The Vampires Diaries, which aired from 2009 to 2017, focused on the inhabitants in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Fans quickly found themselves invested not only in the romantic relationships explored on the show, but also the ones in real life.
Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, who portrayed Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore, respectively, sparked a romance in 2010 and continued to date for three years. One year after their split, Somerhalder moved on with Nikki Reed, but there were no hard feelings between the exes.
Dobrev, for her part, found love with Shaun White in 2020. One year later, the athlete opened up about watching his girlfriend in her memorable role on the CW series.
“As we were getting to know each other, I was like, ‘Oh, I should check this show out,’” the X Games gold medalist exclusively told Us Weekly in June 2021. “There’s a lot of episodes. Not that I was mad about it, but I didn’t realize, like, how deep I was going to go. Because seasons now are, like, oh, 10 episodes. These are, like, 23 episodes a season. And I was in it!”
As for Dobrev’s former costar, Somerhalder tied the knot with Reed in 2015. The Twilight actress later shared her secret to making their marriage work, which included being invested in each other’s goals.
“I’ve always had many things that I feel incredibly passionate about, as does Ian,” Reed told Us in 2019. “We’re both really passionate people and we both have a lot going on all the time, so I think that being supportive of the other person’s dreams and aspirations and passions is important and it’s something that we practice.”
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