Dove Cameron's Dating History: From Ryan McCartan to Damiano David

Dove Cameron debuted her new relationship with musician Damiano David in January 2024

Dove Cameron has found success as both an actress and singer, and her romantic partners have been no different.

The former Disney Channel star's first public romance was with her Liv and Maddie castmate Ryan McCartan in 2013. The couple were briefly engaged before they split up in 2016. A year later, Cameron revealed that she was dating her Descendants 2 costar Thomas Doherty. The pair dated for more than three years before they went their separate ways in 2020.

The following year, Cameron told PEOPLE that living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic had allowed her to process both her breakup with Doherty and the sudden passing of her best friend and Descendants costar, Cameron Boyce.

"I found this sense of self. I'm living alone, I'm single for the first time and I just feel born again," she said. "My capacity for happiness is so much greater because of my past."

Part of this expansion included Cameron coming out as bisexual during an Instagram Live in 2020 when she told fans she was “super queer.” In a 2021 interview with Gay Times, the star said that while she was “never confused” about her identity, she was initially concerned about not being accepted.

“I’ve hinted about my sexuality for years while being afraid to spell it out for everybody,” she told the outlet.

Cameron continued, “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.’ ”

The star also opened up to PEOPLE about how her life had shifted since coming out. “Through the public acknowledgment of my sexuality, I feel like I'm living my life more bare, which feels really vulnerable, but I'm also trying to be okay with that,” Cameron shared.

In early 2024, the Schmigadoon! actress debuted a new relationship with Måneskin band member Damiano David after months of speculation.

Here’s everything to know about Dove Cameron’s dating history.

Ryan McCartan

Cameron and fellow actor McCartan met on the set of the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie in 2013 and began dating that same year. Cameron played the titular characters, identical twins Liv and Maddie Rooney, while McCartan played Diggie, a love interest of Maddie.

Beyond their on-screen roles, Cameron and McCartan also formed a pop band together in 2015 called The Girl and the Dreamcatcher.

In April 2016, the couple announced they were engaged. “Dedicating my 1,000th post to my fiancée. I can’t believe I get to call you that. Thanks for saying yes,” McCartan wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. At the time of their engagement, Cameron and McCartan were 20 and 22, respectively.

“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,’ ” Cameron told PEOPLE shortly after the announcement. “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.' ”

Less than six months after their engagement, McCartan shared that he and Cameron had ended their relationship. “Dove has decided this relationship isn’t what she wants. We still love each other very much. Please be sensitive, as this is painful,” he said in a since-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) in October 2016.

“Thank you for your support & full hearts in this very intense & human time,” Cameron wrote on X. “There’s a lot love between Ryan & I. Life is beautiful & long.”

Later that month, McCartan appeared on the podcast Allegedly with Theo Von and Matthew Cole Weiss and said of the breakup, “It just plain out sucks.” He continued, “It’s really hard. I still love her very much, but c’est la f------ vie. That’s just kind of how it goes. Time heals everything.”

Years later, in a 2019 interview with Seventeen, Cameron opened up about her relationship with McCartan and said she felt pressured to “make everything look perfect all the time.”

"It was my first ever real relationship, and it was on-screen and off-screen," she told the magazine. "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," she continued. "People thought I was sharing loads, but I hardly shared anything."

Thomas Doherty

Cameron met Scottish actor Thomas Doherty when he joined the cast of Descendants 2. The couple confirmed their relationship in February 2017, a few months after the movie's release.

“We’re dating ... We’re keeping it to ourselves, because everything is just so more romantic and real when it’s yours and it’s private,” Cameron said in an interview with PEOPLE at the time.

“It was not right away,” the former Disney star said of their romance. “It was one of those natural evolutions ... I’m going to stay tight-lipped about that. But he’s a lovely, lovely person.”

Cameron later admitted that their relationship was serious from the beginning. “He told me he loved me within a week of meeting me, and has never taken a step back from that statement,” she said in a 2019 interview with Seventeen, where she also shared that the pair got matching tattoos two weeks after meeting.

"My relationship with Thomas has been different than anything I've ever experienced with another human right from the very start," Cameron told the outlet. "I know this is cheesy, but honestly, right from the moment we met, it felt like the earth moved, for both of us ... 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."

Though they were long-distance for part of their relationship when Doherty was based in London, Cameron told PeopleTV in April 2020 that the couple had moved into a studio together.

Shortly after, in December 2020, Cameron confirmed that she and Doherty had split up two months prior. "We know there have been some rumors and confusion lately about the status of our relationship and we wanted to set the record straight,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.

Cameron continued, "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."

Less than a year later, in June 2021, Cameron told Entertainment Tonight that her new song “LazyBaby” helped her heal after her split from Doherty.

“The breakup f----- me up,” she said. “It was really hard, and I needed something that was going to get me from where I was, in the mourning process, into the other side.”

Damiano David

In September 2023, rumors began to circulate around Cameron and David when the actress attended one of the rocker's concerts with his band Måneskin. A few months prior, David had announced his split from his long-term girlfriend, Giorgia Soleri.

In January 2024, the speculation heated up as David and Cameron were spotted on a dinner date in Los Angeles.

The couple finally confirmed their relationship status during their red carpet debut at Clive Davis' annual Pre-Grammy Gala in February 2024. David and Cameron cuddled up next to each other while posing and shared a kiss, cementing their new romance.

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