Lessons in Love: Complete Breakdown of Dove Cameron’s Dating History

It’s not easy living in the spotlight. Every step taken and every move made is highly documented and criticized. For former Disney star Dove Cameron, this is nothing new. She has been studied and scrutinized by fans, and that includes Dove Cameron relationship history.

Dove Cameron Relationship Timeline

As a young adult thrown into the Hollywood mix, all “coming of age” moments, like entering the dating scene, are shared with the entire world. Everything feels fresh and new, and the whole world is watching the journey. Tabloids want the details as quickly as they’re being developed.

Dove Cameron has experienced this firsthand and has handled it in stride. With each highly publicized relationship, she learns what she needs to and moves on to the next. Let’s look at a complete timeline of Cameron’s dating history.

Ryan McCartan

Dove Cameron, born Claire Hosterman, first rose to fame by playing the lead roles of both Liv and Maddie in the eponymous Disney show. This is also where Dove met her first long-term boyfriend, Ryan McCartan.

Cameron and McCartan met on the set of “Liv and Maddie” in 2013 and began dating soon after. McCartan was also on the show and played Diggie, Maddie’s love interest.

The Disney stars shared a very “young love” type of romance for four years.

In 2015, the pair was seen together at The Descendants premiere at the Walt Disney Studios Main Theater. The following year in April, Dove and Ryan McCartan formed a band together called The Girl and the Dreamcatcher.

Dove Cameron would even go on to tell “People“:

We were both very clear with each other that it was like, ‘I know you’re my person. You know you’re my person. There’s nobody else. But I knew he wanted to get married young—he had told me that. He was like, ‘That’s what I want as my life plan.’

Dove Cameron to “People”

Dove and Ryan McCartan attended many premieres and events together over the years they were together and gave the appearance of the “perfect” Disney couple.

First Love Meets First Heartbreak

While the former flames seemed hopelessly in love, they decided to call it quits 6 months after announcing their engagement. Dove’s ex fiancé took to Twitter, saying:

Dove has determined that she doesn’t want this relationship. We remain deeply in love with one another. This is hard, so please be understanding.

Ryan McCartan on Twitter

Dove would release her “statement” on Twitter around the same time:

Thank you for your support & full hearts in this very intense & human time. There’s a lot of love between Ryan & I. Life is beautiful & long.

Dove Cameron via Twitter

In April 2019, Dove mentioned in an interview with Access that she was grateful for her time with McCartan and that experience taught her a lot.

Just a few months later, Dove revealed to Seventeen that she felt pressure to “make everything look perfect all the time” while with Ryan. The Disney alum continued:

It was my first ever real relationship, and it was on-screen and off-screen. 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.

Dove Cameron to “Seventeen”

Love Is A Tough Role

Cameron mostly dated fellow actors, which might’ve made it hard to determine where the screen ends and real life begins.

When your love life is intertwined with your work life, it can be difficult to ‘clock out’ mentally.

Natasha Marie Narkiewicz, sexual wellness expert

The added pressure of keeping things perfect both on and off screen created tension between the two that pushed the relationship towards its demise.

Thomas Doherty

In true young Hollywood fashion, Dove Cameron would move from one co-star to the next. This time, a young, handsome Scottish actor named Thomas Doherty would sweep the Disney alum off her feet.

Dove Cameron and Thomas Doherty started dating when they met on the set of Descendants 2. In February 2017, a few months after the release of the film, the couple went public with their romance.

Initially, the lovebirds’ story was the classic “bad boy meets good girl” storyline. Dove’s first impression of Thomas was that he was “way too mischievous and charismatic and good-looking to—this sounds awful, but, to be good to me.”

They both fell head over heels in love with each other quickly, and Dove shared that it was “different than anything [she’s] ever experienced with another human right from the very start.”

Related reading: Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi Relationship

She would go on to very candidly disclose:

I know this is cheesy, but honestly, right from the moment we met, it felt like the earth moved for both of us… Thomas has been my rock. Every thought or feeling I have, no matter how strange or dark or heavy, he is a safe space for me, a never ending well of patience and generosity. He is my world.

He’s a pure soul. 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.

Dove Cameron to “Seventeen”

Not Quite Ready to Settle

Dove and her Descendants costar Thomas Doherty would celebrate their third anniversary in February 2020 but would decide to call it quits in October the same year.

