Some actors mark the end of a hit series by going quiet; Candice King did the opposite. The Houston-born actress spent eight seasons as Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries, per Entertainment Weekly’s cast retrospective, then made headlines for reasons the show never scripted: a marriage to The Fray’s Joe King, a divorce, a 2025 engagement to Steven Krueger, and a growing family — though the verified facts are easier to follow than the headlines suggest.

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Full Name: Candice King (Candice Rene Accola) ·
Age: 37 (born May 13, 1987) ·
Hometown: Houston, Texas ·
Famous For: Caroline Forbes in The Vampire Diaries ·
Partner: Steven Krueger (engaged 2025) ·
Children: 2 daughters (with Joe King); third on the way

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
4What’s next
  • Third child with Steven Krueger expected around May 2026 (IMDb’s biography page)
  • Details about co-parenting with Joe King remain private (Us Weekly’s coverage)

Six data points, one pattern: the public biography is consistent, while the personal timeline is where the record starts to blur.

Field Detail
Born May 13, 1987
Birthplace Houston, Texas, USA
Occupation Actress, singer, songwriter
Height 5’5″ (1.65 m) (IMDb’s biography page)
Ex-Husband Joe King (m. 2014; div. 2023)
Current Partner Steven Krueger (engaged 2025)

Who played Caroline Forbes?

Candice King is the actress who played Caroline Forbes — and the answer matters beyond trivia because the role turned her into a public figure before she had a chance to set her own narrative. King joined The Vampire Diaries in 2009 and stayed through the series finale in 2017 (The Famous People’s profile). She later took Caroline into The Originals (Entertainment Weekly’s cast retrospective).

Candice King’s Early Life and Acting Career

  • Born Candice Rene Accola on May 13, 1987, in Houston, Texas
  • Pre-TVD résumé: the 2006 album It’s Always the Innocent Ones, backup vocals on Miley Cyrus’s 2008 Best of Both Worlds tour, and guest arcs on How I Met Your Mother, Supernatural, and Greek (Us Weekly’s career recap)

Her path was music-first, which is why Caroline’s band-camp energy and pop-culture one-liners felt so natural. King was a singer before she was an actress, and that background helped her play a character who was equally comfortable in the spotlight.

The Role of Caroline Forbes Explained

  • Caroline Forbes is a principal character in The Vampire Diaries, appearing from the 2009 premiere through the 2017 finale (The Famous People’s profile)
  • King reprised the role on The Originals (2018–2019) (Entertainment Weekly’s cast retrospective)

Caroline’s arc tracked King’s own maturity: the character started as the girl who wanted to be popular, became a vampire, then a sheriff, and eventually a mother. It was one of the show’s most complete transformations, and it gave King a career-defining role that fans still associate with her name.

The pattern: King’s career looks accidental from the outside — a girl from Houston lands a CW hit — but the résumé underneath is pure preparation: music, touring, guest spots, then leading cast.

Who is Candice King’s ex-husband?

Candice King’s ex-husband is Joe King, the lead singer and guitarist of The Fray. The two married in New Orleans on October 18, 2014, according to IMDb’s biography page, and the marriage overlapped with the peak of her TVD fame. The split, when it came, was handled quietly.

Why did Candice King leave her husband?

  • King filed for divorce in 2022, citing irreconcilable differences in reported court-document summaries (Us Weekly’s coverage)
  • Coverage splits on the filing month — some outlets say April 2022, others May 2022 (as noted in the snapshot above)
  • Neither side has given a detailed public explanation of why the marriage ended

Divorce filings give the legal reason, not the real one. “Irreconcilable differences” is the standard box to check in California; it confirms the marriage ended and says almost nothing about how. That gap between the legal record and the human story is why fan forums still trade theories.

Who is Candice King with right now?

  • King’s current partner is Steven Krueger, an actor and director
  • The couple got engaged in January 2025 (as noted in the snapshot above)
  • In December 2025, King announced the couple is expecting their first child together

Krueger is less famous than King, which is exactly how the relationship has stayed grounded. His work is primarily behind the camera and in supporting roles, and the couple has shared just enough to confirm the milestone dates: engagement in January 2025, baby news in December 2025.

The upshot

King kept the surname King after the divorce, according to Wikipedia’s biography page — a small choice that separated her public name from the marriage that ended.

What this means: The divorce was not a tabloid event with a clear villain; it was a quiet legal ending, followed by a carefully guarded private life.

Bottom line: Candice King’s private life has three clear chapters — Joe King, a divorce, and now Steven Krueger. For fans following the headlines, the shortcut is to trust the dates, not the drama.

The pattern: The divorce remained private, and King controls her narrative.

Is Candice King still friends with Nina Dobrev?

Yes, as far as the public record shows. Nina Dobrev and Candice King were close during The Vampire Diaries, and the friendship has a famous footnote: Nina reportedly introduced Candice to Joe King at a Super Bowl event in 2012 (Wikipedia’s biography page).

Which cast members of The Vampire Diaries are still close?

