During my senior year of college, I dated a boy who was tall, dark-haired, and smoked a lot of weed. (If I’d had a checklist, those would have been the boxes on it at the time.)

We talked easily, about everything from medieval art to music, and I found his lanky limbs and soulful eyes very appealing. But despite how much we enjoyed each other’s company, both in bed and out of it, I didn’t, fundamentally, feel anything. If he’d told me he never wanted to speak to me again, I wouldn’t have cared, except that I’d have needed to get my weed from someone else.

That’s when I came up with the theory of the third thing.

The premise is that there are three things that make you fall for someone. The first is a physical connection. The second is an intellectual connection. And then there’s the third thing… whatever mysterious ingredient makes you imagine a future together. My friends and I spent hours sitting on the floor of my dorm room, listening to Matchbox 20 and drinking diet Snapple with vodka, trying to unravel what the third thing could be.

I was a good student. I was naturally shy and awkward, but I was also used to thinking things through and figuring them out. In middle school, I’d analysed my classmates’ social interactions, realising that when someone told a story about themselves, you were supposed to respond with a story on a similar topic.

In high school, I’d made a checklist of all the things I needed to do to be cool (start reading Seventeen magazine, stop walking around with a book in front of my face, keep gum in my backpack and offer it to my classmates after lunch).

In college, I’d turned my attention to boys. It was easy to kiss them on sticky bar dance floors and meet them for coffee dates at the student centre. But I wanted to fall in love, and I wasn’t sure how to do it. If I could figure out the third thing, then I’d know the formula. I’d know how to find someone who I was really excited about.

I dated regularly throughout my 20s, but nothing lasted. Then, following another breakup, I found myself spending a lot of time on the phone with my friend Dan. We’d dated briefly when we first met years before on study abroad. He was awkwardly, gawkily handsome, and was one of the smartest people I’d ever met, dropping references to Byzantine emperors into casual conversation. However, at that time, there just wasn’t that third thing.

Then, suddenly, eight years later, there was. I wasn’t sure what had changed. I still didn’t know what the third thing was, but something was different, even if I couldn’t identify it. For years we’d just been friends – albeit friends who drunkenly made out occasionally when we ended up in his car together late at night. And now we were spending all our time thinking about each other. How had this happened? And what were we going to do about it?

As it turned out, we were going to get married. Three years later, we found ourselves holding hands and saying vows in a historic library in Providence. We ate cupcakes, drank prosecco, and spent the night dancing with our friends and family among the stacks. It was the happiest day of my life; I’d found a smart, handsome man whom I loved, and who loved me. We had chemistry; we could spend hours talking, and most importantly, we had the third thing. I felt like I’d gotten exactly what I wanted.

Except that after 10 years of marriage, it wasn’t what I wanted anymore. Dan’s brooding moroseness, which I’d found appealing, had begun to seem whiny. My quest for self-improvement, which he’d found admirable, had begun to seem exhausting. It had started to drive me crazy that he sang to himself. It had started to drive him crazy that I left the cupboard doors open. These were things that we’d lived with for years. They hadn’t been a problem. And now, suddenly, they were, and I wasn’t sure why.

There were other, bigger issues. We were politically divided. We wanted to spend our time in very different ways. My marriage didn’t end just because we no longer had the third thing. But that was part of it. We were still attracted to each other. We still talked about everything as easily as we always had. But we no longer had that ineffable thing that made us feel romantic about each other.

We tried. We left our son with his grandparents over the 4th of July weekend, went to a local brewery for IPAs and pepperoni pizza, shared a joint and had sex in front of a mirror. We sat side by side, feeling miles away from each other, and watched fireworks explode into distant sparks of light. We went to two different couples’ therapists. They gave us worksheets. We did the worksheets. We still didn’t love each other anymore.

The hardest thing about the end of the marriage wasn’t the loss of the present. At the time, we were sleeping on separate floors of our old suburban house, trying not to touch when we passed each other in the stairway. But in my imagined future, we were going to be one of those elderly couples who travelled around the country in an RV, who went to see independent films and had season tickets to the local symphony. We were going to sit side by side at our son’s graduation, and when he crossed the stage, unimaginably tall but still wild-haired and bright-eyed, we were going to squeeze each other’s hands.

Instead, I was single and dating again in my 40s. From everything I knew about ageing while female, I figured that dating at that age would be some kind of barren wasteland. Instead, I discovered that the apps had come along and made it easy. I could go on a date with someone new every night if I wanted, and for a while I did. I was doing things I thought I’d never do again, like kissing strangers at the entrance to the subway. And for the first time, I was dating women, which was something I’d always wondered about. When I was younger, I’d gone from one man to another, and suddenly I wondered if maybe the reason I’d had trouble figuring out the third thing was that I didn’t want to be with a man. Maybe my newfound queerness held the answer I’d been seeking.

