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After finding their leading lady, TVD needed the two male components of the essential love triangle. No easy task.
“We looked high and low to cast Stefan and Damon,” Julie explained, noting Nina “did chemistry read after chemistry read with multiple actors.”
Some of the actors who read for either (and sometimes both!) roles? Zach Roerig (who would go on to play Matt Donovan), Michael Trevino (who would land the role of Tyler Lockwood), Nathanial Buzolic (later cast as Kol), and 7th Heaven star David Gallagher, with Julie admitting of the latter, “He impressed us so much originally…but the whole 7th Heaven thing, I wonder if he’ll ever be able to get past that.” (She would later cast him as a werewolf after seeing Super 8.)
And then, finally, they found their guys: Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.
“Paul and Ian kind of came in late in the process. Paul auditioned like 15 times, and Ian kind of appeared out of the blue,” Julie said. For her part, Nina recalled Paul (who first read for Damon!) standing out from the rest of the guys reading opposite her in the chemistry reads: “The only one who wasn’t trying too hard, that didn’t speak to me at any point unless we were filming, was Paul Wesley,”she told EW, “so it’s funny to think that he did the right thing,”
Shaun White & Nina Dobrev have broken off their engagement and ended their relationship after five years together. [Hollywood Life]
Dakota Johnson wore an unlined Gucci at a Kering event. [Just Jared]
Stephen Colbert “auditioned” for Jennifer Aniston. [LaineyGossip]
Is Nate Bargatze a milkshake duck waiting to happen? [Pajiba]
Comedy Central pulled a South Park episode. [Socialite Life]
Ralph Lauren’s latest collection is… loose. [Go Fug Yourself]
So many Berlin nightclubs are closing. [OMG Blog]
Jennifer Lopez looked great at an LA screening. [RCFA]
The trailer for Kate Bosworth’s new movie. [Seriously OMG]
Mary Cosby’s son was arrested. [Starcasm]
Jasmine Crockett ripped into Donald Trump. [Buzzfeed]
It looks like Nina Dobrev and Shaun White are over, which shocked fans since they were seemingly going strong for years — not to mention that they were engaged to be married. A report surfaced in September 2025 about their split. So, why exactly did Nina and Shaun break up?
Hollywood Life has compiled everything we know so far about Shaun and Nina’s relationship, engagement and split below.
Shaun and Nina first crossed paths in late 2019 at an event in Florida. The two had dinner afterward, and their connection grew from there. The athlete later admitted that he initially didn’t know her stardom, but Shaun eventually learned just how big of a name Nina already was.
By 2020, the pair spent time together on a South African safari while Nina was working on the film Redeeming Love, and Shaun joined her on location. During the early aughts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were often spotted out together riding bikes in Malibu, California, and spending quarantine together. They went public with their relationship in April 2020 by going Instagram official. From then on, Nina frequently shared funny and sweet moments with Shaun on social media.
Four years after going Instagram official, Shaun proposed to Nina in New York City in October 2024. They didn’t rush to the wedding planning stage, Nina told E! News the following year.
“I really want to enjoy it and not rush that process,” the Love Hard star said in March 2025. “We’re just enjoying being engaged at this point and being in that sort of phase because a lot of your life is — you have a boyfriend for half of your life, and then, you have a husband for half of your life, but the fiancé period is very short.”
Nina and Shaun mutually decided to break up, according to People, citing a source close to the now-former couple.
“It was a mutual decision and wasn’t an easy one,” the insider told the outlet, “but it was made with love and a deep respect for one another.”
The source didn’t provide a clear reason behind Nina and Shaun’s decision to split.
No, at the time of publication, neither Shaun nor Nina has publicly commented on the report about their split.
Nina Dobrev has reportedly split from Shaun White.
Nina Dobrev has split from Shaun White
The couple got engaged last October after four years of dating but it has now been revealed they have made the “mutual decision” to go their separate ways.
A source told People magazine: “It was a mutual decision, and wasn’t an easy one, but it was made with love and a deep respect for one another.”
Representatives for the Vampire Diaries actress and the 39-year-old snowboarder have yet to comment on the news.
The pair were last seen together holding hands while running errands in Los Angeles on 31 August, but on Sunday (07.09.25) the 36-year-old actress walked the red carpet at the Eternity premiere in Los Angeles without her engagement ring.
She has also unpinned her engagement post from the top of her Instagram account for the first time since Shaun popped the question.
Just a few months ago, Shaun spoke of how “excited” he and Nina were to be planning their wedding.
He told People: “It’s very exciting to have new aspirations and new things that we’re going after and together. It’s very humbling and very exciting, and she’s excited.
“We’ve gotten a lot of advice from different people who have planned their own weddings and things. So we’re definitely gathering information and now trying to see what’s going to work best for us in any way.”
Shaun thought it was “fun” planning to be planning the “next chapter” of their lives as a couple.
The former Olympian shared: “It’s like you took that next step and yeah, it’s just a fun sort of planning phase of life.
