Dove Cameron’s Dating History: From Ryan McCartan to Damiano David – PEOPLE

Dove Cameron has found success as both an actress and singer, and her romantic partners have been no different.

The former Disney Channel star’s first public romance was with her Liv and Maddie bandmate Ryan McCartan in 2013. The couple were briefly engaged before splitting in 2016. A year later, Cameron revealed she was dating. Descendants 2 with Thomas Doherty. The couple dated for over three years before splitting in 2020.

The following year, Cameron told PEOPLE that living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed her to deal with both her breakup from Doherty and the sudden deaths of her best friend and her husband. Descendants with his partner, Cameron Boyce.

“I found this sense of self. I live alone, I’m single for the first time and I feel born again,” she said. “My capacity for happiness is much greater because of my past.”

Part of that expansion included Cameron coming out as bisexual during an Instagram Live in 2020 when she told fans she was “super queer.” In a 2021 interview with Gay time, The star said that although she was “never confused” about her identity, she was initially afraid of not being accepted.

“I’ve hinted at my sexuality for years while being afraid to explain it to everyone,” she told the outlet.

Cameron continued, “I went on Instagram Live and said, ‘Guys, I really needed to explain something to you.’ Maybe I didn’t say it, but I’m super queer. It’s something I want to represent through my music because it’s who I am. »

The star also spoke to PEOPLE about how her life has changed since her release. “With my sexuality being publicly acknowledged, I feel like I’m living my life more naked, which feels really vulnerable, but I’m also trying to accept that,” Cameron explained.

At the start of 2024, the Schmigadoon! The actress has started a new relationship with Måneskin band member Damiano David after months of speculation.

Here’s everything you need to know about Dove Cameron’s dating history.

Ryan McCartan

Cameron and fellow actor McCartan met on the set of the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie in 2013 and started dating that same year. Cameron played the main characters, identical twins Liv and Maddie Rooney, while McCartan played Diggie, a love interest of Maddie.

Beyond their on-screen roles, Cameron and McCartan also formed a pop group together in 2015 called The Girl and the Dreamcatcher.

In April 2016, the couple announced their engagement. “I’m dedicating my 1,000th message to my fiancée. I can’t believe I can call you that. Thanks for saying yes,” McCartan wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. At the time of their engagement, Cameron and McCartan were 20 and 22 years old, respectively.

“We both made it very clear to each other: ‘I know you’re my person.’ You know you’re my person. There’s no one else,’” Cameron told PEOPLE shortly after the announcement. “But I knew he wanted to marry young – he told me that. He told me, “This is what I want as a life plan.” »

Less than six months after their engagement, McCartan announced that he and Cameron had ended their relationship. “Dove decided this relationship wasn’t what she wanted. We still love each other very much. Be sensitive, because it’s painful,” he said in a since-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) in October 2016.

“Thank you for your support and full heart in this very intense and human time,” Cameron wrote on X. “There is a lot of love between Ryan and I. Life is beautiful and long.”

Later that month, McCartan appeared on the podcast Apparently with Theo Von and Matthew Cole Weiss and said of the breakup: “It just sucks.” He continued: “It’s really difficult. I still love him a lot, but that’s f—— life. That’s kind of how it happens. Time heals everything.

Years later, in a 2019 interview with SeventeenCameron opened up about her relationship with McCartan and said she felt like she had to “make everything perfect all the time.”

“It was my very first real relationship, and it was on and off screen,” she told the magazine. “A lot of what I went through in that first relationship, the really lows, I haven’t made public.”

“I felt like I had to make everything perfect all the time and my partner definitely put that in my ear,” she continued. “People thought I shared a lot of things, but I shared almost nothing.”

Thomas Doherty

Cameron met Scottish actor Thomas Doherty when he joined the cast of Descendants 2. The couple confirmed their relationship in February 2017, a few months after the film’s release.

“We’re dating…We keep it to ourselves, because everything is so much more romantic and real when it’s yours and it’s private,” Cameron said in an interview with PEOPLE at the time.

“It wasn’t right away,” the former Disney star said of their romance. “It was one of those natural developments…I’m going to keep it quiet about it. But she’s a lovely, lovely person.

Cameron later admitted that their relationship was serious from the start. “He told me he loved me within a week of meeting me and never backed down from that statement,” she said in a 2019 interview with Seventeenwhere she also shared that the couple got tattoos two weeks after they met.

“My relationship with Thomas has been unlike anything I have ever experienced with any other human right from the very beginning,” Cameron told the outlet. “I know it’s cheesy, but honestly, from the moment we met, it was like the earth was moving, for both of us… I’ve never experienced equality like the one we experienced , a true admission of who and what we are together and we gutturally know it to be true.

Although they were long distance for part of their relationship when Doherty was based in London, Cameron said PeopleTV in April 2020, the couple had moved into a studio together.

Shortly after, in December 2020, Cameron confirmed that she and Doherty had split two months prior. “We know there have been rumors and confusion lately about the status of our relationship and we wanted to set the record straight,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.

Cameron continued, “In October, Thomas and I decided to separate. It was an incredibly difficult decision, but we still love each other and will remain friends. Thank you for allowing us to maintain our privacy during this time.”

Less than a year later, in June 2021, Cameron said Entertainment tonight that her new song “LazyBaby” helped her heal after her split from Doherty.

“The breakup fucked me up,” she said. “It was really hard and I needed something that would take me from where I was, in the grieving process, to the other side.”

Damien David

In September 2023, rumors began circulating around Cameron and David when the actress allegedly attended one of the rocker’s concerts with his band Måneskin. A few months before, David announced his separation from his longtime girlfriend, Giorgia Soleri.

In January 2024, speculation intensified when David and Cameron were spotted on a dinner date in Los Angeles.

The couple finally confirmed their relationship status during their red carpet debut at Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy gala in February 2024. David and Cameron cuddled together while posing and shared a kiss, thus cementing their new romance.