Bella Thorne Admits She Wasn’t Initially ‘Friends’ With Zendaya Because They Were ‘Pitted Against’ Each Other

Bella Thorne opened up about her relationship with Zendaya during the first season of ‘Shake It Up,’ revealing they had to ‘deal with’ a lot as Disney stars.

Bella Thorne got real about the pressures of being young girl and a rising star on Disney Channel in a new interview. The 23-year-old actress confessed how difficult it was for her and former co-star Zendaya to maintain a close bond during the first season of Shake It Up, revealing there were a lot of pressures the girls faced. “We had to deal with that so much on Shake It Up,” Bella told Us Weekly, referencing the constant comparisons made between the two stars.

“It’s like we said [in] a couple interviews when we were younger, how we explained how in the first season we weren’t friends and it took us those other two seasons of becoming so close,” she said. “[It was hard] not having someone pitted against you [before] and then all of a sudden, now everyone is pitting you against each other. That fed into our heads. It made us not [be] friends in that first season.” Fortunately, Zendaya and Bella were able to handle the pressures of fame and formed an incredibly close friendship.

Bella revealed that the stars shared a “beautiful talk in the middle of a sound stage” while they were filming an episode of another Disney Channel series, Good Luck Charlie. “We were really able to put our cards out on the table and understanding each other,” Bella told the outlet. Bella even realized that, despite the stress and pressure of fame, she and Zendaya were “so young and so mature at such a young age.”

More than seven years after the series concluded, Bella has become a huge admirer of everything her former co-star, 24, has achieved. “Zendaya’s amazing. I f**king love her,” she shared. “She’s always been amazing and she’s always going to be amazing. I’m just happy that people see that. She’s getting the recognition she deserves. That just makes me so happy. I feel like when people put us against each other, it’s just like…‘Why are you doing this? Is it just because we’re women?’”

Zendaya and Bella starred on Shake It Up as dancing duo Rocky Blue and CeCe Jones from November 2010 until the series finale in November 2013. Since that time, the two women have achieved a whole new level of fame. Bella is a total social media sensation, balancing her eclectic acting work and personal pursuits. Zendaya earned her first Emmy award in 2020 for her brilliant work on Euphoria and garnered rave reviews for her performance in the Netflix film Malcolm & Marie. We love seeing women supporting women, and Bella and Zendaya’s relationship is so refreshing to watch unfold!