Sydney Sweeney Breaks Silence on Online Hate During Lie Detector Test as Zendaya Feud Rumors Swirl

Sydney Sweeney is very online, like the rest of us, but she also has to live with the internet on hard mode. During a fresh Vanity Fair lie detector bit with Amanda Seyfried tossing questions, Sweeney admitted her car account gets ugly. From there, the conversation around her has snowballed into another round of discourse: the ad, the jokes, and the rumored friction with Zendaya. Here is what actually happened, what blew up, and what is just chatter.

What she said about the hate

"It depends what TikTok I am on. If I am on my private TikTok, my entire For You Page is history facts and arts and crafts. If I am on my @syds_garage page, it is sadly a lot of hate about me."

So, yes, she sees it. And yes, it gets to her.

Why the pile-on now

• The American Eagle line everyone argued about: Sweeney fronted a campaign with the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." Some corners of the internet spun that as a wink at "great genes" and treated it like a dog whistle. Others pointed out the pun is the point and that viral screenshots shifting the wording were edits. Sweeney mostly kept quiet at first, which did not help. Later, in December 2025, she told People she is against hate and divisiveness and that her silence let other people fill in the blanks for her. Separately, outlets said that when GQ asked her to address the ad back when this flared up, she basically shrugged it off as the ad speaking for itself. That non-answer irritated critics and kept the story alive.
• The bathwater joke: After a cheeky, very internet-y bit that played with the idea of Sweeney-branded bathwater soap, think pieces followed. It was clearly designed to poke the bear and, surprise, the bear reacted. Was it calculated? Of course. That is the joke.
• Her car page draws a different crowd: @syds_garage is where Sweeney posts shop talk and builds. It also funnels in a certain kind of commenter. Combine that with her celebrity-level visibility and you get a reliable dogpile machine.

About the rumored Zendaya rift

Here is the part everyone is whispering about. A tabloid item claimed, via an unnamed source, that Zendaya does not want to do joint press with Sweeney for the next season of Euphoria because of the ad blowback and how Sweeney handled it. That has not been confirmed by HBO, by reps, or by either actor on the record. It is possible, it is also possible it is just someone selling a spicy narrative while the show figures out its delayed schedule. Until somebody official says otherwise, file it under rumor.

The read

Sweeney rarely engages when the internet decides she is the main character of the week, which tends to make the noise louder. When she finally did speak up in December, she tried to plant a flag against ugliness online, but by then the conversation had taken on a life of its own. That is the game - ugly and exhausting as it is - when you are one of the faces of a hit show.

Euphoria is streaming on HBO/Max in the US. If the press plans or the cast comment on any of this in a real, on-the-record way, I will update.