What Zac Efron's Exes Have Said About Him

It's been impossible for Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens to avoid discussing their relationship, and it's something the romantic leads of Disney's popular "High School Musical" franchise will likely be asked about for years to come. A decade after their split, another lucky lady lived out a Disney Channel Original Movie brought to life by dating Efron. Australian native Vanessa Valladares was working at the Byron Bay General Store & Cafe when she caught the actor's eye, according to Us Weekly. As a non-celeb, Valladares didn't have to dread a future of being interrogated about Efron during interviews for the rest of her days when their whirlwind romance ended after 10 months.

During the time period between the two Vanessas, Efron was romantically linked to a number of other women. But in 2022, "The Iron Claw" star told Men's Health that he wasn't prioritizing finding a partner. "I've really been taking time to focus on, you know, self-fulfillment and trying to find my groove," he said. "I know that probably when I meet the right person, it's going to be when I least expect it."

It's rare for Efron to talk about his love life, but a few of his exes have shared their opinions about him over the years.

It's Zac Efron's first love who has painted the clearest picture of what her relationship with him was like. "Right off the bat, we had a connection. I think everybody could see it. When we had our audition, they paired us together. And he was adorable," Vanessa Hudgens told Glamour in 2010. "I mean, he wasn't the guy that he is today. Like, he had a gap in his teeth."

Hudgens and Efron bonded over their extraordinary shared circumstances; it's not everyone who catapults to fame as a teen and grows up in front of a camera. But fame also presents unique challenges for couples to overcome. In an interview with The New York Times, Hudgens confessed that she struggled with her boyfriend being a huge heartthrob with loads of obsessed fans. "I went through a phase when I was really mean because I was so fed up," she revealed. "Girls were running after him, and I was giving them death stares."

While Hudgens was able to get over her jealousy, she and Efron broke up six months after she shared Zanessa's origin story with Glamour. She later told Shape that their time apart was a factor in their split; sadly, they couldn't stay together in Disney's musical version of high school forever. "When you don't have face-to-face time, it's just different. Having an iPhone helped, but it just wasn't the same," she said. However, Efron's next rumored romance was with another busy young celeb.

When Us Weekly reported that Zac Efron and "Emily in Paris" star Lily Collins had called it quits after three months of dating in 2012, a source told the magazine that the actors' hectic schedules were a contributing factor in the split. Insiders also said that their romance had been casual to begin with, and apparently their breakup was amicable. They would go on co-star in the 2019 movie "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile," which is anything but romantic; Efron plays real-life serial killer Ted Bundy in the biopic. The actors didn't address the old reports that they were once a couple while doing an interview with Glamour to promote the movie, but Collins revealed that they had been friends since their first meeting at a Nickelodeon event when she was 18 years old. She also showered her co-star with some gushing praise. "We all grow up, we all change. But he's still that passionate, funny, goofy, fun-loving person," she said, adding, "He treats everyone with a real level of respect."

Efron also divulged a tasty tidbit about something Collins has in common with the woman who is now pouring some sugar on Travis Kelce. "You and Taylor Swift are probably the only people I know where you go into the house, there's something cooking," he said to his co-star. According to Efron, his ideal partner is someone who possesses the ability to bake cookies like Collins and Swift can.

After Zac Efron's rumored relationship with Lily Collins was downgraded to a friendship, he was spotted getting cozy with his "Neighbors" costar Halston Sage and "The Fast and the Furious" actor Michelle Rodriguez. He then fell in love with one of the few women who has been willing to kiss and tell about her romance with him. According to Elle, Efron's friends introduced him to model Sami Miró, and the pair started dating in 2014. They became serious enough that Miró got a one-year anniversary shoutout from Efron on Instagram in 2015, but she told Elle that she was purposely holding back when it came to posting about her famous boyfriend on social media. "I'm not trying to hide anything in my life. If I was dating someone who wasn't in the limelight, I might have more photos on [Instagram] of our relationship," she said.

Miró explained that she decided to alter her social media habits for Efron's benefit after trying to see the situation from his perspective. "Then it kind of makes sense," she said of Efron's apparent desire for privacy. "It kind of just comes with the territory, and I know there's no really changing that, so you have to just embrace it." A month after Miró spoke to Elle about Efron, the couple called it quits. A source told E! News that Efron did the dumping and divulged that the pair's romantic feelings had simply fizzled out.

Zac Efron was filming the "Baywatch" movie when he and Sami Miró broke up, and it wasn't long before he was hit with waves of rumors that he was dating one of his costars, "The White Lotus" actor Alexandra Daddario. When Australia's Daily Telegraph asked the pair about the romance rumors in 2017, Daddario playfully motioned at Efron and quipped, "This is a lot for me to handle." She later told People that she and Efron were just "very good friends."

Efron was linked to another woman who has spent a lot of time in the water in 2019: Olympic swimmer Sarah Bro. The Danish athlete didn't mention Efron's name while talking about a failed relationship on the podcast "112 for Broken Hearts" in 2021, but OK! suggested that he was likely the American actor whose behavior she found deeply unsettling. "He shouted a lot when he got angry and it made me really scared and I wanted to avoid that," said Bro.

According to Bro, the way she got dumped was brutal. She had been unable to reach Efron while she was in Denmark, so she made a special trip to the U.S. to speak to him. "He opens the door and says, 'What are you doing?'" Bro recalled. After she expressed bewilderment at this question, Efron purportedly said to her, "Yes, I told you not to come back." According to Bro, that was the last time they spoke. (Yikes!)