Vanessa Hudgens and her husband Cole Tucker have just welcomed their first baby together - and fans couldn't be happier for the beautiful couple.
The actress, who stunned at last year's MTV Movie and TV Awards, met her baseball-playing boyfriend virtually back in 2020. However, the couple didn't make their relationship public knowledge until much later.
© GettyFind out all there is to know about their relationship in this round-up from HELLO!...
Who is Cole Tucker?
Cole Tucker is a Major League Baseball player who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from his debut in 2019 until mid-2022. Later, he was linked to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Reno Aces, until December 2022, when he signed a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies.
After Cole and Vanessa went public with their relationship in early 2021, Cole requested that despite his girlfriend's A-list status, they were treated just like any other couple.
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© GettyThe outfielder casually replied to CBS reporters asking about his relationship during a Pittsburgh Pirates training session: "[I've] got a girlfriend and she's cool," before continuing: "She's awesome. I love her, but I don't want to be treated any differently than Mitch [Keller] having his wife come down, or Ke'Bryan [Hayes] having his girlfriend come down."
"She'll be around," Cole revealed, and sure enough Vanessa was spotted supporting him at several further spring training sessions.
Prior to her relationship with Cole, Vanessa dated fellow actor Austin Butler. She was also in another high-profile relationship with her High School Musical trilogy co-star Zach Efron throughout the late noughties.
How did they meet?
Vanessa and Cole met on a Zoom-based meditation session in 2020. Speaking to Entertainment Today shortly after announcing that she and Cole were a couple, Vanessa jokingly admitted: "Very random, yes!" before adding: "Zoom – you gotta love it."
© GettyWhile meditation meetings aren't the usual way couples tend to meet up virtually, it obviously worked well for these two. Although, the actress admitted to Drew Barrymore during an appearance on her show in 2021 that without her own enthusiasm for their chemistry, there might never have been a relationship between them.
"I found him, and we started talking," she said, adding: "If I want something or someone, I'm going after them. [So] I fully just slid into his DMs and was like, 'Hey, it was nice to meet you.'
© Getty"I think there is no shame in making the first move," she explained confidently. And we can certainly agree seeing how successful it was!
The couple were first spotted out together in November 2020. Then, on Valentine's Day 2021, Vanessa and Cole went public with their relationship via the actress' Instagram. She posted a photo of the two of them kissing, along with the caption: "It's you. It's me. It's us," before tagging Cole at the end of her message.
© GettyWhen did they get engaged?
The happy couple got engaged in late 2022, but only announced their engagement in February 2023. Following the couple's news breaking online, first on TMZ and then confirmed via People, Vanessa took to Instagram to share a couple of photos taken after their engagement last year.
The singer and actress captioned her post with the simple but proud: "YES. We couldn't be happier," plus a heart emoji.
© InstagramThe photos which Vanessa posted revealed her stunning $250,000 engagement ring in all its glory. They also showed how Cole had chosen the incredibly romantic setting of Paris, the so-called 'City of Love', for his proposal location.
Happily married
The couple tied the knot in December 2023, in a decadent ceremony in Tulum, Mexico. The ceremony took place in the heart of the Mayan jungle, according to Vogue who covered the wedding. Vanessa looked gorgeous in a slinky 90s' supermodel style wedding dress. Vanessa said of the wedding: "I felt like I was transported to some kind of utopia, unlike anything I had ever been to before. It was whimsical and magical, and I just fell in love."
Pregnancy
© GettyVanessa surprised fans when she appeared on the Oscars red carpet with a sizeable baby bump and that classic pregnancy glow, sending fans wild with joy.
She would later confess that she hoped her kids would be able to watch her films and enjoy them, telling E! News: "I wanted to make sure that when I did have kids, there would be something for them to watch at every age."
Baby news
Cole and Vanessa welcomed their new baby just hours after the baseball star celebrated his own 28th birthday. The couple have yet to reveal the name and the gender of their baby, although they were spotted leaving Santa Monica Hospital, with Vanessa in a wheelchair.
