Published July 23, 2026
Years after The Vampire Diaries ended, Paul Wesley says the real plot twist happened off-screen.
Appearing on Call Her Daddy, the actor reflected on how his once-rocky relationship with Nina Dobrev transformed into a genuine friendship–and why Ian Somerhalder has become the longest relationship of his life.
“Look, so it’s very public that Nina and I had this very fun kind of back and forth relationship…in the beginning, we didn’t get along,” Wesley admitted. But time changed everything.
He revealed the pair stayed in touch after the series wrapped, eventually launching their new project, You Deserve to Know.
“Now we’re such good friends and I absolutely adore her…We kept saying, ‘We should do something…Let’s really make it great,’” he said. “Finally You Deserve to Know came about and we’re like, ‘This is it. Let’s do this.’”
Wesley even joked that Somerhalder might be feeling left out.
“Maybe we need to call a friend and ask him if he’s jealous right now…deep down inside, you know, he wants to be written in.”
Looking back, Wesley recalled predicting Dobrev would one day miss working with him.
“I was like, ‘You’re going to miss me one day,’” he remembered telling her. Years later, when she returned to film the series finale, “I missed you,” he admitted.
As for Somerhalder, Wesley says their friendship has evolved far beyond co-stars.
“It’s like we’re in a marriage, you know?... It’s like my longest relationship I’ve ever had in my life…we’re yin and yang…we bicker. We hug it out.”
Turns out, the strongest Vampire Diaries love stories did not just happen on screen.