Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
My love for Zendaya and Tom Holland as a couple first bloomed when I learned that the Challengers star was a few inches taller than her boyfriend. God help me, I do love a short king, and I especially love a short king who’s not too insecure to walk the red carpet with his statuesque lady when she’s towering over him in teetering heels.
A-list events aren’t the only place where Zendaya and Holland are gawked at, though; the 27-year-old actress revealed in her latest Vogue cover story that she and Holland were discouraged from visiting the Louvre in 2022 but still went, cameras be damned. (Iconic rebels-in-love sequence!) “It was actually fine,” Zendaya told Vogue writer Marley Marius of her Louvre experience, adding: “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.” I’m obsessed with Zendaya acknowledging that she’s the real art, not the Mona Lisa (hey, I agree!), and I’m even more obsessed with her and Holland braving the glare of the paparazzi to get their culture on as a couple.
The two actors, who costarred in three Spider-Man films, have a pretty epic origin story for their relationship, one that calls to mind nothing so much as the forbidden love between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend. (Sorry, I’ve been rewatching The Crown.) 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.” Ma’am, I know you’ve made many rom-coms, but have you ever seen one? Don’t you know there’s nothing hotter than telling two people they can’t get involved?
In the years since, Holland and Zendaya have never shied away from expressing the deep care and respect they have for each other. “She’s one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. And I love her to bits. So to be here tonight is amazing. I’m delighted to share it with her,” Holland said of Zendaya at the Spider-Man: No Way Home premiere, and is it dusty in here, or am I welling up a little bit? Whatever. It’s not important.
A video of Holland comforting an anxious Zendaya by gripping her knee as she bobbed her leg up and down during an interview has also gone soft viral, for good reason; at the end of the day, don’t we all just want someone to stop us from visibly stressing out on camera? All the love in the world to this short king and tall queen, who hopefully have many film premieres and joint interviews and trips to the supermarket in their future.