We're about to give you one more incredibly compelling reason to love Nikki Reed, Nina Dobrev, and powerful women like them who rise above.
For years, rumors have ravaged The Vampire Diaries fan base that Reed and actress Nina Dobrev were on the outs. Dobrev, who acted alongside Reed's now husband Ian Somerhalder in the show, had dated Somerhalder for a short time. This, of course, fueled speculations that Reed, who married Somerhalder in 2015, would resent Dobrev. To complicate matters, Dobrev's exit from the series was attributed by hasty sites as her way of getting over Somerhalder and avoiding his new bride. It was all a big mess that neither woman has deigned to address publicly — until now.
On Tuesday, Feb. 7, Twilight star Reed posted a picture to Instagram of Somerhalder, Dobrev, and herself hanging out. She accompanied the pic with an equal parts powerful and scathing passage on the damaging, cliche "love triangle" narrative that often pits woman against woman and called out gossip sites that perpetuate the problem.
"For the last few years we thought addressing any baseless rumors with silence was the best way. Besides, who wants to respond to made up stories about 'friends backstabbing friends', 'cheating exes', or 'cast members exiting shows' on low-brow websites like hollywoodlife that are just perpetuating trends that preceded us," Reed wrote. "Yuck. I now see that silence was taken as an opportunity to fill in the blanks with even more falsities, and juicer stories, and we, yes WE, believe we have a moral responsibility to young girls to end that narrative, because at the end of all of this, those young girls are the ones who lose. Their passion and endless devotion for a tv show is being taken advantage of, replaced with feelings of anger through divisive techniques, & even worse, their minds are being shaped & molded as their view of themselves, other girls, & what those dynamics should look like are being formed.
"So here's to putting an end to all those fake stories of on set jealousy, betrayal, made-up-friendships lost & women hating women," Reed continued. "Because at the end of the day, that's what this is about: teaching girls that you have to hate other girls only breeds a generation of women who believe you have to hate other women. And that's what these magazines, websites and blogs don't understand. That is the harmful unintended consequence of their bullshit stories and we have a moral responsibility to fix that. Let's turn this page together, as we all walk into the next chapter peacefully.
"And finally," the actress concluded, "let's use this as an example of how important it is to stop this trend of writing horrible headlines about women, painting us as bitter, angry, insecure, heartbroken, childless, feuding, backstabbing monsters because whether we want to admit it or not, it changes the way all women view themselves. And shame on these websites for now targeting an even younger demographic, instilling this at an earlier age when girls are even more susceptible, more vulnerable and more malleable. When we write these headlines we teach hate. I've seen it firsthand. Let's shift what we put into the universe starting now, & hopefully we will start to see a shift in the way we treat each other & view ourselves <3"
Earlier in the day, Dobrev had posted a similar pic of the trio, simply stating she was happy to see her friends.
"Can't believe how time flies. Farewell dinner with team Somereed! So good catching up with these goofballs. All <3" she wrote.
As Zimbio reported on Jan. 26, Dobrev will be reprising her role as Elena in The Vampire Diaries for the series finale.
