Descendants [1] stars Dove Cameron and Thomas Doherty are the new It couple [2] of the Disney universe, but this isn't the first time Dove has been linked to a Disney costar [3]. In fact, the 23-year-old actress's public relationships have only been with costars — understandable, since most of us spend a lot of time with our coworkers! Since she first debuted on our screens on the Disney Channel sitcom Liv and Maddie in 2013, Dove's love life has gotten plenty of attention from her fans, but it actually hasn't been all that dramatic. Keep reading to find out who she has dated and whether she thinks she's finally found her happily ever after [4]!
Ryan McCartan
Ryan and Dove met on the set of her Disney Channel breakout show Liv and Maddie, where their onscreen romance became an offscreen one in 2013. The couple became engaged in April 2016, then broke it off less than six months later.
"Dove has decided this relationship isn't what she wants. We still love each other very much. Please be sensitive, as this is painful," Ryan tweeted at the time [5]. In a new interview with Seventeen, Dove reflected on how hard it was [6] to try to be picture-perfect in the relationship at all times — she was only 20 at the time, and Ryan only 22.
"It was my first ever real relationship, and it was on-screen and off-screen," she explained. "A lot of what I went through in that first relationship, the very low-lows, I did not make public. I was under the impression that I had to make everything look perfect all the time and my partner definitely put that in my ear. People thought I was sharing loads, but I hardly shared anything."
Since their split, Ryan has moved into stage work more. He starred in the off-Broadway run of the cult-fave musical Heathers back in 2014, and from Summer 2018 to Summer 2019, he played Fiyero in the Broadway company of Wicked.
Thomas Doherty
Dove's current squeeze is also someone she met on the set of a Disney project. Thomas joined the Descendants franchise for the 2017 sequel, playing Harry Hook, and he and Dove hit it off quickly. And by quickly, we mean dropping the L-bomb within days!
"He told me he loved me [7] within a week of meeting me, and has never taken a step back from that statement," she told Seventeen.
"My relationship with Thomas has been different than anything I've ever experienced with another human right from the very start," she continued. "I know this is cheesy, but honestly, right from the moment we met, it felt like the earth moved, for both of us . . . I've never experienced an equality like we have, a real admission of who and what we are together and the guttural knowing that this is right."