Are Zendaya and Bella Thorne Still Close Friends?

Zendaya and Bella Thorne are two of the most famous celebrities in Hollywood today, and they have Disney Channel to thank for that.

The two rose to fame in the early 2010s for their roles as CeCe and Rocky on the hit show Shake It Up. Not only did they gain lasting careers starring on the series, they also established a special friendship that carried on long after the show’s ending.

Now that it’s been a few years since they’ve acted together, many want to know, are Zendaya and Thorne still close?

Zendaya and Thorne didn’t become best friends right away

Over the years, Disney Channel has shown many of us what ideal friendships look like.

From Wizards of Waverly Place‘s Alex and Harper to Boy Meets World‘s Cory and Shawn, fans have found themselves modeling many of their own relationships after these characters and still do so today.

But one on-screen friendship that was especially unique was the one between CeCe Jones and Rocky Blue on Disney’s Shake It Up.

The series followed these two friends as they lived out their dreams of being professional dancers on a local tv show, “Shake It Up, Chicago!”

While many consider this friendship to be ideal in every way, it wasn’t long before fans started labeling Zendaya and Thorne’s real-life friendship as picture perfect.

Just like their characters, Zendaya and Thorne had a close bond that remained solid during their time on the show.

While it wouldn’t have been a stretch to assume these two hit it off the second they met, it turns out that they didn’t establish their close friendship until much later.

In 2017, Thorne revealed to J-14 that she was “forced” to compete with her co-star during the early days of Shake It Up. With both of them falling under pressure to be better than than other, Zendaya and Thorne weren’t able to bond right off the bat.

“Zendaya and I were put in a very unfortunate position where we were kind of forced to compete against each other [during Shake It Up], which made the whole first season of the show just very awkward for us,” she shared. “We wanted to love each other, but yet we were constantly being put against each other. It was, ‘Who’s better at this?’ and ‘Who’s better at that?'”

After months of keeping their distance from one another, both realized they no longer wanted be in competition and decided to give friendship a try.

Thorne continued, “And then second season we kind of just had this tell-all talk where we started crying and really just put everything out there on the table, and that’s when we became best friends.”

Their friendship lasted long after their show ended

After becoming best friends, Zendaya and Thorne maintained their close bond throughout the remainder of Shake It Up‘s three season run.

Once the series’ ended in 2013, the two kept their close relationship going, even though they both moved on to bigger and better things in their careers.

“We text each other all the time, and we’re always sending photos back and forth,” Thorne admitted in 2015.

While it remains unclear how often the actresses text nowadays —Zendaya has been a little busy being a massive powerhouse while Thorne has been landing role after role — they frequently show their love and support for each other on social media.

Back in June 2019, Zendaya lended some encouraging words to her BFF after The DUFF actress found herself embroiled in a nude photo controversy.

In order to retaliate against an alleged hacker who threatened to make some of her most intimate moments public, Thorne decided to share nudes of herself online.

While many were sympathetic toward her situation, Whoopi Goldberg slammed the actress for taking the photos in the first place.

After calling out Goldberg’s “sick” response in a series of teary videos, many of Thorne’s celebrity pals sent heartfelt messages her way, including the Euphoria actress.

In the comments under her post, Zendaya wrote that Thorne’s tearful reaction “f***ing broke my heart” and went on to tell her friend that she is “strong and courageous and beautiful inside and out.” 

From that alone, it is clear that Zendaya and Thorne will always have each other’s backs, no matter how many years pass.