Last week, I linked a story about how Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder were teasing a “thirsty” engagement. Some of you thought I was being a bit mean, so let’s talk it out. Nikki and Ian went public in July with some farmer’s market and outdoor exercise photos. They almost immediately adopted a horse together, and raved about it on social media. All of that was fine and even normal by celebrity standards. I guess. But their antics escalated. By September, Nikki and Ian were grinning outside a Toronto “novelty” shop where they dropped $1000 on adult toys. That seems pretty thirsty to me. Why did they need to buy all that stuff all at once as the paps waited outside the store? Mail-order discretion, yo.
Earlier this month, Nikki finalized her divorce from Paul McDonald (after two years of marriage). That’s when she and Ian started visiting jewelry stores. Now E! has spoken with multiple sources who say Nikki and Ian are engaged:
Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed are bride and groom to-be!
The 36-year-old Vampire Diaries star and the 26-year-old Twilight star are engaged, multiple sources confirm exclusively to E! News. The exciting engagement comes about six months after they first started dating.
The engagement isn’t a surprise to insiders close to the couple. One source says that Somerhalder told Reed he had “been in love with [her] for years,” long before they took their friendship to the next level. “They’re so happy,” the source tells E! News. “They were crazy happy from the start. Their families love each other. It just feels really right.”
Reed and Somerhalder first sparked romance rumors when they were spotted getting their PDA on in July at an L.A. farmers market.
They also recently started their own production company together. “Nikki and I are starting a production company and we’re going to be able to tell even more stories that we really want to tell, everything from documentaries to TV shows to movies…all kinds of stuff,” Somerhalder told E! News just this week. “Having the success of a television show like [Vampire Diaries] really allows you to be able … now I get to start spreading my creative wings as well.”
“It’s going to be awesome,” the hunky star added of their joint project. “Listen, it’s about telling stories and it’s about creating the content to tell those stories and whose going to distribute that content.”
[From E! Online]
They’re starting a production company together? These two move fast. A quick marriage will be stressful enough. Nikki and Paul married when she was 23. She’s only 26 now, but Ian is 36. Maybe he wants to hurry up and start a family. He and Nikki have already adopted a zoo together. Congrats to the happy (and yes, thirsty) couple.
Nikki also appears in the February issue of Nylon to promote her music. She spoke about her debut film, Thirteen, which was semi-autobiograpical and depicted a life of teenage drugging, crime, and cutting. Nikki said she was too young for stardom: “It was a feeding frenzy, and I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I didn’t have any media training–I didn’t have anybody but myself.” It sounds like her life has been a constant roller coaster, and that won’t change anytime soon.
P.S. Nikki and Ian walked their first red carpet together at the Warner Bros. Globes afterparty. Nikki wore Katharine Kidd, and pics are in the gallery.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
He’s 36?! Whaaa
She’s only 26??
May they have a happy life of being irrelevant vampires forever.
Amen… This IS super D-Listy
Well, at least Nikki knows she couldn’t pull off her vampire-blonde shade in real life. That’s … something.
I like her hair blonde! I was gonn say she should go blonde. She’d have the Shakira look
Agree Katarina–I actually thought she was SO pretty as a platinum blond in the first Twilight. All of their hair was perfect in the first one–especially Esme/Elizabeth Reaser’s hair. And then they just RUINED it.
Oh No You Guyses.. That Shakira thing don’t even Look good on Shakira.. her hair looks like yellow Damaged Yarn seriously google her hair black or red back when she used to sing amazing songs with SOME meaning , in Spanish and even Political Critique!!…really even without captions youtube some of her Shakira Unplugged stuff..AMAZING) her hair flattered her Latin/lebanese features SOOOOOO Much…
Agreed 100% QQ. Both Nikki and Shakira look far, FAR better as brunettes.
They seemed serious right away. I like them because they like animals. That’s all it takes for me.
Yeah, these two are thirsty. I like him and think he seems like a real sweetheart and I don’t have anything against her, but the thirst is obvious. Which doesn’t mean I don’t think this is a real relationship. I get the feeling Ian has wanted to settle down for awhile and Nina Dobrev was the one who wasn’t really on board with it, and Nikki has always seemed like a serious relationship sort of girl. It’s just that they both happen to be a little prone to seek publicity individually, so now that they’re together, there isn’t someone to put the breaks on and say “enough already.”
