As far as I'm concerned, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens belong with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the celebrity couple hall of fame. They perfectly encapsulate being a teen in the early aughts, not only dating from 2006 to 2010, but co-starring in Disney's High School Musical franchise the whole time. While both have moved on, with Efron going on to reportedly date people like Michelle Rodriguez and Sami Miró and Hudgens has been with actor Austin Butler for over seven years, no millennial has forgotten about their iconic romance.
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Recently, Hudgens took a moment to get nostalgic about that time when The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast this week when she was asked about the relationship.
"It started off really organically," she explained. "I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time."
The actress, who recently starred in Netflix's The Princess Switch, said it was a particularly important considering just how popular High School Musical became.
"It was this massive phenomenon and [all] eyes were on me," Hudgens explained. "And it's just a really weird foreign thing to go through, and by being in a relationship, it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well."
Of course, working together had its own conflicts.
"I remember one time we did have a fight, and it was while we were at rehearsals, and I remember [HSM director] Kenny Ortega coming around the corner with the most concerned look on his face like, 'Oh no, is our movie going to fall apart right now?'" Hudgens said. "I pride myself on being a professional, so I was like, that aside, we are going to move forward and do what we need to do...and we sorted it all out. I think because I was so young, I think that relationship stabilized me."
Efron has not publicly spoken about the relationship since the split, but has always been quiet about his romantic life. He was lasted spotted with athlete Sarah Bro, but hasn't uttered a peep about whether or not love is in the air. At the rate things are going in Hollywood, however, we're due for a High School Musical reunion. If we can't have Troy and Gabriella IRL, we at least deserve them back on our screens.
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