Love is in the air! High School Musical alum Vanessa Hudgens went public with new boyfriend Cole Tucker on Sunday, February 14. Talk about ringing in Valentine’s Day right.
“It’s you, it’s me, it’s us,” the 32-year-old captioned an Instagram photo of herself and her new man kissing. She also tagged the Pittsburgh Pirates player, 24, in the adorable post.
Vanessa Hudgens
Prior to the California native’s relationship with the MLB star, she dated Austin Butler for over nine years. The pair met on the set of High School Musical in 2005 but didn’t spark romance rumors until September 2011. They made their red carpet debut as a couple five months later in February 2012. Vanessa and Austin split — which came as a complete shock to fans — in January 2020.
One week after the longtime loves’ split, the Spring Breakers star was spotted having lunch with NBA star Kyle Kuzma, which immediately sparked dating rumors. “Vanessa’s become extremely close to Kyle and they’ve already been on a string of dates, but friends are questioning whether she’s using him to make Austin jealous,” an insider exclusively told Life & Style at the time.
The A-lister hadn’t “fully gotten over her ex” at that point, the source noted, adding that the Princess Switch star’s feelings for her ex would not “disappear overnight.”
For his part, Kyle, 25, quickly moved on with model Winnie Harlow. The pair started quarantining together in April 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and have been going strong ever since.
In November 2020, Vanessa revealed she was enjoying a date night with a mystery man. In a cute photograph posted to her Instagram Stories, the singer looked seductively at the camera from behind a big pink rose. However, she did not identify the person she was dining with.
Vanessa’s best known relationship was with fellow High School Musical alum Zac Efron. They started dating after meeting while shooting the Disney movie in 2005. “We created a bond right from the start,” she told People of her connection with Zac, 33, while filming. “We were like, ‘We’re doing this, it’s us or nothing.'”
They went public with their relationship a year later. The on-screen loves were together in real life until December 2010.