Is Zendaya engaged to Tom Holland? Maybe, if the large ring she debuted on the third finger of her left hand at last night’s Golden Globes means what the internet thinks it means.
The actor, nominated for tennis-love-triangle film ”Challengers,” set the rumour mill spinning when she was spotted wearing a diamond solitaire while walking her red carpet.
While celebrities wearing covetable gems at awards show is hardly unusual, several things about this bauble were: There was its finger placement, of course, but also the fact that it was not included among the jewelry — which included a 31-carat tourmaline necklace — that Bulgari itemized in the customary press release they shared about how they’d adorned Zendaya, a face of the jewelry house, for the show.
In fact, sleuths quickly identified the mystery ring as being by British jeweller Jessica McCormack. (Considering her boyfriend-now-possible fiancé, Tom Holland, is English, and the pair spend time in London, that geographical coincidence adds weight to the engagement theory.)
The ring is a 5.03-carat cushion diamond, set “east-west,” meaning the diamond is horizontal rather than vertical along the finger. What makes it particularly distinctive is its “cushion-back” setting, inspired by the way that jewellers in the 18th and early 19th century set gems in a closed-back setting lined with foil to help bounce light when gems were less faceted. While the website listing for this ring says “price on request,” elsewhere it’s been reported that it could retail for more than $200,000.
Adding fuel to this rumoured engagement is Zendaya’s reaction when a reporter directly asked her about the ring, albeit in a non-verbal way involving hard-to-interpret definitively hand signals.
According to the L.A. Times, one of their own reporters caught Zendaya’s eye in the Beverly Hills Hilton ballroom, and gestured to her own engagement ring. The actor responded by “flashing her own bling on her left hand.” As a followup, the journalist then directly asked, “Are you engaged?” to which Zendaya responded by “smiling coyly and shrugging her shoulders mysteriously.”
Zendaya, who rose to fame on the Disney channel and found breakout critical success in “Euphoria,” has been dating actor Tom Holland, of Spider Man fame, officially since 2021.
The pair, both 28, first met in 2016, when they were cast as leads in “Spider Man: Homecoming.” For years, they strenuously denied any kind of romantic link, but in 2021 — two years after their characters had their first onscreen kiss — they were spotted kissing in a car in real life.
They’ve kept their relationship largely private and both have spoken about how important it is to separate their personal and professional selves.
Holland, for example, calls his relationship the “most sacred” thing in his life, a sentiment Zendaya echoed when speaking to GQ a few years ago. “I think loving someone is a sacred thing,” she said, ”and a special thing and something that you want to deal with and go through and experience and enjoy amongst the two people that love each other.”
We’ve had the occasional glimpse into their dynamic, however: Holland, for instance, talks about how much he loves fixing things for his girlfriend, while Zendaya was on hand to support him at the launch of his non-alcoholic drink brand. Technically before they started dating, but their Lip Sync Battle — where the then-friends competed to see who could perform the best rendition of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” with Holland’s fishnet-and-corseted tour de force winning — is another viral example of the pair’s supportive bond.
Most tellingly, perhaps, is Holland’s explanation of why you’ll very rarely see the couple on a red carpet together. “Because it’s not my moment, it’s her moment, and if we go together, it’s about us,” he told “Men’s Health” recently.
An explanation for why, on the night she’s nominated for a Golden Globe, Zendaya walked the carpet alone — and stayed mum about whether or not she really is engaged.
