If 2020’s Covid lockdown came with a silver lining, it’s that many found time to nurture important relationships. Just ask Spiderman star Tom Holland, whose budding romance with actress Nadia Parkes moved at lightning speed over the last year.
Tom Holland’s girlfriend may not be as recognizable as his alleged former flame Zendaya, but she has a respectable career of her own. Get the details on who she is and how her relationship with the English actor came to be.
Tom Holland And Nadia Parkes’ Relationship Went Public In May 2020
News of Tom Holland’s romance with Nadia Parkes went public in May 2020 via the Daily Mail. According to multiple sources, the pair was casually dating for three months before they decided to make it official and shack up.
“They made the decision to isolate together and things have been going great between them,” revealed one insider. “Tom has told friends and family they’re in an official relationship and living together so soon into their romance has only made them stronger.”
It seems their London abode is a packed house. Holland and Parkes share the space with the actor’s brother Harry and friend Harrison Osterfield.
Holland’s own confirmation of the relationship came in the form of a caption-less Instagram post on May 23, 2020. It earned almost 6 million likes:
But the couple went closer to being Instagram official that August, when both posted pics of one another playing golf. It marked the first time that Parkes published a photo of Holland on her account.
What took so long for the two to make things public? It turns out Holland prefers to keep a low profile when it comes to his love life. He was previously linked to his Spiderman co-star Zendaya, but it took a legion of stans and internet sleuths to figure out their status. (Neither ever confirmed it and stuck to the cliche that they were “just friends.”)
After what appeared to be a split, he dated his childhood friend Olivia Bolton. However, the relationship only lasted about nine months. According to a source who spoke with the Daily Mail, “Tom and Olivia remain very close but decided recently it was best for them to be just friends rather than a couple.
“It was all very amicable and they both think it is for the best,” added the unnamed tipster.
Even if Holland and Parkes haven’t gone on the record about the relationship, signs suggest that it’s certainly more than a fling. Holland described himself as “definitely a relationship person” in a 2019 interview with Elle.
“I’m not the fleeting type at all; it’s not my way of life,” he told the magazine.
Nadia Parkes Is A London-Based Actress
Parkes, 25, is an English actress. After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 2018, she got her first TV role in the Stars miniseries The Spanish Princess. She also appeared on an episode of the BBC series Doctor Who.
According to her IMDb page, Parks also has two projects in post-production: a British TV comedy called Starstruck, and a dramatic miniseries titled Domina.
Parkes said that when she got the part in The Spanish Princess, she called her agent to confirm that it wasn’t a joke. “You dream of that,” she said in a 2019 interview with HeyUGuys. “You go to drama school to think you’re going to do that, and it actually happened for me very quickly. It was just absolutely amazing.”
But she seems to show the persistence required to make it in the business. In a 2019 interview with the podcast What They Don’t Tell You About, she told host Grace McGovern, “It’s so difficult not to take the rejection as personally. [But] what you have to think is that these casting directors are in a sweet shop of amazing actors. So if you’re in the room and you’re being called in, you’re already good enough for the role.
“They’re choosing between all the best sweets,” she continued. “I say this as if I believe it, but every time I manage to make it personal and think, ‘I’m not good enough. Why am I doing this?’ But you do have to remind yourself that they are in an abundance of talent and so you are good enough.”
Holland And Parkes Were Apparently Introduced By Sophie Turner
So how did Holland meet the up-and-coming actress? Thank actress Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones. According to the Daily Mail, Turner and her husband Joe Jonas introduced the two during their engagement celebration.
Parkes is more than a casual friend of Turner. Back in June 2019, she was included in Turner’s hen do (the English term for a bachelorette weekend) in Benidorm, Spain.
When ET reported on the getaway, they noted that neither Turner nor her GoT co-star (and maid of honor) Maisie Williams posted pics of the trip. But the outlet did manage to get screen grabs from other attendees’ social media accounts. One group pic posted on Parkes’ Instagram stories was simply captioned “Gang.”
Perhaps in the future, we’ll see Turner doing the same for her gal pal. The question is, will it be for a marriage to Holland?