I started dating a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, tattoos and a sweet smile. We sent each other passages from books, we talked about theatre, we spent hours making out. Still, despite how much we enjoyed each other’s company, both in bed and out of it, there was no third thing. We were mutually unserious, and after a few months things came to an end.

I think someday I’d like to fall in love again, but I’m also terrified because I’m finally coming to understand that there isn’t a formula. I’m realising that the third thing is different at different times, or for different people. That it’s something that can appear out of nowhere… and can disappear, too. That sometimes love just goes away, and if I find it again, it might go away again, no matter how hard I try not to let that happen.

I’ve finally figured out that I might never figure it out. If the third thing comes my way again, it’s just going to be because I’m lucky. I can’t control whether I find it; I can only control whether I’m brave enough to say yes to it. I don’t know whether I will be.

For now, I write, I teach and I worry about the world, and I watch my son use Magna-Tiles to build rainbow castles reaching up towards the sky. Sometimes I swipe right on strangers, and meet them for hikes or cups of coffee. I walk my dog around the neighbourhood in the spring and watch the crabapples bursting into improbable, extravagant bloom. The flowers drift down from the trees as I walk underneath them. I reach out my hands to catch them, and I end up empty-handed, but later, when I get home, I find myself picking delicate pink petals out of my hair.

Lia Romeo is a playwright, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, as well as regionally and internationally, and her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other national publications. She is currently at work on a screenplay.

Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@huffpost.com.

People are lonelier than ever – that’s hardly breaking news. Everyone has a theory about why. Social media usually gets the blame; streaming platforms like Netflix are often part of the conversation; and, increasingly, AI is making the list.

In 2023, the U.S. surgeon general warned that the country was facing a “loneliness epidemic.” The diagnosis was clear. But what if we’ve been looking at the problem the wrong way?

Maybe loneliness isn’t about how many friends we have. On paper, many of us have larger social circles than previous generations, whether that’s hundreds of Facebook friends or a busy group chat alongside real-life relationships. We’ve come a long way from the days of small, close-knit communities where everyone knew your business before lunch.

The real issue may not be the size of our networks but the depth of our connections.

That idea is backed by decades of research. The landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies ever conducted on human happiness, found that the strongest predictor of a happy, meaningful life isn’t wealth, success or even physical health. It’s the quality of our relationships.

And that’s where many of us are struggling. We’re surrounded by people, yet starved of genuine connection. We call this the “Friendship Depth Gap,” and it may be one of the biggest reasons so many of us feel lonely.

Many people have plenty of friends, active group chats and a steady stream of social interaction, yet still feel strangely disconnected, unseen or unfulfilled. A term gaining traction on social media – the “Friendship Depth Gap” – puts a name to that feeling. The idea is simple: We’re surrounded by connection, but lacking genuine emotional intimacy.

Elisabeth Crain, psychotherapist and author of The Friendship Lab, has become one of the leading voices behind the concept.

“The research shows that we aren’t actually lacking friends. In fact, we have plenty of friends,” Crain said. “The issue is the level of closeness we have with our friends … the depth, or lack thereof, in these relationships. There’s a fear of vulnerability holding people back from becoming more intimate or close with their friends.”

In other words, most of us don’t need more names in our contacts list, we need to spend more meaningful time with the people already in it.

And there we have the frustrating paradox of modern friendship. We’re more connected than ever, yet many of us don’t have someone we’d instinctively call in a crisis. Our social circles may be wide, but too often they lack the depth that turns acquaintances into lifelong pals.

“I have a big group of friends, but I feel lonely a lot of the time,” said Maya S., 26, who asked to withhold her last name for privacy to talk about her relationships. “I don’t feel like my friends really know what’s going on in my life or care enough.”

For Charlie F., 29, the issue is around the quality of hangouts: “I feel like we’ve fallen into catch-up culture. I see a friend, we talk for an hour over dinner, bringing each other up to speed, then we don’t meet up again for a month, and repeat. It doesn’t feel like we get the chance to dig deep, as we’re so busy updating on dating and job stuff.”

Crain believes the “Friendship Depth Gap” is, in some ways, an inevitable consequence of adulthood.

“I think one big factor is that the barrier to entry into friendship increases throughout our lives,” Crain said. “For example, when we’re in grade school, we are somewhat forced into friend groups or social situations. This continues into college, where we are again in a pool of people we don’t always get to choose.”

She continued, “But throughout our lives, that pool gets smaller and smaller, and we do get to choose who we surround ourselves with. However, our ability to make friends becomes harder because of factors like a busy career, family or children or proximity (e.g., people move away). The irony is that making friends is not less important later in life. In some ways, it may be even more important because so many seismic things happen, such as grief, loss, divorce, career changes and raising families, and it’s important to have real, supportive friends along for the ride.”

If friendship has always required effort, why does the gap feel bigger than ever now?

One reason may be that we’ve started optimising friendship the same way we optimise so many other parts of our lives: for convenience. We’re wearing smartwatches, listening to podcasts on double speed and rushing our friendships.

Once again, optimising is taking another good thing from us.

Even if Crain is right that the “Friendship Depth Gap” is a natural part of getting older, that doesn’t mean we’re powerless against it. Just as we can take steps to protect our physical health as we age, we can also be intentional about protecting and deepening our relationships.

Building deeper friendships doesn’t necessarily require a dramatic life overhaul. It doesn’t have to be a full-time job. It can start with small changes: replacing the surface-level catch-up with a more meaningful conversation, asking questions you wouldn’t normally ask or creating space to talk without distractions.

Activities like question-based games such as “We’re Not Really Strangers” can help break down some of the barriers that keep conversations on the surface. And while shared activities, from watching sports to taking an exercise class, can be a great starting point for connection, the moments before and after, when people are simply talking and being present, are often where intimacy grows.

Crain also emphasises that deep friendships require continuing to make new connections. Over time, some friendships naturally fade. People move away, priorities change, and the closeness that once felt effortless can become harder to maintain. New friendships will likely initially feel more superficial, but depth is something that can be built with the right foundation in place.

“One of the most important things to consider when making new friends is taking calculated risks,” Crain said. “By that I mean trying people on for size, vetting them, seeing if you get along with them, and connecting with them in the early phases of friendship. If you want to deepen the friendship, you must open up, share intimate parts of yourself and let people get to know you.”

She continued, “Ultimately, the only way to deepen friendships is by allowing ourselves to be seen and known. By allowing others to see and know us, we can also see and know them. The ability to be vulnerable, however scary or daunting it may be, helps deepen our friendships. When we share, someone else gets to share about themselves, which helps us create meaning in the relationship.”

Closing the “Friendship Depth Gap” doesn’t require more friends. It requires more honesty, staying present and the willingness to let the people already in our lives truly know us. A scary thought.

Did you know that Wi-Fi kind of means nothing?

I’d always assumed that because hi-fi stands for high fidelity, Wi-Fi was short for wireless fidelity. Nope: Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who led its name selection, said that “Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning.”

Huh. So what about USB, the connection ports used for everything from chargers to keyboards and printers?

Unlike Wi-Fi, USB is actually short for something: Universal Serial Bus. Its first known use was in 1995.

Until 1996, computers had “one or two serial ports, a parallel port, mouse and keyboard ports, and, in some cases, a joystick port,” Britannica said.

USBs solved that problem, providing a standard way to transfer information faster between devices.

But, like me, you’re wondering what buses have to do with the port, let’s break down each word:

• Universal – that means it fits a range of devices, as we just mentioned. It’s “built to a universally accepted standard,” so all USB products have to follow exact specifications, Erik Gross, co-founder of The Tech Academy, explained on YouTube.
• Bus – you’ll see why I put this before “serial” in a minute. In tech, a “bus” transmits information within a computer and/or over short distances (which allows, for example, a USB mouse to work); it’s usually a wire or collection of wires.
• Serial – During this transfer, Gross said, you can “either send the pieces data along one wire”, which happens when bits of information drip through the channel, one after the other. Or, you can spread that information across many wires, which each carry pieces of information in the order of the entire transmission, not one-by-one. A serial transfer therefore travels down one wire “one bit at a time in a sequential fashion,” reads What Every Engineer Should Know About Data Communications. The other type, with multiple wires, is called “parallel” transmission.

Therefore, a universal serial bus (USB) is a standard port that transmits information to or from your computer to or from another device, and which only requires a single wire to do so.

For something “universal”, there are a few types of physical USB connections: USB-A, USB-B, USB-C, Micro-USB, and Mini-USBs.

USB-C is the type you might use for your charger. They’ve become more popular than the larger USB-As (the rectangular computer one that only works when you put the port in the right way).

Wired suggests this is partly because they’re smaller and can be more powerful than USB-A because of how their hardware works. They also can’t be plugged in “upside down”; their design is reversible.

Still, USB-C (and all other USB types) are standardised according to their category and (of course) transfer information across a single wire. So, they qualify.

If you want to live a longer life, your diet might be more important than you realise. One study found that in the UK, we could expect to enjoy 10 years more life by eating “more whole grains, nuts and fruits and less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats”.

The Mediterranean diet, meanwhile, has been linked to better heart health, a longer life, and even a lower likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.

Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, GP and ex-Embarrassing Bodies host Dr Dawn Harper said that “there is no one single silver bullet that will enhance your chances of living a long and healthy life… when I read claims that a single ‘super food’ will achieve just that, I tend to glaze over”.

She, among other experts, believes that your overall eating pattern is what matters. The odd inclusion of one food or another will neither save nor condemn your health (unless you have allergies, of course!).

With that caveat, some research has found that certain foods can encourage healthy ageing, while others could increase issues related to getting older.

