Tom Holland and Zendaya have brought romance back to pop culture. Back in 2017, their press tour for Spider-Man: Homecoming was a flirtatious tour de force: Zendaya always doubled over in laughter, Tom comforting an anxious Zendaya with a gentle hand on her knee, both of them constantly pulling the same silly face or one-liner out at exactly the same time.
While the actors have kept the details of their relationship largely private, Zendaya opened up to Vogue in her 2024 cover story, saying that these days, they’re not allowing paparazzi to stop them from enjoying their lives, whether that means having a date night in Paris, attending an Usher concert, or simply going to the grocery store. A day in the Louvre? They wouldn’t miss it. “You just kind of get used to the fact that, Oh, I’m also one of these art pieces you’re going to take a picture of. I just gotta be totally cool with it and just live my life,” she told Vogue.
With years of friendship buttressing their romance, Zendaya and Holland appear to be more in love than ever. As we, the public, continue to swoon over the couple, let’s take a moment to go over all their notable moments from 2016 to now.
This is where it all began, when the two were cast as Spider-Man and MJ for Marvel’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. The first installment, Spider-Man: Homecoming, began production in June 2016 and was released in July 2017.
From the outset, producer Amy Pascal warned them not to date, telling The New York Times, “I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture: ‘Don’t go there—just don’t. Try not to.’” Thankfully for all of us, Pascal’s warning didn’t quite take.
Any time two young costars appear to have chemistry, the world (read: the internet) goes wild with speculation. Zendaya and Holland responded to rumors about them by fully shutting down the idea they were romantically involved. In response to a tweet that presumed the costars had gone on vacation together, Zendaya wrote, “Wait wait...my favorite is when it says we go on vacations together HA! I haven’t been on a vacation in years! hbu @TomHolland1996 ???”
Holland tweeted back, “Does the press tour count.”
In 2019, Zendaya was spotted with her Euphoria costar Jacob Elordi, getting a little kiss on the head from the actor as they stroll around New York City. Meanwhile, Holland went public with British actress Nadia Parkes via an Instagram post.
Up to this point, Zendaya and Holland appeared to the public as nothing more than friends and co-stars. Then, photos were released of the two kissing in a car at a red light. The world lost its mind, but official confirmation of their relationship wouldn’t come for a long time.
The moment a relationship is immortalized on social media is major—and that moment finally arrived for the couple on Zendaya’s 25th birthday. Holland posted a tender tribute on Instagram with a sweet behind-the-scenes film photo from the Spider-Man set. In the caption, he wrote: “My MJ, have the happiest of birthdays, Gimme a call when your [sic] up xxx.”
In a story for GQ, Holland discussed life in the public eye. “One of the downsides of our fame is that privacy isn’t really in our control anymore, and a moment that you think is between two people that love each other very much is now a moment that is shared with the entire world,” he said, alluding to the paparazzi photos of him and Zendaya. “I’ve always been really adamant to keep my private life private, because I share so much of my life with the world anyway. We sort of felt robbed of our privacy.”
Holland went on that he could not wax poetic about his and Zendaya’s relationship without her beside him, weighing in. “It’s not a conversation that I can have without her,” he explained. “You know, I respect her too much to say … This isn’t my story. It’s our story. And we’ll talk about what it is when we’re ready to talk about it together.”
Zendaya and Holland are all about quiet luxury—at least when it comes to their declarations of love. For Zendaya, that took the shape of an adorable signet ring featuring Holland’s initials—“TH”— per a video shared by her manicurist on Instagram Stories. For Holland, it was an embroidered letter “Z” (presumably for “Zendaya”) on a bunch of his pants. Both were small, intimate gestures that spoke volumes.
The second season of Euphoria was especially heavy, and Holland told IMDb that he’d visited Zendaya on set “at least 30 times” during the filming. Zendaya confirmed to ET that Holland “supported me through the whole season.”
“I think it’s great to have that support and love around you, because you need that,” she went on. “This isn’t an easy job, so it’s good to have that to free you up from it every now and then.”
Ever the humble king, Holland joked about his lack of charisma in an interview with Buzzfeed—and, in turn, let everyone know just how content he was with Zendaya.
