Torrey DeVitto was ready for a clean break after her divorce from Paul Wesley — which included exiting The Vampire Diaries quickly.
“Once we were splitting up, I was like, ‘Not going back there,’” DeVitto, 40, said of The CW show during the Monday, July 15, episode of the “Broad Ideas” podcast. “I’m not that kinda person that’s like, ‘Well, this is business. I can stay.’”
DeVitto and Wesley, 41, tied the knot in 2011 after meeting on the set of Killer Movie in 2007. Once they were married, DeVitto joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries, playing Dr. Meredith Fell from 2012 to 2013.
Her exit from the series coincided with their divorce, which was finalized in 2013. Looking back at her departure, DeVitto recalled thinking, “I don’t want to come back. I’m good, thank you.”
Wesley, meanwhile, remained on the series as Stefan Salvatore until it ended in 2017 after eight seasons. DeVitto noted that Wesley’s fame on TVD made it hard for her to heal from their public split.
“That did garner a bit of attention I don’t think I was prepared for,” she told podcast hosts Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen. “Then it was hard, too, because for a couple of years, anyone I would date afterwards, people would just [say], ‘He’s so disgusting. He’ll never be him.’ Then they’d find that person’s mom’s page. … Mortifying.”
The Chicago Med alum confessed that getting married at 26 years old and divorced a few years later was “confusing” and “so emotional.”
DeVitto revealed, “I cried through my 20s. I was angsty, I was confused.” She later explained that the divorce was a “really dark time for me” because she was also experiencing a “friendship breakup.”
The actress explained that although she was a public figure, she was good at keeping her feelings bottled up. “When I got divorced, nobody knew anything was going on because I hid everything. So it was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” she recalled. “A lot of people didn’t understand me in that moment. It was an interesting time for sure. You grow from it.”
DeVitto previously revealed that she and Wesley are on good terms despite going their separate ways.
“It was really for the best. He’s lovely — we shouldn’t have gotten married. We were really young when we met,” she confessed during a May episode of the “Pretty Little Liars: True Crime” podcast. “We were 22 and we were crazy. Two insane people getting married. We were young and wild.”
DeVitto added, “Once I knew that it was time to go, I always wanted the best for him. I still want the best for him. I actually bump into him here and there. It’s been so long.”
Soon after their divorce, Wesley began dating his Vampire Diaries costar Phoebe Tonkin, but the pair split in 2017. The actor married Ines de Ramon in 2019. Three years later, Us Weekly confirmed that Wesley and de Ramon, 31, separated. De Ramon has since moved on with Brad Pitt.
Wesley, meanwhile, has been dating model Natalie Kuckenburg since late 2022.
DeVitto has also found love again with fiancé Jared LaPine. Us broke the news in September 2023 that the couple got engaged on the actress’ farm in Michigan over Labor Day weekend.
Earlier this year, DeVitto announced that she is pregnant with her and LaPine’s first baby, a little girl, who is due in November.
Although it took her a while to find her happily ever after, DeVitto knew LaPine was The One early on. “I actually told my fiancé I loved him first. I had never done that before,” DeVitto said on Monday. “I felt it so much, so I just blurt it, like, a month [into dating]. We got engaged, too, so quick.”
