Nina Dobrev and Shaun White Are Engaged! Get All of the Details on the Surprise Proposal—Which Included a Fake Invitation—Here

Wedding bells are in store for actress Nina Dobrev and snowboarder Shaun White. The duo, who first crossed paths in 2012 when White presented a Teen Choice Award to the Vampire Diaries cast, recently announced their engagement in Vogue. However, even though the two met over 10 years ago, it wasn’t until 2019 that they reconnected at a Tony Robbins event and started dating shortly thereafter. And earlier this month, approximately five years after their second meeting, the Olympian got down on one knee at The Golden Swan in New York City and proposed to Dobrev. 

The snowboarder reportedly had a few different ideas on how to propose to the actress before landing on the October date. And while he may have initially been unsure of when to pop the question, he knew he wanted her to be completely surprised. In pursuit of this vision, he even regularly moved the five-carat Lorraine Schwartz ring to different spots around their house in order to ensure that the actress wouldn't find it, according to the magazine. However, the snowboarder hit a snafu in his planning when Dobrev told him she wasn’t feeling well just a few days before the proposal.

To avoid having the engagement derailed, White asked his publicist to send the actress a fake invitation for a CFDA/Vogue dinner with Anna Wintour, which she ultimately accepted, according to Vogue. When Dobrev arrived at the dinner, she was running a few minutes behind—and was pretty anxious as a result. “I was in a panic that Anna’s waiting for me,” she told Vogue. However, as soon as she stepped into the room, she spotted White under a white arch of roses. When it came to asking for her hand, Dobrev said he nailed it: “He said all the right things,” she told the outlet. After the proposal, the couple celebrated with friends, dumplings from the restaurant, and Shake Shack. 

The couple’s dating relationship was first announced by Us in April 2020. Since then, the pair has often shared snippets of their relationship on social media. On September 3, 2021, Dobrev posted a photo of her and White on her Instagram for his birthday, accompanied by a humorous caption: “The person in this photo is the funniest, most charming, sexiest, and hardest working person I know. The other person is my boyfriend. Happy birthday baby, thank you for always being older than me.” Even amidst the couple’s laughs, they continue to speak about the love they share for each other. "Nina's just been so supportive and so amazing through this whole process for me," White told People in a 2022 interview about the 2022 Winter Olympics. "Through the pandemic, she was a lifesaver—she really made that time in my life special." That year, rumors of their potential engagement started to swirl, following an interview the actress gave to Extra. When asked if she was planning to say “I do” to the snowboarder anytime soon, Dobrev responded: “I am very happy…Things are going very well, and I’m very, very happy.”