It seemed that Nina Dobrev and Shaun White were happily coasting toward forever.
After the Olympic snowboarder dropped to one knee—surrounded by candles and an entire shop’s worth of white blooms—in October, “We’re just enjoying being engaged at this point and being in that sort of phase,” the Vampire Diaries alum explained in an exclusive interview with E! News’ Francesca Amiker this past March, “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.”
And while she was excited to sink her teeth into her new role as a wife, “I really want to enjoy it and not rush that process.”
So safe to assume fans were surprised when the 36-year-old and the athlete, 39, seemingly pulled a 180, People reporting Sept. 11 that they’d ended their engagement.
Spend enough time dating in Hollywood (or anywhere, really) and you’ll come up with a plan for how to deal when a relationship goes sideways.
Dobrev’s go-to wound-licking strategy involves her closest friends and a passport.
The Bulgaria-born, Canada-bred actress has “been kind of all over,” she shared in a 2018 interview with Cosmopolitan. “I don’t often splurge on material things; I splurge on flights and travel. I’ve been to Thailand, Japan, Australia, Brussels, Switzerland. [I like] discovering new cultures, meeting new people, getting away from my normal schedule.”
As in, having no schedule at all, which is what she does when she’s off-the-clock. “I’m one of those people who works hard and plays hard—I go 130 percent in either direction,” she continued, noting that desire to keep it moving hits even harder when she’s recovering from the end of a romance.
Asked to share her tried-and-true breakup strategy, she told the mag, “A plane ticket, a glass of tequila and a group of girlfriends.”
That wanderlust played a key role in her early days with White.
After meeting at a Tony Robbins-led Florida workshop in late 2019 (“I actually didn’t know anything about her,” White later told People), they hopped a flight to a new adventure in South Africa the following February.
A few of Dobrev’s more eagle-eyed followers noticed that as Dobrev posted ‘grams from her outing to Cheetah Outreach, an early morning hike to the top of Lions Head Mountain and a safari getaway, White seemed to be mirroring the Degrassi alum’s moves over on his own feed, down to the artsy, magic-hour solo shot in the middle of Kruger National Park.
“That was actually how we kind of started our relationship,” White later reflected Us Weekly. “And she [thought], ‘Oh, this guy, he came to play. He’s serious.’ So that’s a thing that we share together. We both enjoy traveling.”
And while at first glance, the Love Hard actress and the three-time Olympic gold medalist may not have seemed like obvious travel buddies, Dobrev’s pals were enthusiastically rooting them on.
The actress having dated TVD costar Ian Somerhalder for three years, followed by relationships with actors Austin Stowell, Glen Powell and then director Grant Mellon, “Shaun is a departure from previous guys Nina has been with,” a source told E! News in March 2020. “Her friends are pleasantly surprised.”
And soon, their tentative, let’s-see-where-this-goes connection blossomed into a full-fledged thing, something they didn’t quite expect when they were ringing in 2020 together in Las Vegas.
“They eased into the relationship slowly,” an insider explained to E! News at the time. But once quarantine hit, the absence of work and most social gatherings gave them nothing but time together. Said the insider, “Things have really accelerated during this social distancing period.”
By the time she shared a snap of herself giving him a quarantine haircut, it seemed obvious the two were meant to be a winning pair.
Because tell us she wasn’t describing the 11-time ESPY winner when she detailed her ideal partner to Cosmo back in 2013, saying, “You either have chemistry or you don’t, but a lot of what attracts me is a guy’s mind and humor and talent.” Perhaps a record-breaking 15 gold X Games medals, as well?
And while the Perks of Being a Wallflower actress appreciated “a man in a suit looking put together and dapper,” she said, “I also kind of like the I-just-rolled-out-of-bed, a-little-bit-of-scruff, effortless, not-trying-hard-but-still-sexy guy.”
Dobrev checked off White’s boxes as well.
During his Olympic run in 2018, the athlete described to People what kept his relationship with then-girlfriend Phantogram rocker Sarah Barthel, gliding along. “We live in two different worlds, so that’s why it’s nice to come together and share stories from the road,” he explained. And though Dobrev is an avid snowboarder herself, safe to say she wouldn’t be critiquing White’s Double McTwist 1260.
White also said he appreciates someone who not only gets his peripatetic lifestyle, but lives it themselves: “It’s nice to not have somebody like, ‘When are you coming home?'” he noted. “They get it, they understand being on the road.”
And while Dobrev can’t exactly lay claim to three Olympic gold medals, she does know how to shred.
“I actually have been snowboarding since I was really little,” she revealed while stopping by E!’s Daily Pop in 2022. “I skied first and then I switched over to snowboarding at probably 8 or 9.”
Which was a fun surprise for White the first time they took to the slopes. “He was expecting to wait for me and it was quite the opposite,” she shared. “I had already passed him by a landslide. Now I can keep up!”
That moment checked off a big box for White.
“She’s really good on the board,” he told E! News in May 2024. “She grew up in Canada. So, it was nice ’cause that’s definitely sometimes a relationship make-or-break. Not if they can’t ride, but I’ve had people come up with me and it didn’t end well ’cause I’m not the best coach at times.”
But he proved himself to be a top-notch teammate.
Unintentionally going public with their coupling in March 2020—a joint bike ride in Malibu blowing their cover—the duo pretty much gave up on pretending they weren’t exploring the country together, each posting about their spring “#QuaranTrip” through Lake Powell, Utah, Nevada and Arizona’s Red Rock State Park as well as that snowboarding getaway.
By late May, they’d fully ripped the band-aid off, giving fans a peek at Dobrev’s hairdresser skills in their first joint ‘gram. “Nina doesn’t take sharing her personal life very lightly,” the insider explains to E! News. “It shows how happy and secure she is with Shaun and their relationship that she is willing to take this step.”
