Just hours after earning an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of legendary musician Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis, Austin Butler gave a shout-out to his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens for helping with the role of a lifetime. During an interview with the LA Times, Austin was asked about a previous statement in which he said he and a friend were singing along to an Elvis song before he had the role. "I was with my partner at the time," Butler clarified.

"And people have been saying you must have been with Vanessa Hudgens. So that’s right?" the Times asked. "That’s right," he replied. "We’d been together for so long and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really, I owe her a lot for believing in me."

Butler and Hudgens dated for nine years before parting ways in early 2020. Before their breakup, Hudgens opened up about what made their relationship so successful at the time. "Communication is key," she told Access Hollywood in August 2018. "It’s so easy to let things get lost in the shuffle or to, kind of, push things down because you don’t think they really bother you. But if anything even remotely bothers you, you gotta talk about it.”

Following his split from Hudgens, the Golden Globe winner began dating model and actress Kaia Gerber and the couple made their public debut in March 2022 after three months of dating. In May, they attended the Met Gala together and Gerber even made a cameo in his photo shoot for VMAN 49's Fall-Winter 2022 issue.