Birthday bae! Maddie Ziegler‘s boyfriend, Eddie Benjamin, sent the Dance Moms alum well wishes for her milestone 18th birthday on Wednesday, September 30. “Happy birthday, beautiful,” Eddie, also 18, wrote over an Instagram Story photo of the dancer smiling while standing underneath a covered walkway made of blue balloons.
On September 19, Maddie shared a photo with the Australian singer for the first time since August. “He’s alive,” the Pittsburgh native captioned the sweet snapshot of herself and her boyfriend looking sharp and leaning against a black car. Maddie gazed at the musician adoringly in the photo.
The Lifetime star and the “Speechless” singer started dating in late 2019 and made their relationship Instagram official in March just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the pair faced backlash for a photo Maddie posted of the couple cuddling in bed in which Eddie was shirtless.
“This pic looks a little inappropriate,” one follower wrote on the photo. Maddie’s mom, Melissa Gisoni, defended her daughter’s boyfriend against the Instagram user at the time. “He has his shirt off for god’s sake! He’s a boy!” she wrote before leaving her own comment, “Such a beautiful picture!” It seems the former TV mama approves of her eldest daughter’s beau.
The teen couple quarantined together throughout the first few months of social distancing in Los Angeles and were regular fixtures on each other’s social media pages. They also fostered an adorable puppy together, whom Maddie later adopted and named Boots. “It’s the best thing that me and my family did,” she gushed about bringing the dog into her family in April. “He’s kept me feeling safe and so comforted.”
It’s clear Maddie and Eddie are incredibly supportive of one another, both personally and professionally. In May, Eddie told Sia he cried while watching his girlfriend star in an unreleased film written and directed by the “Elastic Heart” singer.
“I did [cry]. Very rare for me,” he said during their discussion for Interview magazine. “When I watch a movie and I don’t get emotional, I’m like, ‘Can I feel emotion?’ Seriously, I need a good hit. It was beautiful. The process sounded incredible. It seems like everything is thought out, nothing’s rushed.”
It seems Maddie is going to have one loved-up birthday with her boo!