Here are some to consider when thinking about your overall diet:

2013 research, which followed roughly 120,000 participants over 30 years, found that the more often people in the study ate nuts, the lower their risk of early death seemed to be.

Eating them daily was linked to a 20% lower likelihood of dying throughout the study.

Regular nut consumption has also been associated with longer telomeres (a marker of slower ageing), a lower risk of sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, and better cognition in older adults.

It sounds obvious, but yep, fruits and vegetables do seem to help us live longer. A 2014 meta-analysis showed that a higher consumption of fresh produce is linked to a lower risk of mortality, especially heart-disease-related deaths.

Eating vegetables could help to slow the effects of ageing thanks to bioactive compounds that help to keep your cells healthy, while older adults who eat more fruit and veg report higher levels of happiness and a greater sense of purpose.

The reason these fruits have such a rich, deep colour is because they contain lycopene, a carotene. Our levels of lycopene go down as we age, which is a shame, as researchers think not having enough of it could be linked to an increased likelihood of conditions like diabetes, stroke, and prostate cancer.

Here in the UK and in other Western countries, tomatoes account for about 80% of our lycopene consumption. BTW, tinned tomatoes have a higher lycopene content than fresh ones: tomato paste has even higher levels.

Extra-virgin olive oil has been associated with the “preservation of physical function and reduced pain perception in ageing” among physically active adults, a 2026 paper concluded.

Researchers think that might be because of its “healthy” monounsaturated fatty acids, potentially brain-boosting polyphenols, and antioxidants.

Some data suggest that eating oily fish is linked to better cognitive function in later life.

And it could help your sight, too: research shows that eating fatty fish, like mackerel, pilchards, salmon, sardines, and herring might protect against age-related macular degeneration, a progressive condition that can lead to vision loss.

The British Heart Foundation recommends eating at least one portion (140g when cooked) of oily fish a week.

It’s not great to overdo it on the sweet stuff at any age. But when we age, too much sugar appears to be linked to an increased risk of frailty – especially among older adults who get a lot of their added sugars through processed foods, a 2018 paper suggests.

Meanwhile, a 2024 study found that a vitamin-rich diet lower in sugar seemed to be associated with a lower biological age (biological age refers to a person’s cell-level wear and tear and is different from how long they’ve lived, or their chronological age).

Its co-senior author, Professor Elissa Epel, said: “We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor.

“Now we know that accelerated epigenetic ageing is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.”

A study has found that eating processed meats, like sausages, bacon, ham, salami, corned beef, and pâté, seemed to be linked to shorter telomeres.

Telomeres are structures that humans have at the ends of our chromosomes and which keep our cells working better for longer; shorter telomeres are linked to a shorter life.

And another paper said that for every extra daily serving of processed meat, participants’ cognitive ageing speed rose by 1.6 years.

The NHS said that no matter your age, “If you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red or processed meat a day, it is recommended that you cut down to 70g”.

We already know exercise is crucial for health – and can be protective against everything from heart disease and stroke, to dementia and even some types of cancer.

The NHS suggests adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week (or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week). Ideally, spread over four to five days.

Two of these days should focus on strengthening activities, the health service added.

And a new study has suggested as little as four minutes of daily strengthening exercise can dramatically improve quality of life for older adults.

Routine length and pain are just some of the reasons why fewer older adults regularly exercise, the authors of the study – published in PLOS One – noted.

Co-author Smita Dandekar, associate professor of paediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine, said exercise is “complicated” as you have to decide how many repetitions, how far, how many sets, how much rest and how many times per week.

“It’s hard work, so there’s huge problems with people wanting to do exercise. If we can make it short, we’re part way there,” she said.

Previously, the team had conducted a study where 24 older adults performed 30 seconds of push-ups and squats daily, resulting in improved squat performance over six months.

For the new study, they tested the effects of a program, called FAST-2, to see if it improved mobility and physical capability in over-65s.

A total of 97 participants (average age of 74) were randomly assigned to receive either the exercise regimen treatment or no intervention.

FAST-2 involved four exercises:

Participants performed each movement for 30 seconds followed by a 30-second rest. Written explanations and modifications were provided for the exercises, such as performing pushups with hands on a countertop or wall, or chair stands with hands on the knees.

As participants improved, they were encouraged to progress to higher levels of difficulty.

Researchers assessed the participants’ ability and speed at standing up and ability to stand on one leg at the beginning, middle and end of the study.

The authors found that this exercise regimen, which included only 60 seconds of lower body resistance training, was enough to give significant improvements in functional performance over 12 weeks.

Lead author Christopher Sciamanna, professor of medicine and of public health at Penn State College of Medicine, said: “The human body is designed to improve very quickly. And just a few repetitions of an exercise performed regularly can lead to huge improvements.”

Over the last few years, Tom Holland has become one of the most beloved stars in Hollywood.