Cameron took to Instagram to confirm the breakup, saying:

Hi all, we know there have been some rumors and confusion lately about the status of our relationship and we wanted to set the record straight. In October, Thomas and I decided to part ways. The decision was incredibly difficult, but we still have love for each other, and will remain friends. Thank you for allowing us our privacy in this time.

Dove Cameron on Instagram stories

In an admission to Gay Times in May 2021, Dove dropped a plot twist in her love story timeline and revealed some secrets about her sexuality:

I’ve hinted about my sexuality for years while being afraid to spell it out for everybody. I went on Instagram Live and said, ‘Guys, I really needed to explain something to you. Maybe I haven’t said it, but I’m super queer. This is something I want to represent through my music because it’s who I am.

Dove Cameron to Gay Times

Dove clearly keeps an open mind when it comes to her love life and continues to learn and grow from each of her dating experiences.

She would go on to tell Entertainment Tonight that her biggest lesson so far was realizing that she wanted to keep her love life private moving forward, citing it as “just a difference in maturity.”

Damiano David

Up to this point, it’s clear that Cameron has had her fair share of loving and learning, and her love life would only continue to get hotter from here.

Cameron met her current boyfriend, Damiano David, lead singer for the band Måneskin, backstage at the 2022 VMAs in Los Angeles when she and his band were up for the same award, Best New Artist. Dove’s nomination (and subsequent win) followed the February release of her wildly successful LGBTQ anthem, “Boyfriend.”

The two were obviously preoccupied at the time and neither thought much of the initial interaction.

Dove would tell Cosmopolitan in June 2024 that both she and David were in a “very different space” at the time, and she even turned down an invitation from Damiano David’s team to attend a Måneskin album release.

Bad Timing And a Second Chance

Damiano David was dating long-term girlfriend, Giorgia Soleri, at the time of his and Cameron’s initial meeting. The split between the two appeared to be less than graceful, with Damiano seen making out with model Martina Taglienti just a few days later.

The singer would go on to clarify the incident, citing that he and Giorgia had broken up a few days prior. He said hoped that would “not affect Giorgia’s image” and asked his fans to respect their privacy at the time.

Dove Cameron and Damiano would run into each other again at the VMAs in 2023. This time, David was freshly single and ready to shoot his shot.

Damiano David invited Cameron to a Måneskin concert at Madison Square Garden, and romance rumors quickly started to swirl from there.

In early November 2023, Cameron was seen at another Måneskin concert in Brazil, and a few months later, the pair were spotted kissing at Bondi Beach in Australia.

Cameron commented on David’s demeanor as a “sensitive soul” and his old-fashioned courting style to match:

He’s a Capricorn, so he was very much like, ‘Okay, these are my intentions.’ It was super honorable. He’s like a 1950s gentleman, angel, teddy bear. He’s the best person I’ve met in my life.

Dove Cameron to “Cosmopolitan”

New Love Blooms

In January 2024, the rumored romantics were spotted on a dinner date in Los Angeles. By February, the pair finally confirmed they were dating. And what better time to do so than at a pre-Grammy gala?

The pair attended Clive Davis’ annual Pre-Grammy Gala in February, where they made their red carpet debut. Later that same month, the couple attended Mark Ronson & Gucci’s Grammy After Party at Bar Marmont in Los Angeles.

A few months later, Cameron and her new boyfriend, Damiano David, attended the Met Gala together, a first for the both of them.

On June 2, the pair attended the Cam for a Cause Gala in West Hollywood for The Cameron Boyce Foundation. The gala honors Cameron Boyce, Dove’s former co-star and close friend who tragically passed away in July 2019.

By all accounts, Damiano and Dove Cameron dating appears to be a match made in heaven. Their relationship truly has nowhere to go but up.

Related reading: Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny: A Match Made in Heaven

Dove Cameron Relationship: What’s Next?

Chloe Celeste Hosterman, professionally known as Dove Cameron, has grown up on the red carpet. She was forced to learn the ins and outs Hollywood while also learning the ins and outs of growing as a human and fostering healthy relationships.

Through red carpets and filming and tabloids, the growth through love seen in Dove Cameron’s dating history is something she should be proud of. And something we could all take notes from!

Related reading: Billie Eilish and Her Most Notable Relationships