Tom Holland Says Zendaya Was His Childhood Celeb Crush, Admits to Being in Love With Her

Tom Holland gushed as he spoke adorably about his relationship with Zendaya, his lifelong love, in a rare instance. The 27-year-old acknowledged in an interview with Buzzfeed that his 26-year-old partner was his first celebrity crush. "Zendaya. Simple," he said when asked, without thinking about it! 

The Spider-Man actor even opened up about the key to his "rizz," or charisma, and he made fun of the fact that he lacks it. "I have no rizz whatsoever, I have limited rizz," the young actor shared, adding, "I need you to fall in love with me for it to work."

The actor revealed that he thinks he doesn't need charisma anymore because of how 'in love' he is with his girlfriend. "So, long game. Probably making a movie with each other—it helps when the characters 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, you know, I'm locked up. I'm happy and in love so I've got no need for rizz."

As the interview went on, he talked more openly about his relationship with Zendaya and how frequently she texts him, sharing that he receives the most memes from her. "It's nonstop," he said. "She sends me too much, it's like, I can't keep up! I delete my Instagram for days at a time. I download it to post and then I have to check my messages, and I'll have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of things from her."

The Crowded Room actor opened up even more about his partner, whom he first met in 2016, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023. He also explained why they prefer to keep their relationship a secret. "Our relationship is something that we are incredibly protective of and we want to keep as sacred as possible," he shared. "We don't think that we owe it to anyone, it's our thing, and it has nothing to do with our careers."

The Cherry actor thanked his girlfriend for being kind to him when they were filming because his character in The Crowded Room, Danny Sullivan, had long, dark hair. "I had the bangs. Bless Zendaya, she had a lot to put up with, with me looking like that for 10 months, it was rough," Holland told Radio Times.

While collaborating for Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, Holland and Zendaya became friends. Although romance allegations surfaced immediately after, the couple was only seen making out in July 2021. "Zendaya and Tom started as really great friends and stayed that way for a long while before things turned romantic," a source exclusively told US Weekly at the time.