Inside Nina Dobrev's Busy Life Since Ending Engagement to Shaun White

Nina Dobrev Shares Fiery Message About Having to "Fake It" After Shaun White Breakup

It never hurts to have access to a yacht, but it can be especially useful in case of a late-summer breakup.

A week after it became public knowledge that Nina Dobrev and Shaun White had ended their engagement, the Vampire Diaries alum took to the Italian coast in September with a group that included Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry, and Chace Crawford and his girlfriend Kelsey Merritt.

And in the photos Keleigh shared, it certainly didn't look as if Nina—who visited family in Canada before embarking on that idyllic getaway—was faking her enjoyment.

But it was a big shock when she and Shaun went their separate ways after five years together. The three-time Olympic gold medalist had proposed in October 2024 with a five-carat Lorraine Schwartz diamond and Nina had just posted a photo of her and Shaun in bed (clothed, while she sported a sheet mask) on Sept. 5, six days before the split news broke.

Nina hitting the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival Sept. 7 without her engagement ring didn't cause a stir in the moment, but hindsight-is-20/20 analysis concluded that her bare finger was a case of the actress intentionally leaving jewelry behind for a reason.

"I’m excited for the future," Nina told TMZ Oct. 1 at Los Angeles International Airport in between trips, "and the only thing that's guaranteed is change." (She also deftly shut down the inevitable rumor that she and Zac—the only apparent free agents on their vacay—were dating.) 

But after she hotfooted it to sunnier climes, and then Paris en route to the South of France for a friend's wedding, another change of scene was in order for Nina, who bought a house in the Hollywood Hills with Shaun in 2023 and, as of July, had still been in the process of remodeling the $4.3 million estate.

The longtime L.A. resident revealed in November that she would be staying in New York for awhile, flashing a Big Apple keychain on Instagram Stories, captioned the photo, "She's a New Yorker." 

Though, really, Nina has been living out of a suitcase, attending the British Fashion Council Awards in London last month, after which she headed to Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival. In Jeddah she mingled with the likes of Jessica Alba, Dakota Johnson and Rita Ora at the Dec. 5 Women in Cinema gala.

She then spent Christmas with family, sharing pics of cozy indoor tableaus and playtime in the snow.

But another yacht beckoned for New Year's and the Love Hard actress jetted to St. Barts to bid farewell to 2025. Miles and Keleigh were on hand for the fireworks, as were Chord Overstreet, Alix Earle, and Nina's long-ago ex Glen Powell with his rumored girlfriend Michelle Randolph. 

“Some old friends, some new friends… now all best friends,” Nina captioned a Jan. 3 carousel of pics. “Haven’t laughed, been in awe or smiled this much in my life. The perfect way to ring in the new year. Off to a GREAT start. Feeling beyond lucky, and grateful."

"I used to say that I lived most of my life on planes, because I’m constantly traveling for work and pleasure,” she told Architectural Digest in 2021. “But the pandemic was the first time that I was in my home for an extended period of time."

It was then that she decided to redecorate her longtime West Hollywood home and make it more hospitable for guests of all ages and species, noting, "I want to have kids in my home, and I have dogs, and I have friends over."

And while Nina's still geographically all over the place, "I love to host and to cook—schedule permitting," she told Food 52 in December. "Honestly, any excuse for an occasion to have people over."

When life gets busy, "it’s really therapeutic to be at home, shut everything off, put on a playlist, pick a random recipe, and destroy my kitchen in the process."

While Nina's busy making new memories, check out her post-split journey in photos: