It's all love between Nina Dobrev and Zac Efron — friendly love that is. The Vampire Diaries alum turned heads last month when she was seen on vacation in Italy with the High School Musical star, some weeks after her split from Shaun White, who she dated for five years and was engaged to. Also on the yacht trip were her good friends Miles and Keleigh Teller, as well as Chase Crawford with his girlfriend Kelsey Merritt, but that didn't stop fans from assuming there was a budding new couple on board.
Much to some fans' chagrin, Nina has since shut down rumors that she's dating Zac, and is keeping her head up as she moves on from Shaun. After a TMZ reporter caught her in LAX and, asked if there was "anything to that Zac Efron thing?" Nina simply shook her head no. Then asked if they are "just mates," she confirmed so with a "yeah."
© Getty ImagesFinally asked how it felt having to deal with a break-up in the public eye, Nina maintained that she is "excited for the future," and emphasized that "the only thing that's guaranteed is change." Nina and Shaun were together for five years, and were engaged from October 30, 2024 until their split in September 2025.
Among one of the first signs fans noticed that alluded to a break-up between Nina and Shaun was the fact that she had "unpinned" her October 2024 post announcing her engagement to the Olympic snowboarder, which took place at the Golden Swan restaurant in the West Village in New York City, and photos of which racked up over 6.1 million likes, as of this writing.
Then, on September 7, Nina stepped out in a black, figure-hugging spaghetti strap gown from SIR at the TIFF premiere of Eternal, and her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz diamond engagement ring from Shaun did not appear to be on her ring finger. The appearance came just four days before news of her split. Her last public outings prior to TIFF were with Shaun in Los Angeles just days before flying to Canada; she was photographed buying flowers with her fiancé, her large engagement ring clearly visible as he held onto her hand and they laughed together.
© Getty ImagesA few months into her engagement, speaking with E! News in March, Nina alluded to both hers and Shaun's busy schedule preventing them from actually diving into the wedding planning process, saying they were just enjoying the feeling of being engaged for a bit. "I was in Australia shooting a movie and then Christmas and New Year's," she shared at the time.
© Getty Images"We're just enjoying being engaged at this point and being in that sort of phase because a lot of your life is — you have a boyfriend for half of your life and then you have a husband for half of your life but the fiancé period is very short," she went on, noting she wanted to "enjoy it and not rush that process."
© Getty ImagesNina added that it's "so fun to say fiancé," and said that when she did eventually get wedding planning, her "number one goal is to find out how to make it as low-impact as possible." She explained: "I was never one of those girls who dreamt of what a dream wedding would be. So I'd have to do a lot of research and find out the areas of improvement."