“I have no rizz whatsoever. I have limited rizz,” he told the outlet. “I need you to fall in love with me, really, for it to work. So, long game. Probably making a movie with each other—[it] definitely helps when the characters you’re playing are falling in love with one another; you can sort of blur the lines a little bit. That’s kind of where my rizz is at. And I’m, you know, I’m locked up, so I’m happy and in love. So I’ve got no need for rizz.”
In Elle’s September 2023 cover story, the Euphoria star spoke up about how much she valued her peace, especially when it came to her highly publicized relationship.
“Parts of my life, I accept, are going to be public,” she said. “I can’t not be a person and live my life and love the person I love. But also, I do have control over what I choose to share. It’s about protecting the peace and letting things be your own but also not being afraid to exist. You can’t hide. That’s not fun, either. I am navigating it more than ever now.”
Not everyone nailed the mute challenge during Beyoncé’s live performance of “Energy,” but Zendaya and Holland certainly did. The couple went all out for Beyoncé’s Los Angeles show, which turned into a star-studded extravaganza for the singer’s 42nd birthday. (Zendaya and Beyonce are both, unsurprisingly, Virgos.) In accordance with Queen B’s silver-themed birthday dress code, Zendaya wore an oversized blazer paired with matching Bermuda shorts, all in a dazzling silver sequin.
Fan-captured videos showed the couple holding hands as they found their seats, running into Abbot Elementary’s Quinta Brunson and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri along the way. Other videos showed them dancing the night away together.
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Zendaya’s front-row look at Schiaparelli’s spring 2024 haute couture runway show was jaw-dropping: a sleek, all-black gown with a dramatic twisted train that trailed behind her as she walked. No one was more stunned by her look than Holland. The actor posted a series of photos of Zendaya in front of the venue with heart-eye emojis, writing atop one video, “This was made for me.”
When asked who out of the Dune: Part Two cast has the most rizz, Zendaya’s answer is, improbably, Tom Holland.
“I don’t know. ‘Rizz’ is short for charisma, right? Everybody’s kind of got their own,” she told Buzzfeed. “I think someone who has beautiful charisma, not on the Dune cast, but I personally—works for me—is Mr. Tom Holland.”
She went on to say, “I’m more shy and kind of quiet, so it takes a little bit more to pull me out of my shell. But he’s great at just talking to people and getting to know people. You see him on talk shows and stuff like that. He’s just naturally very good at that.”
Zendaya and Holland looked beyond cozy sitting courtside at the Indian Wells Open in California, watching the men’s final and chatting. Zendaya, who was then promoting her tennis drama Challengers, wore an all-white Louis Vuitton ensemble, with a tennis-inspired pleated miniskirt and sneakers. Holland opted for a maroon cardigan and orange-tinted sunglasses.
They watched with rapt attention—that is, until Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” came on and they were spotted singing and grooving along to the tune, all smiles on the big screen.
In her Vogue cover story, Zendaya opened up further about her relationship with Holland. She was, she said, still in awe of how gracefully Holland had taken to overnight fame after being cast as Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming: “We were both very, very young, but my career was already kind of going, and his changed overnight. One day you’re a kid and you’re at the pub with your friends, and then the next day you’re Spider-Man,” she said. “I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully.”
Coy! When Zendaya attended the 82nd Annual Golden Globes in Los Angeles—where she was up for her turn in Challengers—she hit the red carpet in a custom, tangerine-toned Louis Vuitton dress, the ring on her finger drawing special attention. People soon confirmed their engagement, alleging that Holland proposed to Zendaya between Christmas and New Year’s. Will their dogs Noon and Daphne be ringbearers?
During an interview on the 2026 SAG Actor Awards red carpet, Law Roach—Zendaya’s longtime image architect—suggested to a reporter that Zendaya and Holland had tied the knot. “The wedding’s already happened! You missed it!” he said with a playful grin. (Zendaya’s team has not yet responded to Vogue’s request for comment.)
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Eagle-eyed fans had been speculating for a few months now that the couple had already wed, after Zendaya was spotted with a new haircut in December and then with a delicate gold band on her ring finger in February.
Whether or not their nuptials have taken place, 2026 is a big one for the actor couple: both Zendaya and Holland will star in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this summer (with Zendaya as Athena and Holland as Telemachus). So while Z + H may keep things lowkey, their electric chemistry is coming to a big screen near you.