For sure- lovely but thirsty. Ian supports a lot a great causes and I have always been a fan of his off screen endeavours. Nikki seems like a nice sort of girl. They seem to be moving fast but haven’t they been friends a long time? So they probably know each other pretty well. They seem really happy.
Good for them. Although since they were both craven attention seekers separately this does not bode well for how much mugging they will do in the future. I also hope they opt for a long engagement because she is just leaving a marriage.
You have to have a screw loose to get engaged the same month you finalize your divorce. They’ve been together 6 months and they already need to “spice” things up by buying adult toys?
For some people it’s not a “spice things up” thing- it’s what they like.
Whatever works. I’m not the adult toy gestapo. People are allowed to like what they like.
I think anyone that ‘needs’ sex toys from the outset is pretty deficient in imagination and sensuality tbh.
For some people it’s not a lack of imagination, misstee. Some people need certain kinds of physical sensation, regardless of how into their partner are.
Exactly Corey/Lunchcoma See:
70 or so Percent of women that don’t Orgasm Vaginally
Men that Lie Pegging
People Into S&M
Am I gross and slut-shame-y if I think this is next-level tacky? Not the, err, purchases themselves, but the fact that they did it so publicly. Buy online, guys. Even us non-famous types have been doing that to spare ourselves the embarrassment for years!
What could possibly go wrong?
And I am totally side-eyeing whoever is trying to say that Nikki Reed is 26. Someone’s trying to shave a few years off already, but that would have made her about 11 or 12 years old when she wrote the movie Thirteen.
Yeap, Nicki is 32 not 26. She was born in 1982 & not 1988 like her Wikipedia page will have you believe.
I thought so – I remember when Thirteen came out and it was a big deal at the time because she was only 16-17 when she wrote it (it was autobiographical).
ikr? I remember years ago she used to be quite a bit older than me, and now apparently we’re only a year apart. she ages in reverse.
Thirteen came out in 2003–there’s no way she was 21 in that movie. She was 15 when it came out (or, at least that’s even what the press said in 2003).
Mind you, I totally believe she’s older than this, but she’s still on the aging timeline she put out in 2003.
I think she was at least 18 – she played the older girl, not the 13 year old. Which would still have her squarely at 31-32 right now.
Why on earth does this bug me so much?
Geez, a lot of celebrities are doing the “engagements after only a few months of dating” thing lately. Congratulations and best of luck to them, though.
it’s not just celebrities. i have quite a few female friends who move super quickly in relationships, moving in together/getting engaged/having babies after only being together 6/8 months. personally, i don’t get the rush.
He rescued a pregnant pitbull so I have nothing but love for him. Surprised she would jump into marriage so quickly again, though they do seem well suited/ are both super earnest cause warriors.
They were both on the World Dog Awards last night. I didn’t even know that existed, but once I saw it on, I couldn’t not watch it! No shame. Anyway, they were there, looking really cute and he won an award for his contributions to animals/shelters or something. They seem like happy, kind, like-minded people. Good for them.
What makes me side eye it is that she’s so young. You know….she’s not in her late twenties/early thirties i.e. knows what she wants and wants to get a move on (like having kids, for example), but she’s only 26. Date for a year or two before jumping back into marriage when you’re that young. Or don’t get married/engaged at all.
She is not 26. She’s fudging her age. For one thing, this puts her at being younger than Evan Rachel Wood… who she was older than when they were in Thirteen (which Reed wrote).
I think her age is less relevant here than the fact that she just got out of a marriage, not sure why they feel the need to rush right into an engagement. Otherwise they seem cute and compatible.
The divorce doesn’t bug me as much since they’d been separated for a while before they divorced. But the age is actually kind of relevant when people say she’s too young to be on her second engagement/marriage
I never liked her, she’s super famewhorey. What a disappointment that Ian’s involved in this crap. They can’t seriously be engaged after she got divorced just a few years after she married a guy she just dated for a few months before!! It’s so obvious that this is another “celebrity” divorce in the making…
Don’t they have friends who talk them out of it?
What’s with the rush? They move faster than a pair of broke virgins from a super religious village who need to get married because their families will disown them if they will have sex before marriage. Even if she’s pregnant, no one will care and if someone will – they can laugh a them from the safety of one of their multiple villas she got to keep after her recent divorce.
Sigh. Girlfriend didn’t learn from past mistakes apparently.
I married the Mr. McKitten 6 months after we met on a blind date. 2 kids and lots of years later and we have made a pact to die together in our 90s in a sex-related accident. The 6 months thing doesn’t bother me at all (but all Hollywoody marriages get a side eye from me). Good luck to these crazy kids.