With two movies currently in cinemas that are heading towards billion-dollar status – The Odyssey and Spider-Man: A Brand New Day – audiences clearly can’t get enough of the British actor.

But it’s not just his acting work that the world has fallen in love with.

Since shooting to fame as a Marvel superhero, Tom has created multiple viral moments, whether he meant it or not, while his upbeat positivity and apparent total lack of cynicism have helped him stand out from many of his peers.

Here are just some of the moments that cemented his place as one of the most popular stars around today…

Tom’s acting career got started when he was still a child, and at the age of 12, he was cast in the West End production of Billy Elliot. He initially played Michael, Billy’s best friend, before taking on the title role.

In an unearthed clip from his West End days, a very, very young looking Tom talks about his experience auditioning for the show.

“I used to go to a street dance club,” the tiny Tom recalls. “And we did a show in White Lodge, the ballet school… and the headmaster, he spotted me. He was like ‘we want you to audition for Billy Elliot’, and I was like ‘Ah, fair do’s’… okay I’ll go for it.”

In the old interview, he talks about how “strict” his training was, claiming: “We can’t muck and just do stupid stuff on the floor because we have to be safe because you’re doing flips and dangerous stuff.”

Another childhood interview of Tom Holland came back to haunt him back in 2021, when promoting Spider-Man: No Way Home with his future wife Zendaya.

In the resurfaced clip, a young Tom was heard starting to sing, unprompted, mid-interview.

“I can’t really explain it, I haven’t got the words… it’s a feeling that you can’t control,” he belted out, seemingly from nowhere.

Zendaya has called the moment a favourite of hers, even recreating it during press for the Marvel film.

Since the clip was unearthed, it has gone on to become a popular meme, with fans and interviewers often trying to shoe-horn “I just can’t explain it,” into their exchanges with the actor.

Nowadays, Tom and Zendaya are known as one of the most private and low-key romances in Hollywood, but a decade ago, the now-couple were often seen going head-to-head in online challenges on social media.

Tom, Zendaya and choreographer Deja Carter went viral in the summer of 2016 for doing an online dance known as the Typo Challenge.

It’s rare to see such candid footage of the couple in 2026, so we love seeing them hanging out in their sweatpants. The clip was apparently filmed in Zendaya’s basement during the early days of their romance.

Judging by these moves, we just know their first dance was a moment.

Tom found a pretty resourceful way to get around the egg shortage during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the height of lockdown, Tom was as panicked as the rest of us when his local shop ran out of eggs. Instead of getting annoyed, the Marvel star and his brothers decided to take matters into their own hands, and bring home some chickens, so they would never run out of eggs.

He adopted a set of chickens, named Predator, Ranger and Chestnut, whom he raised in his garden.

“There’s no eggs; we have no eggs. So we thought to solve that problem, we would become the source of eggs. Now, we’re the owner of chickens,” he said in an Instagram video at the time.

Tom has repeatedly become an accidental meme over the years, but in April 2020 he intentionally joined in on a viral trend.

He got involved with a social media challenge during lockdown where he did a handstand against a wall while also trying to put on a T-shirt. Impressive though the move, most people were more distracted by how ripped the young actor looked while doing it.

He had been nominated by fellow Billy Elliot alum Ollie Gardner to attempt the trick, before calling on his Spider-Man: Far From Home co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and his school friend Harrison Osterfield to try it out themselves.

Jake was the first to respond, writing on his own Instagram story: “Wait, what’s the challenge??? Shirtless heavy breathing??”

The Oscar-nominated actor proceeded to do the handstand trick, although Ryan was less motivated, simply replying “no” on his own Instagram.

Being one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood with a huge career doesn’t stop Tom and his co-star Jacob Batalon from being big kids.

In June 2018, in honour of Tom’s 22nd birthday, Zendaya shared footage of the two Spider-Man stars having a lightsaber battle.

Filmed in a dark room that made their blue and red lightsabers pop even more, Tom got a bit overexcited during their mock duel, trying to use his Spidey skills to spin and kick his co-star, only to wind up breaking Jacob’s lightsaber completely.

“You idiot,” Zendaya could be heard saying from behind the camera.

Tom is a fantastic actor, a talented dancer and seems like a genuinely nice guy. Is there anything he can’t do? Well, apparently so – and that’s keeping a secret.

In fact, Tom is notorious for accidentally spoiling his films while promoting them, almost giving away huge plot points to some of the biggest movies of the last decade before any of us have had a chance to see them.

One of the earliest instances of Tom’s loose lips came during a livestream promoting Spider-Man: Homecoming, in which he told the audience about a scene where he had to be repeatedly dumped in water.

While this was only a minor spoiler, it went viral due to Tom’s panicked expression in the immediate aftermath.

Years later, his most notorious spoiler came when promoting Avengers: Infinity War.

Tom told Jimmy Kimmel that he had filmed scenes in space, letting slip a major plot point about his character – and there was even worse to come.

