Their characters may more or less be enemies on Euphoria (they both have pretty complicated relationships with the same girl) but fans are shipping Zendaya and Jacob Elordi hard. The co-stars have been spotted hanging out around the world, making everyone wonder if they’ll ever officially come out as more than just friends.
Right now, that’s all that Elordi and Zendaya claim to be: Close friends. In January, Zendaya presented Elordi — who also starred in the much more PG-13 Netflix film The Kissing Booth — with the Rising Star award at the American Australian Association Arts Awards in New York, calling him her “best friend” in the process. The two were spotted hanging out in New York that week, and paparazzi even captured Elordi giving Zendaya a sweet kiss on the head.
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Clearly, these two like each other, but friendship may really be it with them — after all, a kiss on the head isn’t exactly evidence of a romance. When confronted with the dating gossip, Elordi told GQ Australia that “amazing creative” Zendaya is basically “a sister” to him, which is definitely not how you want to refer to your girlfriend.
JACOB ELORDI. I LOVE YOU FOR MAKING ZENDAYA THE HAPPIEST SHES EVER BEEN. I’VE NEVER SEEN HER THIS HAPPY. pic.twitter.com/p1cwJekIFh
— jacobdaya’s bodyguard (@rueshoodie) February 3, 2020
Still, the pair’s insistence that they are just good friends isn’t stopping people from speculating — or maybe just hoping — that they’ll eventually be revealed as a couple. The pictures of them walking around New York City went viral on Twitter, and Zendaya does look pretty happy goofing off with her friend.
zendaya and jacob are so fucking cute.... lilothée wished #rip pic.twitter.com/1tJz6ko70V
— liv (@interste11ars) February 3, 2020
liking every zendaya and jacob elordi tweet i see on my tl and then some pic.twitter.com/FXBgvMGvo3
— ilhan 🍃 (@encarta94) February 4, 2020
i want zendaya and jacob to last pic.twitter.com/AUwZjpM2b7
— kayla (@breathinkayla) February 2, 2020
jacob elordi and zendaya walking around new york city with green drink, camera, shopping bag, and coats pic.twitter.com/Brk26Pmgnn
— jay (@tomsffh) February 3, 2020
zendaya walking around nyc smiling and taking funny photos of her and jacob is literally the purest thing pic.twitter.com/Ww8Duv9Mhd
— gianna (@dayasdove) February 3, 2020
The rumors of a romance between the co-stars started in summer of 2019, when Elordi and Zendaya were seen on vacation in Greece together.
Later, they reportedly spent Thanksgiving in Elordi’s home country Australia, where Elordi might have introduced Zendaya to his parents. But the trip could have also just been purely for business: The two were in town for the GQ Awards, where both were nominated in separate categories. Zendaya was named GQ Woman of the Year by GQ Australia, while Elordi was nominated for Man of the Year.
Elordi and Zendaya know what it’s like to have the public scrutinize your relationship. When Elordi dated Joey King, his Kissing Booth leading lady, the two were under an intense microscope from fans who saw them as the real-life versions of their Netflix movie characters Noah and Elle. They posted about one another routinely on social media, which meant that when their relationship seemingly ended, fans immediately noticed.
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Zendaya hasn’t dated much in the public eye, but did combat reports that she and Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland were dating with funny tweets.
“Wait wait...my favorite is when it says we go on vacations together HA! I haven't been on a vacation in years!” Zendaya tweeted to Holland in 2017 of the gossip.
At least she finally got that vacay with Elordi, friends or otherwise.
Refinery29 reached out to Zendaya and Elordi for comment.
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