorce,” the source revealed. “Lilly never saw it coming!” Back in November, Slater paid tribute to Jay on their fourth wedding anniversary, with an Instagram post that read: “My best friend. 4 years married, 10 years together. And this is easily the best (and most *bizarre*) year yet.”

Us Weekly reported that sources close to Grande have denied that Slater blindsided his wife with the news that he was seeing another woman. Grande’s fans also have defended her online against the “home wrecker” label by saying that the men also should be held accountable for choosing to cheat on their wives or girlfriends.

Still, the singer might have a tough time downplaying the narrative that she’s a “serial cheater” or that she has a tendency to find her next boyfriend by inserting herself into “somebody else’s relationship breakdown,” BuzzFeed News reported.

A video went viral on Twitter last week, which chronicles “the messy way” that many of the singer’s relationships have begun over the past decade — starting with the late rapper, Mac Miller, BuzzFeed News also reported.

In the Miller case, it was widely reported in 2013 that he had cheated on his long-term girlfriend Nomi Leasure with Grande after meeting the singer the year before and after they collaborated on a song, BuzzFeed News said.

The late “Glee” actor Naya Rivera also suggested in her 2016 book that her boyfriend, rapper Big Sean, cheated on her with Grande before he and Grande began dating in 2014. Rivera described how she returned to Los Angeles from a trip and walked in on Sean and Grande together in his home.

” I learned that I was no longer getting married from the internet and at the same time as the rest of the world,” Rivera wrote. “Not only were we no longer getting married, but apparently we weren’t even together anymore.”

Grande’s whirlwind romance with “Saturday Night Live” comedian Pete Davidson in 2018 also proved to be controversial, because was just getting out of a serious relationship with Cazzie David, BuzzFeed News reported. Grande and Davidson quickly became engaged but called it quits several months later.