Tom Holland is opening up about how much Zendaya means to him.

During Holland’s recent appearance on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty Podcast, the Spider-Man actor, 27, described his romance with Zendaya, 26, as “the thing I keep most sacred.”

“I don’t talk about it. I try my best to keep it as private as possible, we both feel very strongly that that is the healthiest way to move on as a couple,” Holland said of his relationship, shortly after he described his desire to “focus on what makes me happy” outside of his work in Hollywood.

Holland and Dune star Zendaya have been connected since they were first cast in Marvel Studios’ most recent Spider-Man movies, starting with 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Though the pair emphasized that they were merely good friends for years, the pair were spotted kissing in a car in 2021 and shortly thereafter made their relationship Instagram official.

Holland recently said he feels “lucky that I have someone like Zendaya in my life” as he appeared on a recent episode of the SmartLess podcast.

“It’s interesting being in a romantic relationship with someone that is in the same boat as you,” he said of Zendaya, who also stars in the hit HBO series Euphoria, on the podcast. “You can share your experiences and all that sort of stuff — and that’s worth its weight in gold.”

In a video interview with UNILAD released in June, Holland remembered how he once impressed Zendaya early in their relationship.

“I fixed my girlfriend’s door once really early on in our relationship. I was hanging out at her house and her door was broken,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna fix that door for you.’ And now we’re in love.”

Holland and Zendaya’s relationship places them in the footsteps of past Spider-Man series leads; Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire dated while they filmed the 2000s Spider-Man trilogy, while Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield were also romantically entangled during their time filming the two Amazing Spider-Man movies.

Elsewhere in Holland’s appearance on Shetty’s podcast, the actor described his decision to give up drinking and his his changing views on the entertainment industry.

“I really am a massive fan of making movies but I really do not like Hollywood,” he said. “It is not for me. The business really scares me. I understand I am a part of that business and I enjoy my kind of interactions with it, but that being said, I am always looking for ways to remove myself from it, to kind of just live as normal a life as possible.”