During a screening of that Avengers film, he didn’t realise that he would greeting audiences before the movie, rather than afterwards.

“Don’t worry everybody, I’m still alive!” he said, presuming the audience had just watched him fade away with Thanos’ snap.

Even as recently as this year, when promoting Spider-Man: A Brand New Day, he let slip that “no one remembers that I’m Spider-Man apart from one” during an interview with IGN – although thankfully, Zendaya cut him off before he was able to do any more damage and give away the whole film’s plot.

Tom had his The Notebook moment after attending a carpentry school in Cardiff.

When he hit a low in his acting career following 2015’s In The Heart Of The Sea, his mother enrolled him on the course so he could have a skill to fall back on if Hollywood didn’t work out.

“I went through a phase in my career where I was too old to play a child but too young to play a teenager,” he explained to Jimmy Kimmel during an appearance on his chat show.

“My mum’s side of the family are all carpenters, so my granddad taught me when I was young.”

This skill even helped him impress Zendaya in the early days of their relationship.

“I fixed my girlfriend’s door once really early on in our relationship,” Tom said in Unilad’s Get A Job! video series in 2023. “I was hanging out at her house and her door was broken. I was like, ‘I’m gonna fix that door for you’. And now, we’re in love!”

We don’t just love Tom because of his quirky online videos and childhood interviews – he also won us all over with his caring and charitable nature.

In 2016, when filming Spider-Man: Homecoming, he took time to visit a children’s hospital in Atlanta. The then-20-year-old hung out with young patients at Egleston Hospital dressed as Spider-Man.

Afterwards, he took to Instagram to share photos of the visit, writing: “Meeting you all today was such a wonderful experience and you’re all such little inspirations. We’re proud of you and we love and we hope to be back soon… and thank you for having us, Egleston Children’s hospital.”

He also runs The Brothers Trust, a charity founded by his parents in 2017. They leverage Tom’s star power and popularity to raise awareness for various global health, social and educational causes.

Tom and Anthony Mackie have shared a light-hearted rivalry since promoting Captain America: Civil War a decade ago.

It all started when Peter Parker easily took on Anthony’s character Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier in the film. Tom would frequently joke about his 14-year-old character going toe-to-toe, and beating, older and more experienced superheroes.

Anthony (and, sometimes, Sebastian) would frequently joke back about the young star needing “juiceboxes” and “handlers” to look after him on-set.

During a Comic-Con interview in 2018, Anthony claimed he had never even seen Spider-Man: Homecoming, to which Tom joked: “I haven’t seen the Falcon one – oh no wait, there isn’t one! I’m sorry.”

Anthony has repeatedly insisted that the banter is all done in good faith, proving that Tom can take a joke and throw shade when he wants to.

“Tom Holland is my friend. That’s why I make fun of him. I love the kid. He’s a great, great kid. He’s the best Spider-Man we’ve had – but he’s an arrogant little shit. And I stress: little,” he quipped to Wired in 2019.

Another meme-worthy moment from the British actor came in 2017 when he tried to say the word croissant.

While discussing breaking his strict diet after filming In the Heart Of The Sea, Tom pronounced the French pastry as “quackson”, a moment his fans clung to and turned into a meme.

Ever since, Tom has brought up this mispronunciation multiple times, admitting his frustration because he believed he had said it correctly.

Zendaya even called him out for the mispronunciation, telling him “you do say it with a qua,” during a Wired autocomplete interview.

“Short King” Tom and Zendaya joked during a 2021 appearance on The Graham Norton Show about how her taller stature helped her catch him when a Spider-Man: No Way Home stunt went wrong.

“Spider-Man swings us on top of a bridge and he places me there. … So he’s supposed to gently rest MJ on the bridge and walk away from her,” the Euphoria actor explained.

But according to Zendaya, the two were attached together for the stunt, and because of her height, she would land before him.

“So Zendaya would land. And I’m the superhero, I’m supposed to look cool. And I would land and my feet would swing from underneath me and then she would catch me,” he explained. The two then stood up to demonstrate how the landing played out during filming.

Tom is about two inches shorter than Zendaya, although with her love of So Kate stilettoes it can often look like more of a stark difference.

During press appearances, Tom and Zendaya have even dismissed the public focus on their height difference as “thinly veiled misogyny” and “ridiculous” stereotyping, including during one 2021 SiriusXM interview.

We love how much Tom Holland loves dogs, and fell head over heels with his blue Bull Terrier named Tess, who even accompanied him to the premiere of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Recently, he and Zendaya have also welcomed Noon, a Miniature Schnauzer and Daphne, a Doberman Pinscher, into their lives.

This affection for dogs is especially on show during BuzzFeed’s puppy interview series.

He loves his dogs so much that when he’s away from home, they are the things he misses the most.

