Zendaya Jokes About Not Understanding Boyfriend Tom Holland’s British Sayings

On Sunday, in an interview with The Sun, Zendaya admitted that even after seven years of friendship with her Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland, she still sometimes does’t understand his U.K. slang phrases.

“I love the ­British accent, but as much as Tom tries to explain it to me, I will never understand rhyming slang,” she joked. “Like I understand the concept — but what do apples and pears have to do with stairs? It’s cute when he tells me all the different phrases — but I really don’t get it!”

The couple have been traveling a lot the last few weeks, visiting Holland’s hometown of London, then heading to India and then back to the U.K. Holland bought a mansion in property in Richmond, South West London, last year, and the pair have been spending time in the six bedroom £ 3million house.

“He is really good in the kitchen, which is fortunate as I am really accident-prone,” Zendaya said of their adventures together. “We learnt early on that only one of us could be in the kitchen at a time, we are both control freaks so we can’t be in there together.”

She then started talking about social media and the pressure to look picture perfect on Instagram in particular.

“I think we should be embracing ourselves,” said the Euphoria star. “I have been Photoshopped and I called it out because it creates these unrealistic expectations of beauty and what we as women should look like… I try to encourage young women to be real and to accept themselves for how they are. And if I am going to preach that, I have to try to live that.”

She added, “We have this pressure as young women to look perfect, to have perfect careers, and while we all want to be successful we have to be kind to ourselves.”

Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.