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Candice King: Divorce, Kids, Career & Life Updates

Anyone who watched The Vampire Diaries knows Candice King as Caroline Forbes, the show’s nervy, loyal vampire — a role she played for all eight seasons. Off screen, she was building something quieter: a marriage to Joe King of The Fray in 2014, two daughters, and a 2022 divorce filing reported by Us Weekly (celebrity outlet).

Birth date: May 13, 1987 (IMDb (film database)) · Known for: Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) · Instagram: 12 million followers (Instagram (official profile)) · TikTok: 3.7 million followers (TikTok (official account)) · Marital status: divorced from Joe King, 2022 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) · Children: two daughters (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
  • Born May 13, 1987, in Houston, Texas (IMDb (film database))
  • Played Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to 2017 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Married Joe King in 2014 and filed for divorce in April 2022 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Two daughters, Florence and Josephine (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
2What’s unclear
  • Divorce settlement terms — Us Weekly reported the filing, not the agreement (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Any confirmed partner since 2022 — her official feed shows daughters and work, not a relationship (Instagram (official profile)) (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Per-episode salaries — never disclosed by The CW; even the series’ detailed production history contains no payroll figures (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Reported on-set conflicts — never confirmed by a named cast member; Nina Dobrev’s biography documents a breakup, not a feud (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Stepdaughters’ names, reported as Ava and Elisa — not confirmed by a primary source (Distractify (entertainment site))
3Timeline signal
  • — Joins The Vampire Diaries (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (IMDb (film database))
  • — Marries Joe King in New Orleans (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (IMDb (film database))
  • — First daughter, Florence, is born (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (IMDb (film database))
  • — Second daughter, Josephine, is born (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (IMDb (film database))
  • — Divorce filing reported (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)) (IMDb (film database))
  • — Appears in The Winchesters (IMDb (film database))
4What’s next
  • Active on Instagram with 12 million followers (Instagram (official profile))
  • Active on TikTok with 3.7 million followers (TikTok (official account))
  • Most recent credited role: The Winchesters, 2023 (IMDb (film database))
  • No new acting roles announced as of 2024, per her credits page (IMDb (film database))

Nine facts, one pattern: the confirmed details are biographical, and the flashy numbers online usually are not.

Detail Value Source
Full name Candice Rene King (née Accola) Wikipedia (public encyclopedia)
Birth date May 13, 1987 IMDb (film database)
Birthplace Houston, Texas, U.S. IMDb (film database)
Height 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) per public sources IMDb (film database)
Ex-husband Joe King, musician (m. 2014, div. 2022) Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)
Children Two daughters Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)
Known role Caroline Forbes, The Vampire Diaries Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)
Instagram @candiceking, 12 million followers Instagram (official profile)
TikTok @itscandiceking, 3.7 million followers TikTok (official account)
Bottom line: The pattern: the documented record is clean, compact, and boring in the best way — the noise starts only where the record ends.

Did Candice King and her husband divorce?

Yes — with one distinction that matters: the divorce is documented, the explanation is not. Us Weekly reported that King, then known as Candice Accola, filed for divorce from Joe King, guitarist for The Fray, on April 28, 2022, after seven years of marriage (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)). Neither party issued a public statement detailing why.

When did Candice King marry Joe King?

  • Nina Dobrev reportedly introduced Candice to Joe King after a 2012 Celebrity Beach Bowl event (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Joe King proposed during a trip to Florence, Italy, in May 2013 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • The couple married in New Orleans on October 18, 2014, with several Vampire Diaries co-stars in attendance (Ranker (crowdsourced list) for the date; Us Weekly (celebrity outlet) for the guest list)

The New Orleans setting is the well-sourced part; the exact date comes from Ranker, a crowdsourced database — useful, but not the kind of source you would want standing alone. The split, when it came, produced strikingly little drama: no dueling statements, no tabloid follow-through.

Why did Candice King and Joe King divorce?

  • Us Weekly reported the April 28, 2022 filing and described the split as coming after seven years of marriage (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • The reasons for the divorce were not detailed in the coverage reviewed here
  • King’s social media since the filing has centered on her daughters and her work, with no public commentary about her ex-husband (Instagram (official profile))

The catch: a divorce that is public but unexplained reads as an invitation to speculate. The documented version is an ending without a caption.

How many children does Candice King have?

Candice King has two daughters with Joe King, and the record on them is unusually solid — names, birth years, and the blended-family context are all documented in mainstream coverage.

What are the names of Candice King’s children?

  • Florence May King, born January 2016; Us Weekly reported the birth, and IMDb lists the date as January 15, 2016 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet); IMDb (film database))
  • Josephine June King, born December 2020 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • King also became stepmother to Joe King’s two daughters from a prior marriage, per her IMDb biography; secondary coverage identifies them as Ava and Elisa, but that detail traces to Distractify and has not been confirmed by a primary source (IMDb (film database); Distractify (entertainment site))

What are the birth years of Candice King’s daughters?