Dominic Holland, Tom’s dad, noted on his personal Substack that after the Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiere, Zendaya and Tom couldn’t stop talking about their furry family members.

“The main topic of conversation was not Spider-Man…But their dogs; how much they had missed them and how keen they were to be reunited,” he recalled about the car ride home after the premiere.

Who of us hasn’t tried to slide into a celeb’s DMs at one point or another? Well, clearly Tom Holland is no different.

The Uncharted actor was left “humbled” when he sent Norwegian footballer, Erling Haaland a message, inviting him for dinner and got no response.

Tom saw the Manchester City forward in a hospitality suite at a Formula 1 race, and decided to slip him a message.

“[There was] not even a response, not an excuse, not ’I’m busy tonight, I’m playing football. Nada,” he told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on The Tonight Show.

However, after The Tonight Show shared the clip, the footballer finally responded.

“Dinner invitation accepted @tomholland2013,” Haaland commented on the post. “A little late… Just name the place!”

Meanwhile, the sports star previously told his version of the story on the Norwegian version of The Assembly.

“This is a bit embarrassing, to be completely honest,” he said. “We were in Monaco at the Formula 1, and then I got a message. I don’t watch movies much, so I have no idea who people are.

“There was one asking if we could go out for dinner, but I’d never seen him, so I didn’t bother to answer. I didn’t want to answer an unknown person.”

Many stars have claimed they got sick after appearing on Hot Ones with Sean Evans – but Tom Holland is the only one to actually do it on camera.

In a recent appearance with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey co-star Jon Bernthal, Tom threw up after eating the show’s signature fiery chicken wings.

Tom had struggled throughout the show with the spicy food, but after they finished eating the wings of death, he couldn’t take it any more.

Standing up after the challenge to pose for a photo with the host, the actor started coughing before bending over and throwing up.

The MCU star took it in his stride, immediately laughing the incident off.

When Sean noted that it might be the “first on set” vomit, Tom and Jon laughed once more.

“I love being the first,” he said.

Earlier in the interview, when Tom started to struggle, he told Sean he “could black out.” Grabbing a glass of milk, the actor added, “It’s amazing how the milk helps and then immediately it comes right back.”

Although less memorable than his recent visit to the set of Hot Ones, we also recommend watching his very first sit-down with Sean Evans. It’s a masterclass in being charming and self-deprecating, while also struggling with very spicy food.

There are quite simply too many adorable and hilarious moments between Tom and his now-wife Zendaya that we couldn’t pick just one.

Audiences have followed the duo as they went from flirty co-stars to a married couple in their 30s, watching Zendaya giggle over Tom’s jokes and Tom gush over Zendaya on the red carpet.

At the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Tom even got distracted when he heard the crowd react to Zendaya’s arrival, and looked just as obsessed with The Drama actor as the rest of the world.

More recently, at the world premiere of The Odyssey, he also took a moment on the red carpet to admire his fashion-forward wife in her white structural dress.

Of course, we had to end this list with the ultimate Tom Holland viral moment.

Back in 2017, Tom and Zendaya went on Lip Sync Battle to promote Spider-Man: Homecoming. At this point, people who weren’t as familiar with Tom thought he was just another young actor, without realising how much experience he already had as a dancer.

Zendaya had already performed to 24k Magic by Bruno Mars when Tom came out and gave one of the most iconic performances in recent years.

He started the performance in a suit, paying homage to Gene Kelly and dancing to Singin’ In The Rain, when the lights dropped, the rain machine kicked in and he ripped off his suit to reveal a leotard, wig and fishnets in an homage to Rihanna.

The rest is pop culture history.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the viral moment in 2023 he explained: “I’ve grown up in the most non-toxic-masculine environment possible. I didn’t realise what I was doing was so forward-thinking. I was just like, ‘Yeah, fuck it, I’ll put some fishnets on and dance in the rain. That’ll be really fun. I don’t care’.” He added that he’s still “proud” of the scene, and claimed during a more recent appearance on Good Hang with Amy Poehler, that he is still more recognised for this routine than “any piece of work I have ever done.”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas now.

For many of us, the return of Strictly Come Dancing each autumn provides some much-needed familiarity and cosy escapism.

But if that’s what keeps you tuning in year after year, it’s worth flagging now that the show is undergoing some big changes ahead of its 2026 incarnation.

While regular hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have already delivered their last “keep dancing”, having stepped down as hosts at the end of last year, bosses are shaking up everything from the show’s presenting team and line-up of pros to other major ways that fans have been enjoying the show for years.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series…

After months of rumours, it was confirmed back in May that outgoing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have been replaced by a new presenting trio at the helm of Strictly in 2026.

TV presenter Emma Willis, Strictly fave Johannes Radebe and comedian Josh Widdicombe are joining forces to front the BBC dance show when it returns to our screens in the autumn.

