Canadian actor Nina Dobrev has announced her engagement to long-time boyfriend and former American Olympian Shaun White.
The couple had been dating for five years before announcing their engagement in posts on their social media accounts on Wednesday, sharing pictures of themselves embracing during their special moment in New York City, which was planned by White without Dobrev knowing.
“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in her Instagram post.
According to a Vogue interview with the couple, White — a former skateboarder and snowboarder who competed in multiple Olympic Games — wanted to make the most of the proposal but had to go back and forth to the drawing board when things didn’t go as planned.
White initially wanted to ask the “Vampire Diaries” star the big question in the summer, but Dobrev sustained a knee injury during a dirt-biking accident. He then considered their upcoming trip to Cape Town, South Africa, for the Earthshot Prize ceremony, but that might have been too obvious, so he chose an unspecified Friday night in late October, according to the Vogue story.
White said Dobrev is rarely surprised but loves being surprised, so that’s exactly what he did.
To make sure the proposal was successful, White fooled Dobrev into thinking they were invited to an intimate dinner with Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
Dobrev had said she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to rest up before the Africa trip this weekend, but White had his publicist send her a fake invitation to the dinner, which Dobrev said looked “so legitimate.”
On that Friday night, Dobrev had a session with red-carpet stylist Kate Young and was dressed in head-to-toe Chanel.
As she walked into the restaurant, Dobrev realized it wasn’t a dinner date with Wintour but something even more special.
She saw a photographer and her beau, dressed in Ralph Lauren, standing under an arch of white roses.
“I went into shock. I just froze and stared at him,” Dobrev told Vogue, adding that she didn’t remember what happened next but that “he said all the right things.”
White hid a five-carat Lorraine Schwartz ring from his future fiancé for weeks in their house, rotating its location so she wouldn’t accidentally find it.
Dobrev was raised in Toronto. Her breakout role was as Mia Jones in the Canadian TV series “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” She followed that up with the role of Elena Gilbert in “The Vampire Diaries.”
A number of celebrity friends congratulated the couple on social media, including long-time friend and fellow “Degrassi” star Paula Brancati, who played Jane Vaughn in the series.
