Earlier this month, photos depicting Zendaya and Tom Holland’s wedding just about broke the internet. Images of the celebrity power couple standing at the altar, popping champagne, and posing with a Spider-Man mask quickly racked up more than 10 million likes on Instagram. The only catch? They weren’t real.
The collection of AI-generated images, first shared in a since-deleted Instagram post from AI creator Juan Regueira Rodríguez, went so viral that they reached Zendaya herself, as the Emmy-winning actress revealed in a new interview.
On the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Zendaya discussed her upcoming film The Drama, which centers on her character’s wedding. That led host Jimmy Kimmel to bring up the online speculation that Zendaya and her long-term partner Holland have privately gotten married, including the glut of AI-generated images of her potential wedding, like those from Rodriguez’s viral post.
“Many people have been fooled by them,” Zendaya said of the images. “I was just out and about in real life, and people were like, ‘Oh my god, your wedding photos are gorgeous.’ And I was like, ‘Babe, they’re AI. They’re not real.’”
When Kimmel asked if anyone in Zendaya’s personal life was also fooled “and mad that they weren’t invited,” she said, “Yes, many people.”
The images’ believability, even to those who know Zendaya and Holland personally, speaks to the growing difficulty of distinguishing real and AI-generated content online.
A recent study found that humans are only successful at identifying AI-generated media 51.2% of the time, and when it comes to AI-generated images specifically, that stat is even lower, at just 49.4%.
That means posts like Rodríguez’s are merely a coin toss away from being taken as fact by viewers on social media.
Meanwhile, users across the internet are decrying the images as a violation of Zendaya’s privacy. “The secondhand embarrassment I feel knowing Zendaya has seen those ai-generated wedding photos…” one user wrote.
Amid all the speculation, Zendaya still hasn’t confirmed or denied if she’s married to Holland, though her stylist Law Roach did say, “The wedding has already happened. You missed it,” on the red carpet at The Actor Awards earlier this month. Of course, Zendaya’s relationship status is no one’s business but her own—and if she ever does share photos from her wedding, odds are they won’t include a Spider-Man mask.