This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
Zendaya and Tom Holland have spent nearly a decade dodging questions about their relationship, dropping only the occasional carefully chosen detail while letting the rest of the world speculate.
So when Zendaya was asked on the red carpet at the UK premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day whether there was a lifelong friend in the industry she felt lucky to have grown up alongside, her answer felt almost startlingly simple.
She did not dodge, she did not deflect, and she did not make it complicated. She just told the truth, and the truth happened to be about her husband.
“Well, Tom, obviously, my best friend, but being able to do these films with him is a privilege, and I love to be able to grow together and watch him,” Zendaya said, before adding with a laugh, “I mean, he’s the best.”
It is a short answer, but for two people who have spent years protecting the details of their relationship like state secrets, it landed as one of the more openly affectionate things either of them has said publicly in recent memory.
The Word “Best Friend” Means Something Very Specific for This Couple
For most couples, calling your spouse your best friend is a nice sentiment, but for Zendaya and Holland it is something closer to an origin story.
The two met back in 2016 while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming, and for years afterward, as tabloids and fans buzzed about a potential romance between the two young costars, both stuck to the same story.
They were close friends, nothing more, and they wanted people to leave it at that. Zendaya even shut down dating rumors directly with Variety shortly after Homecoming’s release, insisting the two were simply friends who had bonded while making a movie together.
Holland backed up that framing during the same era, describing Zendaya as one of his best friends during the film’s press tour, long before their romance was ever confirmed publicly.
It was not until 2021, when paparazzi photographed the two kissing in a car, that the world got real confirmation of what had apparently been developing between them long before that.
Even then, the couple continued to guard their relationship closely, rarely walking red carpets together and giving only glimpses of their life outside of work.
That history is exactly why Zendaya reaching for the word “best friend” again, years later and now married to Holland, feels less like a throwaway compliment and more like a callback to where all of this actually started.
Before there was a proposal, a wedding, or years of dodging questions from reporters, there were just two teenagers on a Marvel set who genuinely liked being around each other.
Zendaya crediting that friendship as the foundation of everything that came after fits neatly with how she has described relationships more broadly.
In a separate recent interview, she reflected on what she considers a strong marriage, saying she believes the best partnerships tend to belong to “people who, I don’t know, this is a corny answer, seem like best friends,” adding that she loves seeing two people who “really like each other as well as love each other.”
Their On-Screen Chemistry Has Become Part of the Story Too
While Zendaya was busy giving reporters heart eyes about their friendship in London, Holland was doing some public gushing of his own back at the film’s Los Angeles premiere just days earlier.
Speaking to E! News on the red carpet, Holland was asked what it is actually like sharing scenes with his wife, and how the two of them push each other creatively.
His answer made clear that, at least in his eyes, she is doing most of the heavy lifting. “I think the truth is that she raises the game,” Holland said. “She’s the type of actress where every scene is better when she’s in it. She raises the stakes for everyone.”
He did not stop there either. Holland went on to describe what it is like acting across from Zendaya in more personal terms, praising her instincts as a performer rather than simply complimenting her star power.
“She’s truthful in every decision she makes as an actress,” he said. “And any time that I get to share the screen with her, I’m very lucky.”
Coming from an actor who has spent nearly a decade in one of the biggest franchises in the world, that is not a small compliment, and it lines up with just how much overlap there has been between their careers.
Beyond their four Spider-Man films together, the two also recently costarred in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, meaning their professional partnership shows no signs of slowing down even as their personal life has become more public than ever.
Their approach to red carpets themselves has followed its own quiet logic over the years. Holland has previously explained that he typically skips Zendaya’s solo premieres on purpose, not out of disinterest, but out of respect for her spotlight.
“Because it’s not my moment, it’s her moment, and if we go together, it’s about us,” he said, describing his reasoning for staying out of frame during her non-Spider-Man press events.
Their Brand New Day premieres, by contrast, are a rare case where both of their names are already on the poster, giving them a built-in reason to walk the carpet side by side without it becoming a story about anything other than the movie itself.
A Full Circle Moment Built on Years of Friendship First
The Los Angeles premiere on July 27 gave fans one more piece of the puzzle to enjoy, with Holland and Zendaya coordinating their looks in a way that nodded directly to the franchise that brought them together.
Holland wore a deep red suit, while Zendaya arrived in a plunging, spider-inspired gown, complete with thin straps designed to evoke spider legs stretching above her shoulders.
It was a clear, if subtle, tribute to the characters who started this whole story nearly a decade ago, and it gave photographers plenty to capture as the two smiled and stood close together on the carpet.
None of this exists in a vacuum, either. Zendaya and Holland have been open about being married, following years of engagement speculation that began when Zendaya was spotted wearing a large diamond ring at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards.
Their wedding was eventually confirmed after months of rumors, and reports have since suggested the couple plans to celebrate more publicly down the line even though their actual ceremony was kept private.
Through all of it, the two have remained remarkably consistent about one thing: the friendship that started this relationship has never actually gone away; it has just expanded to include a marriage, a shared franchise, and now several more movies working side by side.
That is ultimately what makes Zendaya’s “best friend” comment resonate the way it has. It is not a new revelation so much as a reminder that nothing about their relationship actually changed direction along the way.
They started as two young actors who liked working together, insisted for years that friendship was all it was, and have now built an entire life, on screen and off, without ever really needing to update that original description.
For two people who have kept almost everything else private, letting that one detail stay exactly the same feels like the most honest thing they could have said.
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