Dove Cameron Reveals How She Met Fiance Damiano David: 'It Sounds Like Fan Fiction'

Dove Cameron is opening up the story about how she met her now-fiance Damiano David.

The 30-year-old actress and singer first met Damiano, 27, while attending the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, where they were nominated for the same award… but they didn’t start dating until much later.

While appearing as a guest on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Dove opened up about how their meet-cute was “like fan faction.”

Keep reading to find out more…

Dove and Damiano‘s band Maneskin were both nominated for Best New Artist at the VMAs in 2022. She ended up winning the award and the band went up to her backstage to congratulate her, but Damiano didn’t make a good first impression. Turns out, there was a reason.

“I think he would feel comfortable with me saying he was not the happiest. You know, he was struggling emotionally and everything wise, and so he was also not matching my level of like, ‘Oh, this feels like something really special.’ He was still kind of an enigma, you know what I mean?” Dove said. “He was kind of behind layers of glass, but I was like, ‘I just have this feeling that whoever’s behind these layers of glass is gonna be someone very important to my life,’ and so we started dating the most ridiculous way.”

“We met at the VMAs, which was like the stupidest way you can meet your partner, not because the VMAs are stupid, but because it’s like, ‘One night only.’ It sounds like a book, like a fan fiction, you know? It’s like we ran into each other in passing. It’s so stupid and so dumb,” Dove said.

Dove said their initially meeting lasted for about 15 seconds.

“What you do cordially is whoever wins after, you go like, ‘Congrats, dude.’ So, I won, and so backstage, the backstage is very small. It is the size of a f–king, I don’t know what compare it to. It’s a small area,” Dove said.

She continued, “I come backstage and they’re naturally like, ‘Nice to meet you. Congrats,’ and I actually spoke with Victoria, his bassist, and she was like, ‘Congrats girl,’ and I was like, ‘Yes girl. You’re amazing,’ and then Ethan and Thomas were like, ‘Congrats,’ and then Damiano was in the back, and so he barely looked at me like, and he was also not giving off friendly vibes. I was like, “That guy f–king hates me. Swerve. I’m gonna go on with my night.’ I didn’t think about it.”

“I learned that he was just in a really bad place. It had nothing to do with me, but I took it personally, and I was like, ‘F–king weird. Alright, bye,’” Dove said.

She also cleared up that no one slid into each other’s DMs, which was a rumor. Dove said, “Even if I think someone is maybe cute, first of all, I have never slid into DMs in a flirtatious way because I’m not good over text and also, what if I don’t like you in real life?”

They reunited at the 2023 VMAs.

“We had a reason to talk. He was single, and I was single, and he was in a better place and I was in a better place,” she said. Damiano reintroduced himself.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I remember you. Like, you’re so different now.’ He was so friendly. And then he was like, ‘Do wanna come to our show at Madison Square Garden?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah,’” she said. “And then we just started dating, and now we’re engaged. Like, it’s so, so innocent and simple.”

Turns out, the timing was perfect.

“If I had met him before I did in a way where he was interested in me and there was an opportunity for us to be dating, I would not have been ready because I was so depressed. I was, like, celibate,” Dove said. “I was like, ‘Don’t touch me, don’t look at me, don’t come close to me, I’m not leaving my house.’ I was like dark night of the soul for a year.”

Dove has revealed how Damiano proposed to her and why they waited to announce it.