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A Timeline Of Zendaya And Tom Holland’s Relationship

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Spider-Man Costars Ignite Hollywood Romance

Zendaya and Tom Holland spent five years insisting they were just friends. Then, in the first week of July 2021, a paparazzi camera in Los Angeles caught them kissing inside Holland’s Audi at a red light, and the denials stopped making sense. Here’s how the rumor mill chased them from a 2016 casting call to that moment at the stoplight.

• Dating rumors trace back to 2016, when Zendaya and Holland were cast together in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and gained steam after their viral 2017 Lip Sync Battle faceoff.
• People reported in July 2017 that the pair had secretly begun dating on set — a claim both actors repeatedly denied, including Zendaya’s tweet asking Holland if a “vacation” counted, to which he replied, “Does the press tour count?”
• The romance speculation cooled in 2019-2020 while Zendaya was linked to Euphoria co-star Jacob Elordi and Holland quarantined in London with girlfriend Nadia Parkes, before reigniting in July 2021 when Page Six published video of the two kissing in Holland’s $125,000 Audi.

A Friendship Born on the Homecoming Set

The speculation started the moment Zendaya and Holland were announced as co-stars in Spider-Man: Homecoming back in 2016. Their easy, joking rapport during promotional appearances gave tabloids plenty to work with, but it was their 2017 face-off on Lip Sync Battle — a segment that racked up viral attention on its own — that first convinced fans there might be more than co-star banter going on.

Years of Denials and Viral Moments

By July 2017, People reported that the two had quietly started dating while filming Homecoming, a story both actors pushed back on immediately and repeatedly. Zendaya leaned into the deflection on Twitter, writing, “I haven’t been on a vacation in years! hbu @TomHolland1996???” Holland’s reply became one of the more quoted lines of the whole saga.

Does the press tour count?

The rumor cycle got another jolt in September 2018 when Kiya Cole, mother of actress Skai Jackson, commented online that the two had “been on the low for a while.” She later walked the remark back, but it kept the theory alive heading into 2019.

The Cooling-Off Period

Between 2019 and 2020, the dating chatter largely went quiet as both actors were seen with other people. Zendaya was photographed in Greece and New York City with her Euphoria co-star Jacob Elordi, while Holland spent much of the pandemic quarantining in London with English actress Nadia Parkes. Holland even addressed the toll of public relationships in a February 2021 Esquire interview, talking candidly about the pressure that follows a breakup when you’re dating someone less famous than you are.

The Red Light That Changed Everything

Whatever had cooled came roaring back in early July 2021, when Page Six published photos and video of Zendaya and Holland sharing what it described as a passionate kiss inside Holland’s $125,000 Audi sports car, stopped at a red light in Los Angeles. Days later, the two were spotted spending time together at the Silver Lake home of Zendaya’s mother, Claire Stoermer — the kind of detail that turns a paparazzi photo into a confirmed relationship rather than another rumor to deny.

Neither Zendaya nor Holland has put out a statement beyond that; they’ve never needed to. Five years of “just friends” ended with one red light in LA, and at this point the only real question left is whether they show up together at the next Spider-Man press stop — because if the pattern holds, that’s usually where the next round of photos comes from.