A secret that could have changed the cast
Nina Dobrev doesn’t talk about her private life often, so when she does, it lands with a thud. In a new oral history of The Vampire Diaries, the actress reveals she walked into the show’s high-stakes chemistry reads while quietly dating another actor auditioning to play Damon Salvatore. That actor was Rob Mayes. The producers didn’t know. She and Mayes wanted it that way because they feared the relationship could skew casting decisions or cost one of them a job.
The story appears in “I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries,” written by Entertainment Weekly editor Samantha Highfill and published on September 9, 2025. Dobrev says the secrecy didn’t spare them the awkward outcome: she landed Elena Gilbert, Mayes didn’t get Damon, and the relationship unraveled soon after. Ian Somerhalder won the role of Damon—and years later, he and Dobrev became a couple off-screen.
That admission reframes an early turning point for a series that became a defining hit for The CW. The show premiered in 2009 and ran through 2017, with Dobrev anchoring the story as Elena—first pulled between brothers Stefan and Damon, then drawn into the supernatural storm around Mystic Falls. Casting was the hinge everything swung on. Chemistry reads mattered. Dobrev was meeting scene partners who would shape years of storytelling and a fervent fan base.
According to Dobrev, keeping the Mayes relationship under wraps felt like the safest move. It also set up a painful split when the jobs shook out unevenly. The aftermath is now part of TV lore: Somerhalder’s Damon became the show’s electric catalyst, and “Delena”—the Damon/Elena pairing—turned into a fandom juggernaut. Off-screen, Dobrev and Somerhalder started dating in 2010, three seasons into the show’s run, and separated in May 2013.
What’s striking in her retelling isn’t the romance; it’s the honesty about how work and life collided before the pilot even shot. Actors are told to focus on the scene, leave everything else at the door. But behind any franchise-defining love story are people navigating real stakes: careers, privacy, and the fear that one personal detail could cost them a role.
Highfill’s book, built around interviews with cast and creatives, puts that pressure in context. Oral histories thrive on the “you-had-to-be-there” details, and this one delivers a candid look at a moment that could have changed the show’s DNA. Imagine, for a beat, a different Damon—someone who wasn’t Somerhalder—opposite Dobrev’s Elena. Different banter. Different edge. Different series.
From on-set romance to off-screen lives
Dobrev and Somerhalder’s relationship lasted three years, long enough to overlap with some of the show’s most intense Damon/Elena arcs. Then came the breakup. Fans watched closely for cracks in the on-screen pairing. The work held. By every public sign, they kept things professional. Dobrev stayed through Season 6, exiting the series in 2015 and later returning for the 2017 finale to help land the story the show had been building toward.
The professionalism mattered. The series was still a ratings anchor for The CW and a global streaming staple. Scenes between Damon and Elena didn’t go away just because the off-screen relationship did. They delivered the performances the story needed, even as their lives moved in different directions beyond the set.
Those directions are now clear. Somerhalder married actress Nikki Reed in 2015; they share two children. Dobrev has been with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White for years and is now engaged. None of that is headline gossip anymore—it’s the natural end point for a cast that spent the better part of a decade growing up inside a hit show.
Highfill’s book arrives with the distance to look back without relitigating old rumors. It adds texture: the quiet relationship during tryouts, the break that followed, and the twist of fate that put Dobrev across from Somerhalder instead of Mayes. It also sketches the stakes of early casting decisions—how a single role can redirect careers and shape the culture around a show.
Timeline, at a glance:
- 2009: Chemistry reads for the pilot. Dobrev is secretly dating Rob Mayes while he auditions for Damon. She is cast as Elena; Mayes isn’t. Ian Somerhalder is chosen as Damon Salvatore.
- 2010–2013: Dobrev and Somerhalder date during the series’ run.
- 2015: Dobrev leaves after Season 6; Somerhalder remains on the show.
- 2017: Dobrev returns for the series finale.
- 2015–2025: Somerhalder marries Nikki Reed; they have two children. Dobrev becomes engaged to Shaun White. The oral history is published September 9, 2025.
The reveal doesn’t rewrite what fans watched, but it sharpens the edges around it. The audition room was more charged than anyone knew. A private relationship sat behind a professional decision. The part went to someone else, the relationship ended, and a different love story—on screen and off—took center stage.
