The whole story. Amanza Smith set the record straight about what’s really going on between her and Zac Efron.
“I’m not dating Zac Efron,” the Selling Sunset star, 45, told E! News on Saturday, March 26. “I saw him for two seconds, we did a photo and the next thing you know, we were together. I never made a statement.”
In December 2021, the reality star and the High School Musical alum, 34, made headlines when they were spotted hanging out in Las Vegas while they were in town for UFC 269. The twosome were photographed in a group shot with Tarek El Moussa and Smith’s costars Heather Rae Young and Mary Fitzgerald.
Fans immediately began speculating that Smith and Efron may have made a romantic connection in Sin City, but TMZ reported at the time that they met through Bruce Buffer, a UFC announcer who’s also close with El Moussa, 40.
Though the Netflix personality isn’t dating the Neighbors actor, she joked that she didn’t mind being linked to such an eligible bachelor. “There are worse people that I could have been paired with,” she told E! News.
In November 2020, Smith’s boss, Jason Oppenheim, hinted that she had a “new boyfriend” she was keeping out of the spotlight. “I do [know who it is], but I’m not going to say,” the Oppenheim Group cofounder, 44, told Express in November 2020. “I’ll let them handle that.”
Smith didn’t react to her boss’ claims, but on Saturday, she said that she generally prefers to keep her personal life to herself. “That’s the one thing in my life that I like to keep private,” she explained. “Other than my dating life, I’m a pretty open book.”
The real estate agent is in the midst of a custody battle with her ex-husband, Ralph Brown. The duo share daughter Noah and son Braker. In September 2021, Smith was granted “sole legal and physical custody” of her children after her ex, 43, went missing. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Brown could have “no visitation” with the kids until he provided updated personal information, including a new contact address.
“Maybe had I known what was going to happen, I probably wouldn’t have signed up to do a reality show,” Smith said during a December 2021 appearance on the Today show, adding that Brown disappeared one month after she started filming Selling Sunset. “But I mean, everything happens for a reason. I’m glad that I did, because I’ve heard a lot of other people say I’m relatable, which makes me feel sad other people can relate to the situation. Unfortunately, it happens a lot more than we’d like to admit, and you can still be a badass mom while going through it.”
Efron, for his part, was last linked to Vanessa Valladares. The duo split in April 2021 after 10 months of dating.