  • First daughter: 2016, while King was still filming The Vampire Diaries (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Second daughter: 2020, three years after the series finale (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))

The gap maps neatly onto her career: Florence arrived mid-franchise, Josephine after the show’s universe had stopped being her day job. The middle names — May and June — give the two daughters a matching rhythm that makes the family unit feel, in the public record, carefully put together.

What this means: King’s family timeline is the spine of her career story. Marriage in 2014, a child mid-franchise, another after the finale — the professional and personal calendars move together.

Does Candice King have a partner today?

  • No relationship has been publicly announced or documented since the April 2022 filing
  • King’s Instagram, with 12 million followers, shows her daughters, her projects, and everyday life — not a partner (Instagram (official profile))
  • The documentary record simply stops at the divorce filing; silence after a public split is a pattern, not a clue (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))

The honest answer is “unknown,” not “single.” Celebrity databases like Ranker fill that vacuum with hookup-and-relationship lists compiled from rumor-hunting rather than reporting (Ranker (crowdsourced list)) — useful as a map of what people guess, useless as evidence.

The catch

The absence of a visible partner has been routinely recast as a secret romance. Every “Candice King’s boyfriend” headline online is inference wearing a headline.

One project she did take after the divorce hints at the register she prefers: a guest slot on The Winchesters in 2023, a show with a built-in fandom but none of the tabloid machinery of her old franchise (IMDb (film database)).

The implication: until King says otherwise, “not documented” is the accurate answer — and for someone who has never treated her private life as content, that silence is the point.

Is Candice King friends with Nina Dobrev?

The documented answer is yes, with a scale attached: they were co-stars for years, Nina helped set up the marriage that defined King’s personal life, and both have stayed publicly warm since. Whether they are “best friends” is not documented. Whether they are friendly former co-stars is.

Did Candice King attend Nina Dobrev’s birthday party?

  • No specific birthday-party appearance at Dobrev’s celebrations is documented in the sources reviewed here
  • The strongest documented friendship signal is bigger than a party: Dobrev reportedly introduced King to Joe King after a 2012 Celebrity Beach Bowl event (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Us Weekly’s coverage of King’s wedding confirmed that several Vampire Diaries co-stars were in attendance — consistent with a set that stayed close after hours (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))

Have Candice King and Nina Dobrev worked together after The Vampire Diaries?

  • No post-TVD joint project appears in either actor’s credited filmography (IMDb (film database))
  • Dobrev left the series in 2015, while King continued through the 2017 finale (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • The franchise revisited the universe without her — King went on to The Originals and Legacies, but Dobrev did not (IMDb (film database))
Why this matters

The “are they still friends” question is really a demand for proof of closeness neither woman has promised anyone. The record shows warmth, not a performance of warmth.

The pattern: this friendship is real, documented, and ordinary — matchmaker energy, wedding attendance, mutual goodwill. That is apparently less interesting to the algorithm than a feud.

Who had conflicts on The Vampire Diaries set?

The honest headline is that the show had documented breakups and documented grumbling about hours, but no documented long-term feud. The set was a high-pressure CW hit with young leads, 20-plus-episode seasons, and a production calendar that pushed everyone to their limit.

Did Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley clash?

  • Dobrev and Wesley dated after meeting on the show; the relationship ended around 2013, and that history is part of the public record (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • No public account from either actor describes a lasting feud. What is documented is a relationship that ended inside a workplace where both still had to show up the next morning

Did Ian Somerhalder fight with producers?

  • Somerhalder was the cast’s most vocal critic of the production’s pace, publicly questioning whether the schedule was sustainable — a thread that appeared in entertainment coverage during the show’s run and later fed the “difficult set” narrative (context documented in Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • No official record of a formal clash with producers exists in the sources reviewed here

Which cast members had known disagreements?

  • No cast member has confirmed a lasting disagreement with another in the coverage reviewed here
  • The documented friction points are structural: punishing hours, franchise pressure, and the awkwardness of two leads dating and then breaking up (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia); Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
Why this matters

The demand for a villain in this story outstrips the supply of evidence. Every “who didn’t get along” headline is normal workplace tension, magnified by fandom.

The takeaway: the set was exhausting and the cast was human, but “conflict” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The documented version is a grind, not a war.

Bottom line: No Vampire Diaries cast member — not Nina Dobrev, not Paul Wesley, not Ian Somerhalder — has confirmed a lasting feud. The real story is a grueling schedule and one very public breakup between Dobrev and Wesley; the feud narrative has no named source behind it.

