Elena Gilbert may have found her happily ever after with Damon, but in real life, Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev wants to spend the rest of her life with Shaun White. The 35-year-old actress is engaged to the 38-year-old Olympic snowboarder, the couple revealed to Vogue in an interview published on Wednesday, October 30.
While recalling how Shaun meticulously planned his proposal, Nina revealed that he popped the question earlier this month.
“He said all the right things,” Nina said, while Shaun gushed how “nervous” she seemed upon meeting him under an arch of white roses, where the athlete got down on one knee.
The engagement news arrives after the pair sparked romance rumors in March of 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. The duo was seen bicycling on a nature path in Malibu, along with Nina’s dog Maverick, who was safely tucked under Shaun’s arm during the bike ride. Shortly after the bike ride, HollywoodLife gained more intel on this budding relationship at the time.
“Nina and Shaun have hung in the same circle of friends for years and have always been pretty close. But now it’s more on a flirtatious level because they’re both single at the same time and of course there’s an attraction there,” a source exclusively told Hollywood Life in April of 2020. That “flirtatious level” definitely went to the next level, as the duo grew their relationship and have been charming fans with their adorable Instagram photos, videos, and public PDA since then.
As the relationship became more public, Nina and Shaun went on to happily post one another on their social media accounts. On Valentine’s Day of 2021, each wrote loving tributes for one another — you can see Shaun’s above, in which he basically summed up their relationship timeline in photos.
Shaun retired from his snowboarding career in February of 2022, and Nina confessed to being “in awe” of his incredible athletic abilities. “I couldn’t be more proud,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “Of everything you have accomplished over the last 20 years as a competitor and the man you have become,” she captioned a collection of photos from his Olympic career. “You are one of a kind.”
By the end of that year, the couple seemed more serious than ever, heading out for a romantic vacation in the Maldives that June and bringing their families together for a holiday getaway in Mexico in December. In 2023, they were still going strong, with Nina and Shaun reportedly buying their first home together — a $4.3 million Hollywood Hills hideaway.
“Nina and Shaun have been serious for a long time, so it makes sense that they’re moving in together,” an insider told Life & Style in a July 2023 report. “They can’t wait to turn this into their dream home, with the help of a designer. This is a huge step for them, and friends are just waiting for Shaun to propose now.”