“Like, ‘What’s the next steps, and the next chapter and where do we want to be?’ It’s fun. It’s fun to have somebody to plan all that with.”
Nina previously revealed to Vogue magazine that they got engaged in New York City in late October and she “froze” when Shaun proposed.
Recalling Shaun’s proposal, she confessed: “I went into shock. I just froze and stared at him.”
Nina – who previously dated Ian Somerhalder, her former Vampire Diaries co-star – was quickly won over once she got over the surprise of the situation.
She added: “He said all the right things.”
Nina Dobrev’s breakup may not have been written in the stars, but rather on her hand.
Just five days before the news that she and Shaun White broke up after five years together, Nina stepped out onto the red carpet for the premiere of Eternity at the Toronto Film Festival without her engagement ring.
For the Sept. 7 occasion, the Vampire Diaries alum donned a figure-hugging black dress with lace adorning the top. She styled the look with sparkling shoes and clutch—but no shimmering ring.
The diamond’s absence from Nina’s left hand was most noticeable in a carousel of images from the event, which she captioned, “Here’s to Eternity #TIFF”
Among images of her on the red carpet and posing with her friend—and the movie’s star—Miles Teller, was one of Nina in a group photo with his wife Keleigh Teller and other pals. Her left hand, resting on her lap, only bears a ring on her middle finger.
Despite being the only actor playing multiple characters during the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries, Nina Dobrev has revealed that she was paid less than her fellow male co-stars Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.
The actress opened up about the behind-the-scenes equal pay battle in Entertainment Weekly editor Samantha Highfill’s new book, I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries. Dobrev not only played Elena Gilbert in the hit CW series, but also her character’s evil doppelgänger, Katherine Pierce, starting in the season one finale.
“Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons,” Dobrev said. “It was a bit of a tricky situation because my contract only said to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters, which doubled my workload. I had to be on set for double the amount of time, I had to memorize double the amount of lines.”
In the book, Highfill wrote that actors are typically able to start negotiating their contracts in season three, which means Dobrev was making less than Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) and Wesley (Stefan Salvatore) for the first few seasons.
“I wanted to play Katherine, but I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys,” Dobrev added. The actress eventually got more money, Highfill wrote, but she never received equal pay to her male co-leads.
She recalled being told that “out of principle” the studio “wouldn’t bump me up to being equal to the boys, and so that was probably the most hurtful because it felt like I was really working hard and we shot eighteen-hour days sometimes, and nights, and I was putting my absolute heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears into it.”
“I remember feeling like the studio didn’t appreciate what I was bringing to the show, and it felt like they were saying that all the hard work I was putting into it didn’t matter to them and that I wasn’t an equal to my male counterparts, and so that was upsetting to me,” Dobrev continued.
Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec also shared in the book that things “got really heated” with the studio when they told the show’s writers they couldn’t use Katherine anymore because it meant the studio would have to pay Dobrev more each time.
However, Plec said that “was not something that I felt was right or fair,” leading them to “beg the network to let us even write story for Katherine.”
Plec said that the writers were eventually allowed to write for Katherine but recalled, “I literally think we had to say, ‘We’ll kill Katherine,’ in order to get permission to use her.”
“Over time, between Nina being generous and gracious and the tension simmering down a little bit, we were granted a certain number of episodes,” the co-creator said. “[But] I literally think we had to say, ‘We’ll kill Katherine,’ in order to get permission to use her.”
Dobrev exited the show after season six, when her character Elena was put under a sleeping spell by villain Kai Parker (Chris Wood), which linked Elena’s life to that of her best friend Bonnie Bennett. But since Elena wasn’t killed off, this left the door open for her to return (which she did in the series finale, titled “I Was Feeling Epic.”)
However, her return for the eighth and final season sparked another battle over pay, as revealed in Highfill’s book. Plec and co-creator Kevin Williamson said they initially intended to have Dobrev return for the entire final season.
“I really wanted Elena and Stefan to end up together,” Williamson admitted, “that would’ve been my preference, but we didn’t have Elena to bring that relationship back around. You couldn’t bring them back together in one episode.”
But Dobrev stood her ground and was only going to return if she was paid the same as Wesley and Somerhalder, who had gotten multiple raises since her departure from the series.
“I was always open to coming back for the finale, and storyline-wise it made sense. I felt like it was important and it needed to happen for the show, it needed to happen for the fans,” the actress explained. “It was just really important to me that at the end of the show, as a woman, I wanted to make sure that I was compensated and that I was an equal to my male counterparts on the show, and so it came down to that.”
Dobrev shared that the studio’s offer for her to return for the show’s finale “was five times less” than what she made when she left at the end of season six.
“That’s the only reason why at one point I almost didn’t come back,” she added. “I needed to be paid parity to the boys. I had to put my foot down and say if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be able to come back,” she said. “And it wasn’t about the money — I didn’t give a shit about the money at all — it was the principle.”