The pattern: the show’s documented friction was structural — long hours and a broken-off relationship — not a cast divided against itself.

Who auditioned for the role of Damon Salvatore?

The only fully documented fact is the outcome: Ian Somerhalder was cast as Damon Salvatore and played him from 2009 to 2017 (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia)). Everything around the auditions is anecdote the public record does not verify.

Which actors were finalists for Damon?

  • The CW never released a public list of finalists for the role
  • Somerhalder’s casting is confirmed in the series’ production history (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Stories about other actors being in the final round circulate in fan spaces but are not supported by the sources reviewed here

How did Ian Somerhalder get the role?

  • He was cast ahead of the show’s 2009 premiere and became the center of its love triangle (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))
  • Somerhalder came into the audition fresh off Lost, a credit documented in his filmography — which made him a plausible pick for a network looking for a TV-proven lead (IMDb (film database))
The catch

Audition lore around the show — role swaps, near-miss casting, last-minute switches — is vivid in fan spaces, but casting directors rarely put those stories on the record.

What this means: the audition story fans want, the one with a twist, is not in the record. The documented version is simpler: the right actor got the part.

Who earned the most and least on The Vampire Diaries?

The most truthful answer is also the least satisfying: no one outside the accounting department knows. The CW never disclosed per-episode salaries, and the figures that circulate online are estimates assembled by databases without access to contracts.

What was Ian Somerhalder’s salary?

  • No official salary for Somerhalder was ever published; online figures vary so widely they should be treated as estimates, not data
  • It is broadly understood that the lead trio — Dobrev, Somerhalder, and Wesley — earned more than the supporting cast, a pattern consistent with how broadcast dramas structured contracts in that era (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))

What was Candice King’s estimated net worth?

  • Net-worth databases publish figures for King, but no financial disclosure from King or her representatives exists; treat every number as modeled, not verified
  • Her documented income sources are acting, music, and social media work (IMDb (film database); Instagram (official profile); TikTok (official account))

Who had the highest net worth among the cast?

  • Unknown. Net worth depends on investments, real estate, and private deals that no roundup can see
  • Somerhalder has said in interviews that he carried debt before the show turned his career around — a self-reported detail, not a financial record
The upshot

Every “highest-paid Vampire Diaries star” article is a chain of estimates wearing a headline. The only defensible sentence: leads out-earned supporting cast, and the real numbers stayed private.

The trade-off: money journalism about the show is only as reliable as the contracts it cannot see — which makes it a genre of speculation, best read with the same skepticism as the feuds.

Bottom line: Exact salaries for Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, and Candice King were never disclosed, and net-worth lists are entertainment, not accounting. Treat every roundup as an estimate; the contracts stayed private.

The implication: every public salary figure is a model, not a record — and the private numbers are the only real ones.

Four screen credits, one pattern: King’s career is a Vampire Diaries universe loop, with a single post-franchise detour in 2023.

Production Years Role Source
The Vampire Diaries 2009-2017 Caroline Forbes (main cast) Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)
The Originals 2016 Caroline Forbes (guest) IMDb (film database)
Legacies 2018-2022 Caroline Forbes (guest appearances) IMDb (film database)
The Winchesters 2023 Guest role IMDb (film database)
Music Career credit Singer-songwriter IMDb (film database)
Social media Active now Instagram (12M), TikTok (3.7M) Instagram (official profile); TikTok (official account)

The pattern: each credit pulls her back toward the same fictional universe — and every step since 2020 has pulled her further away from it.

Candice King’s documented timeline

One way to read King’s life is as a series of scheduling decisions. These are the dates the public record supports.

  • — Born in Houston, Texas; grew up in Edgewood, Florida, and attended Lake Highland Preparatory School (IMDb (film database))
  • — Joins The Vampire Diaries as Caroline Forbes (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • — Marries Joe King in New Orleans (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • — First daughter, Florence May King, is born (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet); IMDb (film database))
  • — Second daughter, Josephine June King, is born (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • — Divorce filing reported (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • — Appears in The Winchesters (IMDb (film database))
  • — Active on social media; no new acting roles announced on her credits page (IMDb (film database); Instagram (official profile))
What to watch

If the pattern holds — franchise-heavy career, deliberately light personal footprint — the next documented move will be another low-friction project, not another franchise anchor.

The pattern: every major life change maps to her time around the show. She entered it single, married during it, became a mother during its run, and has built the post-show years around the family she started while making it.

Separating the documented record from the rumor mill

The confirmed list is shorter than the unclear list, which is itself a finding: King’s public record is small, specific, and unusually free of self-promotion.

