Is Austin Butler Erasing His Relationship With Vanessa Hudgens From History?

Austin Butler seems to be blurring the lines about his relationship with Vanessa Hudgens. He is calling her a friend, but we all know it was way more.

The Elvis actor dated Hudgens for damn near nine years so when he referred to her as “friend” in a recent interview, many people were confused af. The actor entered the Golden Globe roundtable with Hollywood Reporter after his win and epic speech to speak about landing the role and the positivity his “friend” instilled in him.

“The month before I heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making the [“Elvis”] movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend,” he recalled. “And there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio, and I was singing along, and my friend looked over at me and goes, ‘You’ve gotta play Elvis!'”

He called the idea a “longshot” at the time but, “a couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano,” he paused to say that he “never really sang for any of [his] friends.” He continued on with the story. “That same friend was there, and I was playing the piano,” he recalls. “She said, ‘I’m serious — you gotta figure out how you can get the rights to a script …'”

Soon after the conversation took place, Austin received a call from his agent and described it as “the hairs just stood up on my arms.” Austin wasn’t candid about who this manifesting friend was but Vanessa Hudgens, his ex-girlfriend, shared a similar story back in 2019 on Live with Kelly and Ryan.

The actress was c-hosting the show in place of Kelly that day and the Hollywood Reporter had just dropped the news that he would be playing the iconic singer. Vanessa gushed out her man and said she was so proud of him.

“It’s so crazy because last December, we were driving along and listening to Christmas music and an Elvis Presley Christmas song came on and he had just dyed his hair dark,” she recalls animated.

“I was looking at him and he was singing along and I was like, ‘babe, you need to play Elvis like I don’t know how but I’m serious you need to play him.” She goes on to tell it just as Austin did about playing the piano and all that jazz. Except, she placed herself in the moment.

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The singer-turned-actor is no longer with Hudgens, he moved on to nepo baby Kaia Gerber who was seen making out with him after his win on Tuesday night. Maybe Austin didn’t want to offend Kaia by speaking about his ex, publicly but to deny that she had more of a role than a friend is freaking bizarre.

There is photographic evidence of you two together. There is also video evidence that predates your version of the story, how did you think this would go anyway then how it’s going now? Austin is being called out on TikTok for referring to Hudgens as a friend.

“Her name is Vanessa,” one fan reminded him. “I absolutely love him. Think he did an amazing job in this movie, but I absolutely hate that. He referred to her as a friend,” noted another.

It’s not gonna kill you to say her name Austin.