Tom Holland Shares Sweet Story About Impressing Zendaya With Handyman Skills

On Friday, in an interview with UNILAD, actor Tom Holland may have revealed more about his relationship with girlfriend Zendaya than he intended. It started when he shared a sweet story about impressing her with his handyman skills early on in their relationship.

“I fixed my girlfriend’s door once, really early on in our relationship,” he said. “I was hanging out at her house, and her door was broken. I was like, ‘I’m gonna fix that door for you,’ and now we’re in love.”

That’s all it takes:

But fans noted this story sounds remarkably similar to one Holland told during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2019, back before he and Zendaya were officially known to be dating. In this version, he describes fixing a door for his “friend.”

It’s possible that Holland just uses fixing people’s doors as a way to get closer to them, platonically and romantically, but it has been rumored that the Spider-Man co-stars were a pair long before they were photographed kissing at a spotlight in Los Angeles in 2021.

If they did date as far back as 2019, that implies they had an on-again-off-again relationship of some kind, because in 2020, viral photos showed Zendaya kissing Euphoria co-star Jacob Elordi. Both she and Elordi have denied any kind of relationship.

Holland has admitted to being interested in Zendaya for a long time, and in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter recently, he talked about how she was unanimously the choice to play his love interest MJ in the Marvel film. That was way back in 2016.

“Obviously, I’m very happy she came in and tested that day. I’m sure you can guess why,” he said. Aside from being his girlfriend, though, he said, “She’s wonderful to work with. She’s arguably the most talented person I’ve ever met.”

Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.