Photo Credits: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
LOS ANGELES — Zendaya rarely gives interviews about her love life. When she does, she chooses her words like she chooses scripts: carefully. In her new ELLE cover story, published this week, the 29-year-old Emmy winner finally opened up about what it’s really like to work with Tom Holland again — not once, but twice in the same summer — and why she keeps calling it “a family affair.”
“I get to go to work every day with my best friend, the person that I love,” Zendaya told ELLE writer Alexis Okeowo. “We bring our dogs to work; it’s like a family affair. We grew up on those movies! It’s like coming home.”
The quote refers to ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, the fourth Holland-led Spider-Man film, due in theaters July 31, 2026. It’s the first time the couple has shared a full set since 2021’s ‘No Way Home’, and according to Zendaya, the vibe on Sony’s Atlanta stages felt less like a Marvel machine and more like a reunion barbecue.
“Spider-Man was a dream,” she said. “We grew up on those movies.”
Two films, one summer
2026 is shaping up as the unofficial “Tomdaya” takeover. A week before Spider-Man swings back, on July 17, Christopher Nolan’s epic ‘The Odyssey’ opens worldwide — with both Zendaya (as Athena) and Holland (as Telemachus) in the cast.
Interestingly, they don’t share scenes in Nolan’s film. Zendaya revealed she spent most of her downtime watching Holland work from video village.
“I could have cried, I was so proud,” she said of seeing him tackle Nolan’s practical sets and IMAX cameras. That distance, she explained, gave her a rare chance to be an audience member instead of a scene partner.
On ‘Brand New Day’, the dynamic flipped. The pair, who first met as teenagers on 2016’s ‘Homecoming’, now arrive together, leave together, and yes — bring their dogs, Noon and Daphne, to their trailers. Crew members told ELLE the dogs have their own call sheets.
“We don’t hide, we protect”
The interview landed amid a fresh wave of marriage rumors. Zendaya was photographed in April with a thin gold band on her left hand, sparking TikTok theories that she and Holland, 29, had secretly wed after getting engaged in late 2024.
Zendaya’s response was classic Zendaya: polite, firm, and boundary-setting.
“No, I’m not going to do that,” she said when asked directly. “They’re always searching for something.”
She expanded: “We don’t hide our relationship from the public, but we would also like to preserve things for ourselves, their families, and close friends.” Her stylist and longtime friend Law Roach recently claimed on a podcast that the two “are already married,” but neither actor has confirmed it, and Zendaya told iHeart in a follow-up that she and Holland “aren’t confirming or denying” to protect their joy.
Why ‘family affair’ means more now
For Zendaya, the phrase isn’t just romantic. It’s logistical. Both actors have spent the last three years juggling prestige projects far from superhero spandex — she filmed Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Messiah’ in Budapest and Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’ sequel; he did the West End and Nolan’s shoot in Morocco.
Returning to Spider-Man, she said, allowed them to sync schedules, share a dialect coach, and have dinner at home in London instead of FaceTiming from different time zones.
“It’s not about nostalgia,” she explained. “It’s about safety. I know his rhythms, he knows mine. When a stunt goes wrong or a line doesn’t land, you don’t have to explain why you’re frustrated. That person already knows.”
Marvel insiders say that shorthand saved days on set. Director Destin Daniel Cretton reportedly built extra rehearsal time for MJ and Peter Parker’s scenes because their chemistry “reads like a lived-in marriage.”
What’s next
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July 17, 2026: ‘The Odyssey’ (Universal) — Zendaya as Athena, Holland as Telemachus, alongside Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway.
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July 31, 2026: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ (Sony/Marvel) — the first film post-‘No Way Home’ reset, with Zendaya back as MJ after her character’s memory wipe.
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Fall 2026: Zendaya begins production on ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, while Holland is attached to a limited series about Formula 1 for Apple TV+.
Neither has announced wedding plans, and Zendaya made it clear she won’t. What she will talk about is work — and how rare it is to love both the job and the person across from you.
“Coming home” used to mean leaving set. Now, for Zendaya, it means walking onto one with Tom Holland waiting by the monitors, dogs at his feet.
And for fans who’ve followed them since 2017, that’s the real headline: not a secret wedding, but a very public partnership that finally feels, in her words, like family.