Although Emma is a total newbie to the Strictly ballroom, she does have plenty of reality TV experience, having previously hosted the likes of Big Brother, The Circle, Love Is Blind UK and The Voice.

Johannes, meanwhile, had been a Strictly pro for eight seasons before making the jump to his new presenting role – having been responsible for some of the show’s most memorable moments in recent history – while Josh previously took part in the Strictly Christmas special back in 2024.

At the time of writing, 12 spots on the Strictly line-up are now accounted for, with the cast announcements having started much earlier than usual way back in June.

Here’s the current line-up as it stands:

• Bethany Antonia (Stay Close and House Of The Dragon actor)
• Cach Mercer (dancer and Love Island winner)
• Chris Appleton (celebrity hairstylist)
• Dani Dyer (TV personality and Love Island winner)
• Delta Goodrem (pop singer)
• Graeme Hall (canine expert known to fans as The Dogfather)
• Jaime Winston (Kidulthood and Babs actor)
• Lacey Turner (EastEnders staple)
• Lawrence Robb (Emmerdale actor)
• Dame Sarah Storey (record-breaking Paralympian)
• Shaun Wright-Phillips (former England player and football pundit)
• Will Best (Big Brother and Hits Radio host)

Which celebrities are rumoured to be in the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 cast?

Currently, there are just three spots remaining on this year’s Strictly line-up, and a host of stars still rumoured to be taking part.

Among the more prolific celebrities who’ve been tipped to have signed up include This Morning host Josie Gibson, reigning Traitors winner Stephen Libby, Gavin & Stacey fave Melanie Walters and Gladiators ref Mark Clattenburg.

Check out our guide to all of this year’s rumoured Strictly stars here.

It was well-documented that there was something of a mass exodus among Strictly’s resident troupe of dancers earlier this year, with Karen Hauer (who had been the show’s longest-serving pro), Gorka Márquez, Nadiya Bychkova, Luba Mushtuk and Michelle Tsiakkas having now all said farewell to the Strictly ballroom before it was confirmed that Johannes would also be shifting to a new presenting role.

In their absence, BBC bosses have confirmed that five new dancers will all be strutting their stuff this year.

• Aleksandra Isaeva (Ukrainian Latin champion)
• Cristian Priori (four-time Italian Latin champion)
• Lethabo Monametsi (South African youth Latin champion)
• Mark Karmalita (two-time Canadian Latin champion)
• Maddie Ingoldsby (British national ballroom dancing champion and eight-time 10-dance world champion)

Get to know the new additions a little better below:

Reacting to the news, Shirley Ballas told Strictly fans: “Get ready everyone, we are in for something very special. I’ve witnessed first-hand these young dancers within my industry and they are some of the very very best.

“We are blessed to have them enter our ballroom. I’m excited.”

Joining them will be returning performers Dianne Buswell, Julian Caillon, Amy Dowden, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Jowita Przystał, Aljaž Škorjanec, Alexis Warr, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Lauren Oakley, Vito Coppola and Strictly’s reigning champion pro, Carlos Gu.

Well, at least that’s one thing that isn’t changing this year.

Once again, the panel will be made up of Craig Revel-Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke.

Following Tess Daly’s exit, Craig is now the only member of the Strictly family to have been in the same role since the show’s inception in 2004 (Anton has also been with the show all that time, but previously served as a pro for 18 series before making a move over to the judging panel).

Back in June, The Sun reported that, in keeping with bosses’ plans to “drastically shake things up” with the upcoming series, the Strictly studio is also being given a make-over.

An undisclosed “insider” told the tabloid: “It’s going to get a more sleek, impressive set, but it will still be all about fun, glitz and sparkles.

“They aren’t trying to turn it into the set of Star Wars. But it would have been strange not to have made some change to the look of the show, given that the programme is starting a new chapter with so many other new elements.”

This remains unclear for the time being, but after more than 20 years on the air, it doesn’t sound like the show will be returning as we know it this year.

Instead, it was suggested that the show would be retooled into a vodcast-style series more in keeping with companion shows for hit BBC reality shows The Traitors and Race Across The World.

Janette Manrara has confirmed she will not be returning to host, with signs indicating that Fleur East is also not back, while The Sun reported recently that former Strictly competitor Ellie Taylor has bagged the presenting role in the show’s era.

A recent BBC announcement read: “The much-loved themed weeks – including Movies, Icons, Halloween and Musicals – plus the Instant Dance challenge will also be back, following its high-energy debut in 2025.

“As well as all this, one of the most iconic milestones of the series, the annual visit to the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom, will once again be a highlight for everyone to look forward to.”

A specific release date is yet to be confirmed, but what we do know is that Strictly’s 24th series will, as usual, premiere in September.

Traditionally, the show begins with a pre-recorded launch show, in which the stars discover who they’ve been partnered with, and take part in a mass group dance with the entire cast.

A week later, the live shows kick off, with the first elimination usually airing the night after the second live show.