Once upon a time, Zac Efron, man who recently had a near-death experience on a show literally called Killing Zac Efron, was dating Vanessa Hudgens. It was a simpler era, when High School Musical sequels haunted our collective nightmares, and honestly, the couple’s eventual breakup was s-h-o-c-k-i-n-g. Not as shocking as that time Zac was on the red carpet and a condom fell out of his pocket, but still!
Anyway, now that Vanessa and her long-term boyfriend Austin Butler have split up after nine years together, the internet is high-key thirsty for Zac and Vanessa to reunite. But if you, like me, can barely remember the events of 2019, let alone what the f*ck was happening in 2005, you might find yourself confused about Zanessa’s relationship. How long did they date? What went wrong exactly? What secrets was Zac hiding under his sideswept bangs? Fear not, all your questions will be answered in the handy timeline below because...wait for it....
Circa Early 2005
Zac and Vanessa meet during High School Musical auditions, and it’s the START OF SOMETHING NEW, if you will. Don’t worry, there’s fully a video:
Zanessa clearly had bonkers chemistry and quietly started dating while filming their hit movie. Sadly, due to Al Gore’s internet sucking, most ~source~ reports were kept to print tabloids and I don’t currently have access to my mom’s basement.
October 9, 2005
Zac and Vanessa make their first public appearance at, lol, Ashley Tisdale’s birthday party—the place where all true romances start!
Circa Spring 2007
Vanessa and Zac are still dating while filming the Oscar-worthy High School Musical 2 (THEY WERE ROBBED), with a source telling People, “If you didn’t know they were dating, you wouldn’t know they were dating. They’re really good at not being obvious.”
December 16, 2008
Vanessa is spotted petting Zac’s mullet at a Lakers game. Please be advised that you cannot unsee this hair no matter how hard you try. You’ve been warned.
February 26, 2009
A tabloid runs a false report that Zac and Vanessa are engaged, with a “source” saying, “Zac is relieved to be out of the pressure cooker, because Vanessa’s mother has been putting serious heat on him to make an honest woman out of her daughter. She is old-school and doesn’t approve of Vanessa living with Zac without some type of wedding promise. Gina already considers Zac a part of the family. So she’s happy that he proposed.”
June 6, 2010
Zac and Vanessa pucker up on the Kiss Cam at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. Please note, they broke up just months after this:
December 13, 2010
Vanessa and Zac break up, with a source telling People, “They are one hundred percent still good friends.” Details on why they split remain murky, but in 2015, Vanessa told the New York Times, “I went through a phase when I was really mean because I was so fed up. Girls were running after him, and I was giving them death stares. Then I realized that’s not what that’s about. ‘Spread the love, be a good person, they support you, be nice.’”
January 8, 2011
Vanessa and Zac are spotted kissing despite their recent breakup, with a source telling People, “Zac sat between her legs and she wrapped her arms around him. They were making out on and off for the last hour or so until closing. They acted like there was no one else in the room.”
February 10, 2011
Vanessa tells Details, “We’re still friends. Who knows what the future will bring. We’re figuring things out.”
Yeah, turns out the future brought them being broken up for good, because Zanessa was fully done. (For now. 😈)
September 19, 2011
People reports that Vanessa and Austin Butler are dating after they’re spotted kissing, although their reps decline to comment. Now seems like a good time to watch Zac’s angry dance:
April 30, 2014
The Hollywood Reporter publishes an interview with Zac and updates the world that he and Vanessa no longer speak.
March 22, 2017
Vanessa confirms that she and Zac completely lost touch after their breakup, saying,
“Oh, yeah, no, that’s not a thing that happens. No, I completely lost contact with him.”
April 22, 2019
Vanessa dishes on her relationship with Zac, saying, “It started off really organically. I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time....It was this massive phenomenon and [all] eyes were on me. And it’s just a really weird foreign thing to go through, and by being in a relationship, it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well.”
January 14, 2020
Austin and Vanessa break up, and the internet immediately pivots back to Zanessa, which brings us up to date. Now, it’s just a matter of hoping, praying, and sustaining ourselves with fanfic.
