Zendaya gave a rare insight into her relationship with Tom Holland and her relationship with public life in a new interview with Vogue.
The Spider-Man costars have been romantically linked since 2021 but tend to keep their relationship out of the public eye. Last year, Zendaya said of keeping their relationship private, “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.”
Both actors were child stars in their own right: For Zendaya, it was Disney’s Shake It Up, while Tom starred in Billy Elliot on the West End. “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 told Vogue. “I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully.”
Such an example came in 2022, when the couple visited the Louvre despite fears that they would make the crowds “worse.” Pictures of the couple on a tour or in front of the “Mona Lisa” subsequently began to circulate. “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 recalled. Thankfully, the museum let them stay late: “It was one of the coolest experiences ever. It was like Night at the Museum.”
Zendaya further said that growing up, she felt like she always had to say yes to people — including when strangers asked her for a photo. While she still struggles with the expectation of yes, she said, “I also have learned that I can say no, and I can say kindly that I’m having a day off, or I’m just trying to be to myself today, and I don’t actually have to perform all the time.”
Part of her thinking about her public role comes down to whether she can do it long-term. “I don’t necessarily want my kids to have to deal with this,” she continued. “Am I going to be a public-facing person forever?”
The 27-year-old ultimately wants a scenario where she can “make things and pop out when I need to pop out, and then have a safe and protected life with my family.” She expressed a “fear” of “not delivering something all the time,” adding, “I think that’s always been a massive anxiety of mine: this idea that people will just be like, Actually, I know I’ve been with you since you were 14, but I’m over you now because you’re boring.”
You can read the full interview here.