Dec 14, 2010 11:41 GMT  ·  By

One of Hollywood’s (young) golden couples is no more: Disney sweethearts Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are officially single, after realizing, 4 years into their romance, that it had ran its course and wasn’t going anywhere anymore.

The New York Daily News says the two have ended their romance on very friendly terms – or, at least, that’s what their friends are telling the US media, because the two are yet to issue a statement.

Zac and Vanessa met on the set of Disney’s insanely popular “High School Musical,” and started dating in 2006. Despite of countless rumors of the romance being just a front or a PR stunt, they made it through.

Until just now, when they realized they were not working as a couple anymore, the aforementioned publication writes, citing ongoing reports.

“Hudgens, who turns 22 on Tuesday, and Efron, 23, broke up recently, according to sources, and are still on friendly terms. ‘It’s nothing dramatic,’ a source said. ‘There’s no third party involved’,” the NY Daily News says.

Another source has confirmed for the media that, indeed, the two did not break up because of a third party but simply because they didn’t see why they should be together anymore, saying the “it just ran its course.”

In previous interviews, the NY Daily News also points out, Zac would often find himself defending the romance and rubbishing reports that it was a PR stunt put together by Disney or, even worse, that it was a front for his real orientation.

The rumors existed because, otherwise, the tabs would have nothing interesting to write about him and Vanessa, Zac stated on more than one occasion. So they just made stuff up to compensate.

“They want you to believe it, and they hope they’ll influence you to break up by making you seem insane for being in it,” Zac is quoted as saying.

“And then you’ll play the field, and then they can write about you a [expletive]load, make [expletive] up, and speculate about everything. Right now they know exactly what’s going on and it’s not very interesting and there’s no money to be made on it. It’s exactly how it should be. It’s real,” the actor also said.