Vanessa Hudgens Reminisces About Relationship With Zac Efron

It's been nearly a decade since Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron called it quits after roughly four years of dating, and though they've both gone on to date other people since then, the actress has been reminiscing about her relationship with her High School Musical co-star, and why she feels so "grateful" for their time together.

"It started off really organically," she explained during a recent episode of the Awards Chatter podcast. "I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time."

When they first started dating, both young actors were also navigating their newfound fame after the first film "blew up."

"It was this massive phenomenon and [all] eyes were on me," Hudgens recalled. "And it's just a really weird foreign thing to go through, and by being in a relationship, it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well."

However, their relationship wasn't quite as perfect as their onscreen romance, which made things difficult at times. "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?'" she explained. "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 stabilized me."

The couple ended up filming all three High School Musical films together before eventually breaking up in 2010.