Taking a dip into the Disney dating pool. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas and plenty of other iconic ‘00s couples first found love with a little help from the Mouse.
“I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time,” Hudgens revealed of her romance with her High School Musical costar Efron on the “Always Chatter” podcast in 2019. “It was this massive phenomenon and [all] eyes were on me. And it’s just a really weird foreign thing to go through, and by being in a relationship, it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well.”
The HSM stars — who portrayed love interests Troy and Gabriella throughout all three films — dated from 2006 to 2010 after initially meeting during auditions for the first movie in the franchise.
“He was adorable. I mean, he wasn’t the guy that he is today. Like, he had a gap in his teeth,” the Princess Switch star recalled of her first audition with the 17 Again actor in a June 2010 interview with Glamour. “[He’s] just grown-up [now]. He doesn’t have his gap anymore. I look at him, and I see a man. I think that we inspire each other. [I love] having someone to grow with.”
Several years before Zanessa (and the Jonas Brothers) took over the Disney fandom with their respective romances, there was Disney Channel icon Hilary Duff — and her relationship with Aaron Carter.
The “Aaron’s Party” rapper, who portrayed himself in a holiday episode of the first season of Lizzie McGuire, began dating the “So Yesterday” singer in 2000. The two dated on and off for three years before ultimately calling it quits in 2003. (During one of his and Duff’s splits, Carter told CNBC in 2005, he dated Lindsay Lohan.)
“I started dating Hilary [Duff] on my 13th birthday,” the “Florida” native told the outlet at the time. “I was dating her for like a year-and-a-half and then I just got a little bored so I went and I started getting to know Lindsay, dating Lindsay.”
After Carter’s death in November 2022, Duff paid tribute to her ex and the time they spent together.
“For Aaron — I’m deeply sorry that life was so hard for you and that you had to struggle in-front of the whole world,” the How I Met Your Father star wrote via Instagram several days after the “That’s How I Beat Shaq” artist’s passing. “You had a charm that was absolutely effervescent … boy did my teenage self love you deeply. Sending love to your family at this time. Rest easy 
.”
Keep scrolling to see the most iconic Disney Channel couples of all time:
Efron and Hudgens’ on and offscreen romance reached such a fever pitch among High School Musical fans that they quickly developed a ship name: “Zanessa.” The costars, who dated for four years between 2006 and 2010, have since looked back at their relationship with fondness. Though Efron keeps the details close to the vest, he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that Hudgens was “a really interesting, sweet person." Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock
The “Wrecking Ball” singer and “Chains” artist dated from 2006 to 2007 in an intense romance fans still refer to as “Niley.” Cyrus sang about the anger she felt toward Nick on her 2008 hit “7 Things,” which the New Jersey native confirmed 10 years later was about him. “She does wear a dog tag that I gave her when I was 14 [in the “7 Things” music video,” he told BBC Radio 1 in 2018. “I was actually kind of flattered to be honest because it’s there forever and I know it’s about me.” Nick, for his part, wrote a fan-favorite Jonas Brothers track expressing his heartache after Cyrus got engaged to Liam Hemsworth in 2012. INFphoto/INSTAR
Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas Despite the former couple’s iconic status in the Disney fandom, the two only dated for four months in 2010 after originally meeting on the set of 2008’s Camp Rock. The “Substance” singer, for her part, recalled the moment she fell for Jonas while watching behind-the-scenes footage of the DCOM in her 2017 documentary, Simply Complicated. “This moment I freakin’ fell in love with him,” Lovato told her friend in the film. “In real life.” Jonas, for his part, spoke about his close bond with the Sonny With a Chance alum in an interview with Teen Vogue soon after their 2010 split. “When I met Demi, I knew right away that our friendship was really strong," he said. "I don't want to lose that ever." Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
After his split from Cyrus, Nick wooed another Disney star: Gomez, whom he dated in 2008 — the same time his brother Joe was in a relationship with Taylor Swift. Ten years later, the Only Murders in the Building star proved she had a sense of humor about their past romance, giving the “Jealous” singer a hard time about a spoiled date in Central Park. “We were very private about our relationship. And she was unhappy that her Central Park experience was ruined by the fact that I walked about 20 feet away from her,” Nick explained on BBC Radio 1’s "Breakfast Show" after host Nick Grimshaw played a clip of Gomez joking about the ruined date. “Even though they were taking pictures of us and obviously we were there together it was like, ‘It would be better if we stand about 25 feet apart.’” Shutterstock (2)
While Disney Channel fans remember Carter’s famous “Merry Christmas, Lizzie McGuire,” line from the season 1 holiday episode, Duff recalled other moments with her ex while paying tribute to him in a post following his November 2022 death. “You had a charm that was absolutely effervescent … boy did my teenage self love you deeply,” the How I Met Your Father star wrote. “Sending love to your family at this time. Rest easy ♥️.” Peter Brooker/Shutterstock
Thorne — who was then most well-known for her turn in Disney Channel’s Shake It Up — began dating Sulkin in 2015, two years after the sitcom ended. Sulkin, for his part, also had a Disney background with roles in Avalon High and on Wizards of Waverly Place. “Well, technically we met through the Disney circle. He was on Wizards of Waverly Place and I was just starting my first show Shake It Up,” Thorne exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “We're gonna see how it goes over the next few months. We've always been pretty close.” The couple’s romance was not meant to be, however, and they called it quits the following year. Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock
Though the Liv and Maddie costars’ romance started off sweet in 2013, it quickly went south after the two called off their engagement three years later. McCartan publicly accused Cameron of cheating on him, while the Shameless star, for her part, appeared to shade her ex in a post about “toxic” people at the time. Broadimage/Shutterstock
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