Zendaya appeared on the Golden Globes red carpet wearing a diamond the size of a Quality Street chocolate. Cue internet hysteria
Zendaya appeared on the Golden Globes red carpet wearing a diamond the size of a Quality Street chocolate. Cue internet hysteria
hat is it about Tom Holland and Zendaya? No really, please tell me. Both of these perfectly good actors seem like perfectly nice and interesting people – and yet for some reason, they attract an intense level of scrutiny that would be more understandably directed at things like insurance policies and war crimes.
On Sunday, when Zendaya appeared on the Golden Globes red carpet wearing a diamond the size of a Quality Street chocolate, all bets were off: she and Holland had to be engaged. Internet sleuths started sleuthing and, within minutes, had determined that the ring she wore was not from Bulgari, whose jewellery Zendaya is contractually obliged to wear as one of their brand ambassadors.
People magazine reported that the ring “appears to be a 5.02-carat East-West Cushion Diamond Button Back Ring from Jessica McCormack, listed in the engagement section on the jewellery brand’s website” – and sure enough, someone found a photo of a similar looking McCormack ring on Zendaya’s manicurist’s Instagram, a post that the actor had liked – all the way back in 2022. Elle of course then interviewed some jewellery experts who variously estimated the ring was worth anywhere between US$100,000 and $500,000, which I am sure you are glad you now know.
By Monday – a busy day for “sources close to the couple” everywhere – TMZ and People both were reporting they had confirmed Holland and Zendaya are engaged. And if that is not enough official confirmation for you, Deuxmoi ran a blind item from a reader who claimed that the boyfriend of someone who once tattooed them was the florist who had put together the arrangements for their engagement.
Zendaya and Tom Holland promoting Spider-Man: No Way Home in London in 2021. Photograph: Dave Benett/WireImage
So why are people so keen on this particular celebrity couple? Perhaps it is because both of them have grown up in the public eye: Holland started out as Billy Elliott in London’s West End at age 12 then went into film, while Zendaya was a child model and Disney kid.
They seem to genuinely like working together, which is sweet: they first met while playing love interests in the Spider-Man films and have both joined the cast of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey.
Holland is emotionally aware in the way that young male stars increasingly are, talking earnestly about his mental health and sobriety. He’s shorter than her and they’re both fine about that fact, which is wildly celebrated by some and criticised by others who have strange ideas about what they should get mad about. On social media they are often jointly praised with unnerving intensity, mainly for being “unproblematic” (surely a low bar) and “authentic”, by people who have never met them and likely never will.
Or perhaps it is because of the implicit provocation they pose to those I will call the “parasocially challenged”, as a famous couple who have an aversion to having their private life picked over by vultures. This has been cynically respun by some as a savvy media strategy which, in turn, has seemed to provoke even more vulture-like behaviour, their every interview picked clean for tasty hints about their relationship. “Our relationship is something that we are incredibly protective of and we want to keep as sacred as possible,” Holland told the Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “We don’t think that we owe it to anyone, it’s our thing, and it has nothing to do with our careers.”
Every hint at their relationship is now pored over like a treasure map.
Just last week, Holland told Men’s Health he avoided walking the red carpet with Zendaya at her premieres so he wouldn’t draw attention away from her – “Because it’s not my moment, it’s her moment, and if we go together, it’s about us” – which was either “the greenest green flag ever” as some cooed online, or went down about as well as a fart in a submarine, for reasons no sane person will ever understand. Even Zendaya’s decision to maybe announce their engagement by wearing a ring out in public was inordinately divisive: either a flawless “soft launch” or an awful cry for attention.
In November, Vogue UK ran a whole article unpicking why a slightly nothing photo they’d posted of the couple smiling politely at the launch of Holland’s non-alcoholic beer line became the most-liked post in the magazine’s history. Their conclusion: why, they’re just like us of course, with Vogue citing Zendaya’s apparent “quiet delight in decidedly mundane activities, like going to Waitrose and Gail’s” and Holland’s fondness for eating at Ottolenghi. Well if they’re just like us, can’t celebrities just do stuff that has no greater significance? If Zendaya goes to a Waitrose and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
“We bet their Gail’s treat order is brilliantly conventional (a scone for her, one of those little brownie finger things for him?) and that’s why they are so beloved,” Vogue concluded. Christ. Do you remember when we behaved normally about celebrities? Yeah, neither do I.
A new year’s resolution you can actually keep
These days I only have one rule when it comes to new year resolutions: do not, under any circumstances, write them down. Don’t put them on social media, or on a Post-it note stuck to your bathroom mirror, or in the notes section of your phone. Chances are high you won’t keep your resolutions, but as long as you don’t write them down chances are equally high you’ll have no memory of making them by next December.
I’ve learned there is simply no point in negotiating with future you – this person who no longer shares your goal to write a play, or to read 50 books in a year. Don’t let their failure be your failure. Besides: if you only manage to read nine books in 2025, you’ll still be nine books less stupid than you were in 2024.
In the meantime here’s something you can do right now to override future-you’s lack of commitment: support the Guardian’s work in 2025. You’ll be supporting independent journalism at a time when it’s more desperately needed than ever, and I promise that we will never send you an email reminding you to practice your Italian.
