Everything Vanessa Hudgens and Austin Butler Have Said About Long Distance
Vanessa Hudgens and Austin Butler have broken up after more than eight years together, but in recent years, much of their time was spent apart.
Since first getting together in 2011, the pair have been busy working on various projects around the globe.
Hudgens, 31, has starred in a number of Netflix Christmas movies recently, shooting The Princess Switch: Switched Again in the U.K. in November 2019.
Meanwhile, 28-year-old Butler — who will star as Elvis Presley in an untitled biopic that is currently in pre-production — has also filmed in other countries, including New Zealand to shoot MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles in 2017.
At the time, Hudgens told PEOPLE that the two were “very long-distance.”
“Just communication, communication is key,” Hudgens cited as the tool they used make dating across an ocean work. Just a week prior, she had shared a post with Butler on Instagram captioned, “Missing this guy. #mcm #longdistancesucks.”
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“I think that if anything’s bothering you, don’t hold it in,” she added. “Always bring it up and just talk about it. Un-censor yourself and just be open.”
In an interview with Access the following year, Hudgens reiterated the point that the secret to their long-standing relationship was “communication,” although she didn’t explicitly mention their long-distance status.
“I think communication is key. It’s so easy to let things get lost in the shuffle, or to kind of push things down because you think that they don’t really bother you, but if anything even remotely bothers you, you gotta talk about it,” she said.
“Everyone’s relationship is different,” she added. “Whatever works for you is right.”
On the subject of how they kept their relationship strong, Butler told Entertainment Tonight in 2015, “I think you just have to — it’s important to put that other person first. If you’re constantly looking for ways that you can make them happy, and they’re constantly looking for ways that they can make you happy, then you kind of lift each other up as much as possible and you can’t go wrong.”
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Recently, Butler told E! News in July, “It’s hard for me to even put into words what that girl means to me. I am so inspired by her everyday and I just love her to my core.”
In a profile published earlier this month, Hudgens opened up to Cosmopolitan UK about what kept the couple going during long stretches apart.
“It’s eight years this year – FaceTime, good communication, respect and trust [are what keep us going],” Hudgens told the outlet. “The longest we’ve been apart was four months. It sucks! You start hating hearing yourself say ‘I miss you.’ But if it’s your person, you make it work.”
Both Hudgens and Butler have yet to publicly address their split.
