Late last week, the Internet was in a minor panic that may or may not have been a threat to the time/space continuum when people noticed that Zendaya stopped following boyfriend Tom Holland on Instagram (although she also unfollowed everyone else). Rumors began flying that they had broken up. After all, couples unfollowing each other on social media have a decent track record of being the forebearer of bad news (See: Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson). Tom and Zendaya are such a delight and by all accounts, genuinely great people, so of course everyone – myself included – went into “If these two can’t make it work, what hope is there for the rest of us” mode. This led to TMZ, which never misses the opportunity to invade someone’s privacy, to catch up with Tom and ask him what the deal was.

On Friday, January 12, Spider-Man star Tom Holland clarified his relationship status with co-star Zendaya, telling reporters that they are “absolutely not” split up in a video shared by TMZ. Zendaya has unfollowed Holland on Instagram and a number of other people, but it apparently means nothing about her relationship. The actor was very clear about that as he walked to his car in Los Angeles, wearing a bright green hoodie and black baseball cap.

It’s unclear why Zendaya has unfollowed Holland, but it does not appear to be that personal—she is currently following zero people. She and Holland met on the set of the Spider-Man films, where they played love interests Peter Parker and MJ. Rumors of an off-screen relationship began following them in 2017, though it was not confirmed until 2021, when they were photographed sharing a kiss at a stop-light in Los Angeles.

[From Elle]

Yeah, Zendaya unfollowed everyone for some reason. It would be next level PR psy ops for her to unfollow everyone just to hide the fact that she only meant to unfollow Tom! They’ve always been pretty private about their relationship, but were last seen together on New Year’s Eve. They don’t generally walk the red carpet together if it’s not a project they’re both involved in. In fact, Tom attended this year’s Critics Choice Awards by himself. That’s pretty typical and if that works for them, then awesome. It’s the rest of us who are sad when we don’t see official pictures of them together, haha. So yes, everyone, don’t panic! We’re starting off 2024 with Selena/Taylor lip-reading drama and Ariana’s no Fs given attitude. There’s no need to bring Tom/Zendaya bad juju in here! We’re only two weeks in.

photos credit: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon, Backgrid