Confirmed facts

  • Full name, birth date, and birthplace (IMDb (film database))
  • Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries, 2009-2017 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Marriage to Joe King in 2014 and divorce filing in April 2022 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Two daughters, Florence and Josephine (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet))
  • Instagram following of 12 million and TikTok following of 3.7 million (Instagram (official profile); TikTok (official account))
  • Appearance in The Winchesters in 2023 (IMDb (film database))

What’s unclear

  • Exact divorce settlement and terms — no disclosure
  • Any confirmed partner after the 2022 filing — no documentation
  • Per-episode salaries for the main cast — never released
  • Net worth figures — estimates only
  • Reported on-set feuds — no official confirmation
  • Stepdaughters’ names, reported as Ava and Elisa (Distractify (entertainment site)) — not primary-confirmed
  • Damon Salvatore audition finalists — casting records not public
  • Young adult novel release details — reported, unconfirmed

The balance is the story: eight seasons of television made her famous, but the durable record is a marriage, a divorce filing, two daughters, and a small pile of credits. The rest is noise.

What the cast has said

The most revealing public statements from the cast are not scandalous. They are about the work, the pace, and the friendships.

Candice King has described Caroline Forbes as a character who starts out chasing approval and ends up as the strongest person in the room — the arc that kept the role interesting across eight seasons.

Candice King, in interviews about The Vampire Diaries, summarized in Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)

Nina Dobrev has said the friendships from The Vampire Diaries outlasted her time on the show — and her introduction of Candice to Joe King, the matchmaking moment documented after the 2012 Celebrity Beach Bowl, is the most concrete proof of that bond on the record.

Nina Dobrev, in interviews about her co-stars, as documented by Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)

Ian Somerhalder has been blunt about the physical cost of the show’s production calendar, publicly questioning whether the hours were sustainable — candor that later fed the “difficult set” narrative.

Ian Somerhalder, in press interviews, as noted in coverage of The Vampire Diaries (Wikipedia (public encyclopedia))

Paul Wesley has talked about the strangeness of playing inside a shipping culture so intense that a fictional couple’s fate could outweigh the actors’ real lives in the fandom’s imagination.

Paul Wesley, in interviews about the series’ fandom, as recapped by Wikipedia (public encyclopedia)

The pattern: the documented public commentary from the cast is about craft, fatigue, and friendship — not the interpersonal warfare the internet has tried to manufacture.

None of this makes Candice King less interesting — it makes her more unusual. In an entertainment culture that converts every relationship, paycheck, and grudge into content, she has left a public record that is mostly work and family: a divorce filing that answered one question, two daughters whose names and birth years are documented, and a post-franchise life that has been deliberately quiet. The gaps in that record — the settlement, the partner status, the salaries, the feuds — are real, but they are gaps, not evidence. For anyone tracking her career, the choice is clear: read the documented timeline, or keep filling the silence with speculation — only one of those will age well.

Frequently asked questions

Is Candice King still acting?

King’s most recent credited role is an appearance on The Winchesters in 2023 (IMDb (film database)). Since then, no new acting roles have been announced; her visible energy has shifted to Instagram and TikTok.

Did Candice King sing on The Vampire Diaries?

Yes. King arrived with a singer-songwriter background (IMDb (film database)), and Caroline Forbes performed on air during the series — including a much-shared cover of “Eternal Flame” early in the run.

What book did Candice King write?

King has discussed writing a young adult novel, and the project has been reported in entertainment coverage. No confirmed release date or publisher appears in the sources reviewed here, so the accurate status is “project,” not “published book.”

Does Candice King have Instagram?

Yes — @candiceking, with about 12 million followers (Instagram (official profile)). She also runs a TikTok account, @itscandiceking, with about 3.7 million followers (TikTok (official account)).

What is Candice King’s most famous role?

Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries, which she played for all eight seasons from 2009 to 2017 (Us Weekly (celebrity outlet)). She later returned to the role in The Originals and Legacies (IMDb (film database)).

Did Candice King appear in Legacies?

Yes — she reprised Caroline Forbes as a guest in Legacies, the Vampire Diaries spinoff (IMDb (film database)). The appearances were guest-level, consistent with her post-show focus on family.

How old is Candice King now?

She was born on May 13, 1987, which makes her 37 as of 2024 (IMDb (film database)). Her age is one of the few numbers about her that is actually documented.

The pattern: questions about her get more interesting the closer they get to what she has not shared — and the documented record has no answers there, only silence.

Related reading

Two celebrity timelines with the same shape — actor, defining series, relationships, family: Richard Madden: Career, Relationships, and Game of Thrones and Ed Westwick: Fatherhood, Wedding, Gossip Girl & Allegations.

Bottom line: The pattern: the documented record answers the questions it can answer and stays silent on the ones it cannot.



Harry Thompson
Harry ThompsonStaff Writer

Harry Thompson is Senior Reporter at PublicReport, covering breaking UK news and political stories across the country.

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