The pair took more than a few after that.
Though COVID protocols prevented Dobrev from joining her man at his fifth—and final!—Olympic Games in Beijing, she sent him off with quite the farewell ahead of the 2021 event. “My sendoff to China was just so beautiful,” he raved on Today. “She made this incredible video of all my friends and family. Really incredible.”
Because that’s how she sees him. “I am really excited for him,” she said during her appearance on E!’s Daily Pop. “Just to get into the Olympics at all is one of the hugest accomplishments, let alone to get in five times. I’m so excited. I’m so proud of him.”
Like his runs, their relationship hit some lofty highs and at least a few lows.
“I’m beside myself to be with this amazing woman and to be joining her beautiful family,” White wrote in a November Instagram tribute, reflecting on their engagement. “Our quarantine romance turned into this beautiful relationship and now a forever love.”
“Behind the curtain, like any relationship, we’ve had our struggles,” he continued. “But it’s our ability to communicate and repair that keeps us moving forward together.”
And though the two will be heading down different slopes moving forward, their romance was quite the ride. We’re reliving all their best moves.
January 2020: Happy New Year…
Dobrev and White hit it off after they partied together with friends, including her Vampire Diaries co-stars Kayla Ewell and Candice Accola King, at the opening of the Bellagio Resort & Casino’s new supper club The Mayfair in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve.
A year later, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Dobrev would share this photo of her and White at the bash, as well as a video of him lifting her up Dirty Dancing-style only to have them both topple into the snow. She wrote, “How we thought 2020 would go…how it actually went.”
March 2020: Romantic Bike Ride
Dobrev and White spark romance rumors after they are spotted riding bikes together in Malibu, Calif. A source tells E! News that the two began to “ease into a relationship” after spending New Year’s Eve together, adding that things “really accelerated” between the two after the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
“After spending weeks together during quarantine,” the source says, “Nina and Shaun have made it clear to their friends that they are a serious couple.”
May 2020: Snip Snip
The two make their relationship Instagram official when both share a photo of the actress trimming White’s red hair. Most hair salons closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Under her post, Dobrev writes, “Adding to resume: hairdresser.”
November 2020: Happy Thanksgiving
Dobrev and White celebrate Thanksgiving with his family, as seen in photos he posts on Instagram.
December 2020: Road Trip!
Judging from their Instagrams, Dobrev and White vacationed together in the Zion National Park area in Utah twice in 2020, in May and in December.
December 2020: Happy Holidays
The two spend the holidays together in December 2020.
December 2020: “So In Love”
Just before New Year’s Eve, another source tells E! News that the two “are genuinely so in love.”
“They openly talk about their future together,” the insider continued. “They’re just super happy, and things are going really well with them.”
January 2021: Happy Birthday, Nina… Again!
Dobrev celebrated a “redo” of her 31st birthday on her 32rd and White paid tribute to her with photos of the two sporting these looks.
October 2021: Check Mate
Alonside pal Adam DeVine, the couple dressed up as characters from The Queen’s Gambit for Halloween with White going as as the iconic Beth Harmon and Dobrev channelling U.S. chess champion, Benny Watts.
January 2022: Snow Bunnies
Dobrev hit the slopes with her pro snowboarder love at Copper Mountain in Colorado.
February 2022: Last Olympics
After White finished fourth in the Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe at the 2022 Olympics and officially retired from competing, Dobrev expressed how proud she was of him.
“The end of one chapter, means the beginning of an exciting new one with endless possibilities,” she wrote in part of an Instagram post. “You will forever be the G.O.A.T. of snowboarding. Not to mention you are also the G.(B).O.A.T. = Greatest Boyfriend Of All Time.”
May 2022: Red Carpet Debut
The couple finally went red carpet official at the Top Gun: Maverick film premiere in London.
May 2022: Red Hot Romance
Alongside her tux-clad boyfriend, Dobrev sizzled in a red Monot gown at the 28th annual amfAR Gala during the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
May 2022: Hearts Racing
The pair watched the qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco ahead of the big race. For the occasion, Dobrev looked wore a chic, chalk-colored suit by Smythe.
June 2022: Fun in the Sun
The two turned up the heat while vacationing in the Maldives.
September 2022: Birthday Boy
“I really picked a winner [ and he really picked a booger ],” Dobrev wrote in an Instagram tribute for White’s 36th birthday. “Happy belated Birthday you weirdo. My weirdo. @shaunwhite.”
October 2022: Degrassi Days
What did White really think of Dobrev’s cheerleading scene from Degrassi: The Next Generation? The athlete gave his reaction on TikTok and proved once again they’re always on each other’s squads.
December 2022: Family Time
The duo celebrated the holidays with a family trip to Mexico.
January 2023: An Out-of-This-World Tribute
“What planet are you from and will you take me with you?!” White wrote on Instagram for Dobrev’s 34th birthday during their trip to Antarctica. “Thanks for making life incredible! Happy birthday my love.”
February 2023: Valentine’s Day
“Life is a roller coaster with you,” the actress wrote on Valentine’s Day 2023. “It goes from serious to baby birding in seconds … thank you for always making me smile. happy valentine’s day @shaunwhite.”
January 2024: Sweet Shout-Out
“Life with you has been my greatest adventure!!” White wrote on Instagram for Dobrev’s 35th birthday. “Happy birthday my love!!”
March 2024: Oscars Night
The duo looked so sharp at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party they deserve their own trophy.
July 2024: Happy Independence Day
The two celebrated the Fourth of July with several celebrity friends, including Miles Teller and Keleigh Teller and Usher.
October 2024: Engaged
Shaun and Nina announced their engagement Oct. 30, 2024. A week later, they walked their first red carpet as an engaged couple, at the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards in Cape Town, South Africa.
