BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 24: Vanessa Hudgens attends the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 24, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/VF19/Getty Images for VF)

Thirty-year-old actress Vanessa Hudgens has opened up about her four-year relationship with Zac Efron, saying she was grateful to have dated her High School Musical co-star. The couple met on the set of teen film and together, they navigated their way through new-found fame.

“It started off really organically,” Hudgens told the Awards Chatter podcast. “I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time… [High School Musical] was this massive phenomenon and [all] eyes were on me. And it’s just a really weird foreign thing to go through, and by being in a relationship, it kind of kept me stabilised and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well.”

Hudgens did talk about the complications of dating a co-star. When things weren’t going so well in the relationship, the couple still had to film together. “I remember one time we did have a fight and it was while we were at rehearsals, and I remember Kenny Ortega coming around the corner with the most concerned look on his face like, ‘Oh no, is our movie going to fall apart right?’” remembers Hudgens. “I pride myself on being a professional, so I was like that aside we are going to move forward and do what we need to do…and we sorted it all out. I think because I was so young, I think that relationship stabilised me.”

WESTWOOD, CA – JULY 20: Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron arrive at the World Premiere of “Charlie St. Cloud” at the Regency Village Theatre on July 20, 2010 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)

According to reports, the pair split in 2010 because the relationship ran its course. Hudgens is currently with 27-year-old Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star Austin Butler. They have been together for six years.

Efron is reportedly involved with Danish Olympic swimmer Sarah Bro. The actor will star in the Netflix original Ted Bundy biopic, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile, in May.