Nikki Reed and Nina Dobrev have always gotten along.
That news might come as surprise to some people, given that multiple tabloids have claimed the actresses were "at war" over Ian Somerhalder, Reed's husband and Dobrev's ex-boyfriend. But, as Dobrev returned to film an episode of The Vampire Diaries this week, she posed for a photo with the Twilight star, proving once and for all that there's no bad blood between them.
Joined by the couple, Dobrev updated her Instagram Tuesday. "Can't believe how time flies," she wrote. "Farewell dinner with team Somereed! So good catching up with these goofballs."
Reed shared a similar photo on Instagram used it as a means to call out the tabloids.
"For the last few years we thought addressing any baseless rumors with silence was the best way," the Sleepy Hollow actress wrote. "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 Hollywood Life that are just perpetuating trends that preceded us. Yuck."
Reed realized her silence "was taken as an opportunity to fill in the blanks with even more falsities and juicer stories." She and Dobrev felt they had "a moral responsibility" to end that narrative. "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, and even worse, their minds are being shaped and molded as their view of themselves, other girls, and 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 and women hating women," Reed told her 1.6 million Instagram followers. "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 bulls--t 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, 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," she wrote. "...Let's shift what we put into the universe starting now, and hopefully we will start to see a shift in the way we treat each other and view ourselves."
Somerhalder—the connecting link—also weighed in via Instagram.
"After years of websites pretending these two badass ladies knew each other well and baseless, false information of back stabbing and hatred from low-brow websites filled the minds and hearts of fans... They finally were able to get together for their first real dinner," he wrote. "Let's stop spreading hate everyone, there's already too much of that right now in our world."
Join in on the love. Only love here- always has been always will be," Somerhalder said. "Media companies preying on the passion from vulnerable and or impressionable minds of fans to sell advertising through click-though traffic is a disease in our society. It's poisonous. Let's finish this series with respect and kindness and continue that in our lives. I think it's time. What do think?"
Dobrev, for her part, has always been mature about her split with Somerhalder. "I've said this before, that we didn't break up because anything bad happened or because there wasn't love or friendship," she told E! News' Maria Menounos exclusively in 2013. "I love him and the friendship is still strong and I think he's great and I care about him. And that didn't change. Yes, we're professional and that's fine. We were friends long before we dated and we still are now."
As for his relationship with Reed, she said, "When I heard about the wedding, I thought it was beautiful. They look happy and I am happy, and so I don't see why there should be a problem with that. The drama is in the media—it's not with us. But of course, we're on a teen drama show, everyone's going to look for drama. If there's no drama, there's nothing to write about."
The best thing to do, Dobrev said, is "just ignore it."