Her new normal. Vanessa Hudgens opened up about how her life has changed since she got engaged to Cole Tucker.
“It feels amazing. It’s so funny, I was talking about this with Cole. People are always like, ‘Does it feel different? [Do] things feel different [getting engaged]?’ That was always my question normally, but now I get to be asked it,” the Disney Channel alum, 34, told Today‘s Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Friday, April 14.
Hudgens continued: “And you know what, it actually does. There’s a sense of security. You feel so safe. It’s the best thing ever. I love being a fiancée.”
The actress, who announced the exciting news in February, said she knew almost immediately that Tucker, 26, was The One. “After our first weekend together, I called my sister and was like, ‘I think I just found my future husband,'” she recalled.
Hudgens and Tucker sparked romance rumors when they were spotted holding hands in November 2020, less than one year after her split from Austin Butler. The Powerless alum candidly discussed what she was looking for in a partner after dating Butler, 31, for nearly a decade.
“Your girl’s open. I feel like at the end of the day, it’s just about having similar fundamentals and wanting the same things,” she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “I am not picky, really. I know what I want and I’m like, if someone comes into the picture and can give me all those things, then great. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the public eye or not. If anything, I prefer them not to be, but we’ll see.”
After making their relationship Instagram official in February 2021, the athlete discussed his commitment to the High School Musical star.
“I got a girlfriend and she’s cool. She’s awesome, I love her,” he told reporters at an MLB training event that same month. “But I don’t want it to be, ‘Oh, Cole’s dating Vanessa … ’ I don’t want it to be treated any differently than Mitch [Keller] having his wife down, or Ke’Bryan [Hayes] having his girlfriend come down. She’s great. She’ll be around. You will see her, but you saw the headline, it is what it is.”
The Princess Switch star later gushed about her growing connection with Tucker, telling ET in April 2021, “He’s just kind of perfect for me. I am [happy]. I really am. I think that it’s also so important to stay grateful for everything that you have in life. I’ve been making that a priority, and I feel like it’s just been making magic happen all the more.”
Hudgens previously dated Zac Efron from 2006 to 2010. The Gigi performer later moved on with Butler in 2011, and nine years later, Us Weekly confirmed the duo had called it quits.
