Paul Wesley has confirmed Nina Dobrev’s story that the pair "totally clashed" during the first years of their work on ‘The Vampire Diaries’.
Nina, 30, admitted in June this year that she and Paul – who played on-screen love interests Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore on The CW show – "despised" each other when they first met, despite rumours at the time of a romance between them.
And now, 37-year-old Paul has backed up her claims, saying they got on "each other’s nerves" at first, but eventually formed a "wonderful friendship".
Speaking to Us Weekly magazine, he said: "I think the point that Nina was making, and I’ll totally back her up on this, is that we totally clashed [the] first couple years in terms of just getting on each other’s nerves, and then developed this wonderful friendship. So it’s like this nice, happy ending."
Nina first made the claims on an episode of her co-stars Candice King and Kayla Ewell’s podcast, when she said their on-screen chemistry didn’t continue when the cameras stopped rolling.
She said: "Paul and I didn’t get along at the beginning of the show. I respected Paul Wesley, I didn’t like Paul Wesley. I remember everyone would walk up to me after the show aired and they’d be like, ‘Are you and Paul dating in real life?’ Everyone thought that we had such good chemistry. I realise now that there’s a fine line between love and hate and we despised each other so much that it read as love but … We really just didn’t get along the first five months of shooting."
And despite getting off on the wrong foot, Nina says she’s now the closest with Paul out of all the ‘Vampire Diaries’ cast, and she would even consider the hunk – who is married to Ines de Ramon – as one of her "best friends".
She added: "Most of the time, love interests in film and TV don’t get along and that reads as really intense chemistry.
"Maybe we had a moment where we actually connected, and he looked at me and he was like, ‘Ten years from now, when we’re not on this show, you’re gonna really miss me. You’re gonna miss these times; you’re look back, and this is gonna be the good old days. We’ll appreciate each other in 10 years.’ He was so f***ing right. We ended up getting to a good place and it was fine. Of everyone, I think I probably see him the most and hang out with him the most. We’re probably the closest. We hang out a lot. We’re really good friends. I love his wife. It’s so funny how time changes everything because I never thought he would be one of my best friends."
Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev ‘totally clashed’ on Vampire Diaries set
