Another day, another Tom Holland and Zendaya moment sending the internet into meltdown.
As you may know, Zendaya is currently on the road promoting Dune: Part Two alongside a whole host of A-list costars. And much to fans’ delight, she stopped by to finally take on BuzzFeed’s Puppy Interview.
With castmates like Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Timothée Chalamet to pick from, you’d think she’d be spoilt for choice — but, as you might have guessed, there was only one man on her mind.
“Rizz is short for charisma, right? Everybody's kind of got their own,” she began, before giving a sweet and totally unprompted shoutout to her boyfriend. “I think someone who has beautiful charisma, not on the Dune cast, but I know personally works for me, is Mr. Tom Holland.”
Not stopping there, Zendaya confessed that she’s a little “more shy,” and therefore loves that Tom can bring her out of her shell, saying he’s “great at talking” and “getting to know people.”
“You see him on talk shows and stuff like that. He's just naturally very good at that. Whereas for me, I've definitely had to pull it out of me a little bit,” she said, adding that “he's got that natural gift.”
Of course, it didn’t take long for the clip to go viral online, with fans losing it over the fact that she expertly managed to make her answer all about Tom, despite him having absolutely no involvement with Dune or the topic of discussion.
Amid the reactions, a ton of people were quick to note that Tom is no stranger to taking the opportunity to hype up Zendaya, too, from mentioning her in interviews to gushing about her on social media.
And what’s more, plenty of fans also pointed out that the way that Tom and Zendaya casually talk about their romance in interviews comes as a pretty big contrast to where their relationship first started.
For a quick refresher, Tom and Zendaya began as platonic BFFs after meeting on the set of their first Spider-Man movie in 2017, starring as Spidey and MJ. Over the years they worked together, fans were obsessed with their adorable friendship, and in turn, the pair repeatedly denied rumors that they were a couple.
But, as we now know, everything changed in July 2021 when Tom and Zendaya were photographed kissing, and it quickly became clear that their relationship had developed into something more than just friends.
In the time since the viral kissing photos surfaced, both Tom and Zendaya have talked openly about how important it is for them to keep their relationship private, with Tom previously saying that “one of the downsides” of their fame is the scrutiny of their personal lives.
“I’ve always been really adamant to keep my private life private, because I share so much of my life with the world anyway,” he told GQ in 2021, admitting that he and Zendaya “felt robbed of [their] privacy” when the pictures of them kissing became global news.
Zendaya echoed Tom’s comments in the same interview, admitting that the way their relationship was exposed to the world felt “confusing and invasive.”
“The equal sentiment [we both share] is just that when you really love and care about somebody, some moments or things, you wish were your own,” she told the outlet. “I think loving someone is a sacred thing and a special thing and something that you want to deal with and go through and experience and enjoy amongst the two people that love each other.”
So, in the years since, it’s come as no surprise that Tom and Z have been very conscious of how much of their relationship they share with the public, having made only a handful of red carpet appearances as a couple in the three years they’ve been dating.
And with all of this in mind, fans are now admitting that it still feels shocking to hear Tom and Zendaya talk so openly about their love for one another, even though they’ve been together for quite some time now.
Adorably, one fan brought attention to the fact that while maintaining a certain degree of privacy, Tom and Zendaya will never miss an opportunity to speak highly of each other and celebrate each other’s work.
Interestingly, all this comes after Zendaya discussed the widespread speculation about her love life and how she goes about sharing it with the world.
“Parts of my life, I accept, are going to be public. I can’t not be a person and live my life and love the person I love,” she told Elle magazine in August. “But also, I do have control over what I choose to share.”
She continued: “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.”
