Who has Zac Efron dated? His many relationships, from Vanessa Hudgens to Alexandra Daddario
When Zac Efron’s latest film, Netflix’s A Family Affair, premiered in Los Angeles last month, interviewers took the opportunity to seek his thoughts about some IRL family news. Namely, his former co-stars Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens recently announcing their pregnancies.
“Oh, they’re going to be the best mums ever, those girls. Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh,” gushed Efron. “Yeah, we’re going to have some fun family reunions coming up.”
Efron first shot to superstardom in the High School Musical movies and famously dated Hudgens both on and off screen.
But who else has Efron dated over the years? Read on to find out.
1. Vanessa Hudgens
Efron and Hudgens’ love story began in 2005 during their audition for High School Musical. The lovebirds always got paired up in casting calls, and their chemistry was obvious from the beginning. “I was like, ‘They’re not trying us with other people.’ For some reason we kept sticking around [for callbacks],” Efron said in an interview with Disney in 2007. “I don’t know what it was with Vanessa, but we kind of clicked from the beginning.” The pair were soon dating in real life too.
Although it’s no secret that the lovey-dovey duo were an item, they didn’t go public until the 2007 release of Hudgens’ music video for “Say OK”, starring Efron as her love interest. By 2009, engagement rumours started to circulate – but Hudgens clarified that marriage was not on the cards at that moment. “I’m so focused on my career right now that [getting married and starting a family] doesn’t really cross my mind,” she said in a People interview.
After five years of dating though, the pair called it quits in 2010 due to the lack of face-to-face time in their long-distance relationship, per Marie Claire.
2. Lily Collins
Efron and Emily in Paris actress Lily Collins shared some on-screen chemistry while filming the 2019 Ted Bundy biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The pair also have a real-life romance dating back to 2012.
Speculation about their relationship began when they were spotted holding hands in West Hollywood that year. A fan also posted a photo of the pair holding hands at Disneyland in California in 2013.
Despite their public outings, a source told Glamour that Efron and Collins were never officially a couple and their relationship was “a casual thing”.
3. Halston Sage
In April 2014, news emerged that Efron was dating his co-star Halston Sage from the film Neighbours. A source confirmed to E! News that they were surely “an item”, adding “he’s really good to her”. By July 2014, the pair had broken up.
However, the pair got back together in January 2020, with an insider telling Us Weekly they were “in a serious relationship”. The two have since gone their separate ways – although it is unclear when, considering that the relationship was never made official.
4. Michelle Rodriguez
Fast and Furious actress Michelle Rodriguez had a summer fling with Efron in 2014. They were first seen together on holiday in Sardinia, Italy, engaging in some pretty obvious PDA. A couple of weeks later, Efron was spotted leaving Rodriguez’s home in Venice Beach, California, per British media.
Like most flings though, it didn’t last. A source told E! News that the duo called it quits after only two months of dating, saying, “It was never that serious.”
“He’s very into her though, and perhaps more than she’s into him,” another source told Us Weekly.
5. Sami Miró
Efron and Sami Miró, a model and businesswoman, met through a mutual friend while he was shooting the film We Are Your Friends in 2014. However, E! News reported that the pair had split in April 2016, with Efron being the one to end the relationship. A source told the publication that “the spark had died”.
The break-up appeared less than amicable, with Efron removing all pictures of Miró from his Instagram and unfollowing her. In an interview with Elle in March 2015, Miró discussed the pitfalls of dating someone in the limelight, and emphasised the need to understand the other’s perspective. “I think that’s actually a really big part of it – putting yourself in their shoes, and trying to understand where they’re coming from, and then it kind of make sense,” she said.
6. Alexandra Daddario
After filming the 2017 movie Baywatch, Efron was romantically linked with co-star Alexandra Daddario. A source told People the duo had been seeing each other “on and off since their time working together on the movie”.
However, the duo never confirmed their relationship. “We work together closely; he’s my love interest in the film,” Daddario told E! News at the Baywatch premiere in May 2017. “I understand why people would go crazy over something like that, but Zac and I are very good friends.”
7. Rebecca Ferguson
Dating rumours around Efron and his The Greatest Showman co-star Rebecca Ferguson began swirling in December 2017. At the time, Efron was sharing photos of himself and Ferguson on social media with flirtatious captions …
Captioning a behind-the-scenes photo on Instagram, Efron wrote, “A pic is worth a thousand words. Only ones I can think of now are: WTF were u thinking dude?! Look at her!!”
Later, he shared another photo with Ferguson with a heart-eyes emoji in the caption.
Efron certainly stoked the dating rumours, however, a romantic relationship between the pair was never confirmed.
8. Sarah Bro
In January 2019, when Efron and Olympic swimmer Sarah Bro were first spotted attending fitness classes together, romantic rumours began to fly. These were further fuelled by the pair’s appearance at an MMA fight, UFC 235, in Las Vegas in March 2019. A witness told E! News that the duo was “not too publicly affectionate”.
The duo also posted pictures on their respective Instagrams from a Los Angeles Kings hockey game the day before the UFC fight.
Efron and Bro broke up before Efron got back together with Sage in early 2020. A source told Us Weekly at the time that Efron and Bro’s relationship “just wasn’t working out”, adding, “She came back to LA, and it never got going again.”
9. Vanessa Valladares
Efron met the next Vanessa in his life in June 2020. Model Vanessa Valladares was working at a trendy cafe in Byron Bay, a coastal town in the Australian state of New South Wales known for attracting Hollywood types, when she encountered Efron. A source told Us Weekly that “things moved quickly” between the pair, adding, “Vanessa spends most nights at Zac’s house.”
Efron and Valladares were spotted together through the rest of the year, from going on a ski trip to Thredbo, New South Wales, to celebrating Efron’s 33rd birthday.
But, in April 2021, the couple called it quits. “Zac broke things off with Vanessa recently,” a source told People that month. “It just didn’t feel right to him any more.” Their break-up was also confirmed by Efron’s friend Kyle Sandilands on his radio programme The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