Plec defended Dobrev, saying in the book, “She should’ve been making what those boys made all along, and nobody should’ve blinked at that request, but at the time it was very shocking. To her credit, she advocated for herself and she stuck to her guns.”
When Dobrev declined the studio’s less-than-equal offer, she said that’s when Plec stepped in and “put her foot down and spoke to everyone.” Though the studio eventually only agreed to pay for one episode at the actress’s requested rate.
“The reason we couldn’t have her for more than the one episode is because they just wouldn’t pay,” the co-creator shared. “It took a lot of work before they finally relented, but it came back that it was one episode only that they’d say yes for.”
Dobrev added, “For the fans I felt horrible and I wanted the story to be told in the best way possible, and it was heartbreaking that the artistry had to suffer because elf this, that we didn’t get to maybe have the few episodes at the end of the show that Julie wanted. … I’m very happy that we were able to make it work and that I came back, because I wanted to be part of the goodbye.”
I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries is now available for purchase.
Nina Dobrev has revealed her struggle for equal pay on The Vampire Diaries.
Nina Dobrev had a real struggle for equal pay on The Vampire Diaries
The 36-year-old actress – who starred alongside Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder in the first six seasons of the supernatural teen drama – has recalled the arguments she faced as she was being paid less than her male castmates, despite playing but Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on the show.
In Samantha Highfill’s new book I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diarie, Nina said: “Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons.
“It was a bit of a tricky situation because my contract only said to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters, which doubled my workload.”
She alleged despite having a more demanding schedule thanks to playing doppelgänger versions of Elena, she wasn’t compensation fairly in comparison to her co-stars.
She added: “I had to be on set for double the amount of time, I had to memorise double the amount of lines.
“I wanted to play Katherine, but I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys.”
After pleading her case, she has alleged the studio actually asked wrtiers to stop writing for Katherine to avoid having to pay more.
She recalled: “I remember feeling like the studio didn’t appreciate what I was bringing to the show, and it felt like they were saying that all the hard work I was putting into it didn’t matter to them and that I wasn’t an equal to my male counterparts, and so that was upsetting to me.”
She later returned for the eighth and final season, but the offer was “five times less” than what she was paid in season six.
She said: “I needed to be paid parity to the boys. I had to put my foot down and say if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be able to come back.
“And it wasn’t about the money — I didn’t give a s*** about the money at all — it was the principle.”
Nina argued she was concerned less by the “actual dollar amount”, and more by getting equal pay, and when that happened, she “politely declined the offer”.
Co-creator and showrunner Julie Plec backed her, with the studio agreeing to bring her back at her asking rate, but for just one episode instead of the entire run.
While she “wanted to be part of the goodbye”, Nina added: “It was heartbreaking that the artistry had to suffer because of this.”
At tonight’s Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards, honorees like Idris Elba, Guillermo del Toro and Nina Hoss urged empathy, invoking the state of the world as in desperate need of human compassion.
The gala, which is an annual fundraiser supporting TIFF‘s core mission of cinema’s transformative power in real life, honored the outstanding impact of leading industry members. This year’s awardees also included Jodie Foster, Hikari, Lee Byung Hun, Kazu Hiro, Channing Tatum, Jafar Panahi, Zacharias Kunuk and Catherine O’Hara.
This year’s event also celebrated TIFF’s 50th Edition.
Though the artists’ statements remained vague in their gesticulations toward various sociopolitical crises currently sending shockwaves through the earth, it’s not difficult to infer veiled references to rising authoritarianism or the wars in Sudan and Gaza, which have led to catastrophic threats of famine.
Hoss, who featured in Hedda and received one of the Performer Awards, said, “We can’t forget what’s going on around us in the world … but I believe in the power of cinema, I truly do. I believe that when we sit in this room together, coming from all kinds of backgrounds — if young or old, it doesn’t matter what education we have — film brings us together because we can dive into, for a little moment in a very intimate way, into another person’s world, another person’s life, and we get challenged, we laugh with the person, we cry and experience his world and in the best way, hopefully we feel empathy. And from empathy, comes kindness, and we need that in this world right now.”
Meanwhile, Frankenstein filmmaker del Toro noted lightheartedly: “Canadians are modest and shy except on traffic and hockey; they go really crazy, yeah? Really violent,” he joked, eliciting audience laughs. “But in the meantime, they don’t like to talk about their achievements, so it takes a Mexican to tell you that Canada is a bastion of hope in the world right now.”
Elba, who received the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media, stated: “Even though we don’t really want to talk about it at a celebration of our industry, it is important to acknowledge the pain the world is feeling altogether, and that pain is something that — no matter what you do, whether we make films or you sponsor events like this — you close your eyes at night, you feel that pain because we’re human beings; we’re empaths.”
The multi-hyphenate added that the award is a symbol encouraging people to “make an impact with your lives, make an impact with our world by feeling something, all right? Feel it. No matter where you stand on whatever conflict is going on in the world, feel something, please. Our children, our children’s children — they need to know that we felt something during this time.”