LOL at “sex related accident” comment.
He is HHHOOOTTT. She is jumping too fast from one to another, but she will realize all of this when she is in her 30’s or 40’s.
Wasn’t Nikki friends with Nina Dobrev? Of course Ian isn’t Nina’s property, but it’s a tacky move to be with your friend’s ex.There are so many men out there,why has to be him? I wonder if they are still friends though.
Nina was was classier.
Yes I remember a stage where Nikki and Nina were in a lot of each other’s Instagram photos. But I guess since Nina and Ian still work together on TVD it’s all got to be pretty weird.
Third engagement and second marriage before she’s thirty. This girl is living on her own since she was 14. I think she just can’t be alone. She moves on so fast through guys. I’d be insulted if I was her ex, because she and Paul also got engaged after 6 months of dating, and she gushed about him the way she gushes about Ian “the man of my dreams, the love of my life.” I don’t know if she’s insincere or just super needy, but I don’t understand how you jump from one marriage to another without having some time for yourself and asking why didn’t the first marriage work out. She’s also, dangerously, doing business with these guys too soon as well. Many people thought that it was her who paid some of Paul’s studio sessions and that without her he wouldn’t have been able to film videos and record his own music. Who else? I mean she had Twilight money, he was broke and unconnected to the business. Which is why she’s on that album too. It must’ve come with conditions. And now they’re stuck collaborating and performing together after the divorce.
I honestly never liked Paul. He seemed like he was taking advantage of the Twilight hype and money, and the fact that she was thirsty as hell for him. Major ego boost. He was a nobody fresh out of American Idol, with a girlfriend in the hottest franchise of the moment. She got him tons of attention and she got them on the soundtrack of the last movie too. And now Ian… He just loves attention, and if rumors are true that Nina dumped him because she wasn’t ready for marriage… Well, this is one way to show her.
Super healthy decision, guys! It’ll work out PERFECTLY.
Just for perspective… she’s over 30. She’s near my age and I’m 33. If I remember correctly, she was about 18 when the movie Thirteen came out in the early 2000s. It’s easy to shave a few years off your Wiki and IMDB accounts.
i can’t believe she’s pretending to be younger than evan rachel wood now lol
http://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/nicole_houston_reed_born_1988_18789790
She’s not lying about her age.
I agree with you, Annie! She seems to have issues with relationships like you said, but Ian is just pathetic. Both of them should know that it’s not a good idea to get engaged this fast, especially when she made the same mistake before.
And their statement is just ridiculous. I mean we know that it comes directly from him or her (I guess her), so it’s even more despicable, insensitve and rude to publicly say that they were in love for years. Bad move.
They seemed to be very much into each other from the beggining. But he seemed like someone with commitment issues. So, this is a surprise. It must be love! Congratulations.
Meh. She’s been apart from her ex for a long time. It seems like it was a mistake which they realized less than a year into it. At least they didn’t have kids. I remember that everyone was saying he was ready to settle down but Nina Dobrev wasn’t ready (good for her for realizing that). My husband and I got engaged after 5 months dating, but we had a long engagement and have been married almost 17 years (GAH!!!! Feeling ancient). Best of luck to them!!
Isn’t she friends with Nina Dobrev? Or are they still friends? If it’s true he always loved Nikki then that must have created tension.
Meh, they’ve seemed to be on the same page since they first came out. Thirsty, yes, but the way things were going I’m not surprised at all.
I have no problem with this pairing. She’s been kicking his ass into shape with massive running stints, they both love animals (The Rabbit too evidently!) and to me it seems about right. Ian has always seemed like a man who wants to settle down with a wife and have a home so…congrats.
When you know what you want. You know what you want. Good luck and congrats to them they seem like passionate good people.
They have identical jaws and chins.
he is so hot! I had no idea he was 36. I always thought he was too young for me, lol. gorgeous man
After reading all these comments I really want to know what her age is. After reading some interviews from 2003 her age is always mentioned as 15. So if she’s lying she started early.
Me too! Guess that’s how I will spend drinking my coffee this morning.
Didn’t she do this with her ex? Get engaged and married super fast?
About Nikki’s age … Wikipedia for the film “Thirteen” says that “Wood and Reed were both 14 during filming (Wood turned 15 during the shoot).[1] Most of the film was shot in 2002 in Los Angeles, California.” So in 2003 when it was released Nikki was 15. So she is plausibly only 26 right now.