Dropping clues? Vanessa Hudgens “liked” Lakers player Kyle Kuzma‘s Instagram photo on January 22, just one day after the two were spotted out to dinner together at Lilia restaurant in Brooklyn. In addition, the former Disney kid is one of just 116 people that the athlete is following — and she follows him back. Could this mean that their relationship will turn romantic? Their social media behavior points to it definitely being a possibility! This is the first guy Vanessa has been romantically linked to since news broke about her split from her boyfriend of nine years, Austin Butler, on January 14.
The Los Angeles basketball team has been in the Big Apple and the 31-year-old, who is known to be a huge fan, has been cheering them on. “Never a game at the garden always a show!!! Nothing like the Mecca and we got the dub. Great to get back in that other column,” the 24-year-old athlete captioned a photo of himself shooting free throw during the late hours of January 22. Vanessa quickly gave it a thumbs up.
They both started following each other on Instagram earlier this month, and the Grease Live actress has even left a few cute comments on his feed. On January 18, Kyle shared a cool snapshot of himself during a game and added the caption, “Yeaaaa, we like thattttt.” Vanessa quipped back, “Ya, we doooo.”
Prior to that, on January 14, the High School Musical actress posted a video while in the crowd at a game. “Ugh, @lakers. My heroes,” she wrote and tagged LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kyle.
Time will tell what blossoms in Vanessa’s dating life, but it seems as though she and Austin, 28, are done for good. The pair simply realized they “wanted different things in life,” according to a source from In Touch. “It made them reassess the relationship. Vanessa was only 22 and Austin was only 19 when they started dating — they’ve both changed so much over the years.”
Although the exes still “care for each other,” they eventually realized that “they were staying in the relationship out of habit. That’s why they decided to call it a day,” the insider added.
Cheers to a new chapter!