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While Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s controversial romance may be taking a bit of a backseat; it seems Slater is trying as hard as he can to do one thing for his son, whom he shares with his estranged wife Lilly Jay. Things are as tense as they can be between Slater and Jay, but insiders claim he’s “desperate” to amicably co-parent.

Insiders told OK that even though his marriage to Jay is ending, he “desperately” wants to co-parent their son. He allegedly has been contacting Jay daily in order to speak to their son. He even brought their son to London while he was filming Wicked to allegedly remain a present father.

Sources also claim that while Jay has decided that a co-parenting relationship would be best for their son, she did decline one thing he wanted: a joint statement. Slater allegedly wanted to put out a joint statement with Jay that indicated their commitment to amicably raising their son together, but she declined.

For those that don’t know, Slater and Grande have been in the news cycle for weeks now, following a rather messy relationship timeline that includes two divorces and a lot of contradicting accounts.

The alleged story goes that Grande began a close friendship with Slater and Jay, frequently liking their social media posts and hanging out with the family of three. Her and Slater’s representatives claim that their romance didn’t start until months after both of them were separated from their respective partners. However, others have claimed that this isn’t the case. It’s been alleged that Jay learned about Slater’s romance with Grande only days before the news broke, and that some emotional cheating may have been at play.

While the Swindle starand Slater haven’t put out their own statements yet, Jay did speak to Page Six about what was happening. “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl,” she said. “My family is just collateral damage.”