Zendaya Fell in Love with Tom Holland Over a Broken Door

“I was like, ‘I’m gonna fix that door for you.’ And now we’re in love.”

Tom Holland and Zendaya on the red carpet for the Spider-Man premiere
(Image credit: Getty)
Rachel Burchfield
By Rachel Burchfield
published

Who would have thought that solid carpentry skills could help Tom Holland woo Zendaya? It’s true, he says—and that fixing her door led to love.

“Carpentry is something I just really enjoy,” he says, per Us Weekly. “I made my mum’s kitchen table. I made my mum’s office. I built all the cupboards in my bedroom. I built a little birdhouse with my granddad. I fixed my girlfriend’s door once really early on in our relationship.” 

Tom Holland and Zendaya at a basketball game

(Image credit: Getty)

Holland’s helpfulness apparently impressed Zendaya: “I was hanging out at her house and her door was broken,” he says. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna fix that door for you.’ And now we’re in love.”

The two starred in three Spider-Man movies together, released between 2017 and 2021. “It definitely helps when the characters you’re playing are falling in love with one another,” Holland once said. “You can sort of blur the lines a little bit.” The couple’s relationship went public in July 2021 when they were photographed kissing in a car in Los Angeles, finally confirming years of rumors of a romance that date back to 2017. 

Tom Holland and Zendaya on the red carpet for the Spider-Man premiere

(Image credit: Getty)

Tom Holland and Zendaya walking hand in hand in masks

(Image credit: Getty)

“Our relationship is something that we are incredibly protective of, and we want to keep as sacred as possible,” Holland told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “We don’t think that we owe it to anyone. It’s our thing, and it has nothing to do with our careers.”

The pair are “serious and permanent,” an insider told Us Weekly last November. “They’re both in settling down mode and are absolutely planning for a real future together.” 

Rachel Burchfield
Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more. 

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