  • Dobrev and King have both talked about staying connected after the show ended
  • King and Paul Wesley have remained friendly; there’s no record of a falling-out
  • Reunion interviews and social media callouts suggest the main cast kept in touch

The clearest signal of a lasting bond is that the cast keeps showing up for each other. When a show runs eight seasons, the friendships on set can be more durable than the plotlines — and in this case, the actors have said as much, without the dramatic reconciliations that usually follow a public feud.

Who was pregnant while filming Vampire Diaries?

The crossover

Candice King’s real-life pregnancy became Caroline Forbes’s season 6 storyline — one of the few times the show let a cast member’s actual life rewrite the script.

King gave birth to her first daughter in January 2016, according to IMDb’s biography page, and the timing lined up with the season 6 production schedule. The writers incorporated the pregnancy rather than hiding it, which turned a logistics problem into one of Caroline’s most memorable arcs.

Why this matters: The pregnancy storyline is the on-screen proof that King’s personal life and her character’s life ran on parallel tracks — which is why fans keep asking which details were real.

Did Caroline and Klaus date in real life?

No. The on-screen chemistry between Caroline and Klaus (Joseph Morgan) was a scripted “will they or won’t they,” not a real-life romance. No credible reporting has linked Candice King and Joseph Morgan romantically, and both actors have treated the relationship as a character-driven storyline.

Who are the real-life couples from The Originals?

The catch

The most discussed real-life couple connected to The Originals — Candice and Joe King — has already split. The fan debate keeps them together, but the marriage ended in 2023.

Part of the confusion is that the franchise had two separate pairs: the fictional Klaus-Caroline-Hayley triangle and the real-life King-King marriage. Candice was married to Joe King while she reprised Caroline on The Originals, and that overlap makes fans link the two worlds even though the off-screen relationship had nothing to do with the on-screen triangle.

Who did Klaus love more, Caroline or Hayley?

  • It’s a fan debate with no clean canon answer — the show gave Klaus meaningful connections to both characters
  • Hayley’s story anchored The Originals, while Caroline’s appearances were more episodic

The comparison keeps surfacing because Klaus is a character defined by longing. Fans who prefer Caroline point to the emotional intimacy; fans who prefer Hayley point to the shared history and the family he built with her. The show never ended the argument with a single “I choose X” moment that satisfied everyone.

The takeaway: Separating the actors from the roles matters here: Joseph Morgan and Candice King are colleagues who played a complicated pair, not a real-life couple. The romance fans love belongs to the script.

Did any of The Vampire Diaries cast not get along?

Not publicly. No major, on-the-record feud among the principal cast members has ever been documented. The main actors have done reunions, interviewed warmly about each other, and generally framed the set as a friendly place.

Who is the richest actor in Vampire Diaries?

  • Fan-rankings and cast-salary roundups often name Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley among the highest earners from the show
  • None of the actors publishes audited net-worth figures, so these lists are estimates, not facts

Net-worth rankings about TVD cast members are entertainment content, not financial reporting. They mix salary rumors, endorsement deals, and guesswork. Treat any specific figure as speculative — especially when the same actor appears in different lists with wildly different totals.

Who did Hayley really love in The Originals?

The debate

Elijah or Klaus? The show never closed the door completely, which is exactly why the question still gets a different answer depending on which fan you ask.

The Hayley question is the mirror image of the Caroline question: it’s a love triangle designed to be argued about. Hayley’s relationships with both brothers drove huge chunks of The Originals, and the writing deliberately left room for interpretation so the audience could keep taking sides.

Why this matters: When a fan community still argues about the same triangles years later, it’s a sign the writers built emotional friction that outlived the final episode.

Key Dates in Candice King’s Life

Dates are compiled from the sources above, including The Famous People’s profile.

The pattern: The dates trace a consistent arc: career first, marriage, motherhood, divorce, a second chance at family.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

Confirmed facts

  • Candice King played Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals
  • She married Joe King in 2014; the divorce was finalized in 2023
  • She is engaged to Steven Krueger and announced a pregnancy in December 2025
  • She has two daughters with Joe King

What’s unclear

  • Why exactly the marriage to Joe King ended, beyond irreconcilable differences
  • The precise divorce filing date (April vs. May 2022 reports differ)
  • Candice King’s real net worth (estimates vary and are unverified)
  • Whether she will return to the TVD universe in a bigger role (speculation)
  • The details of how she met Steven Krueger (not publicly confirmed)

The distinction: The confirmed list stays short and verifiable; the unclear list shows where tabloid speculation does the heavy lifting.

In Her Own Words

We’re due in May, close to my birthday, which is…

Candice King, announcing her pregnancy in December 2025, as covered by Marie Claire’s reporting

Irreconcilable differences.

The stated reason in Candice King’s divorce filing, per Marie Claire’s reporting

The signal: Both quoted moments point to the same shift — King letting the public know just enough, at the moment she chooses.

The Takeaway

For anyone still sorting through Candice King headlines, the pattern is simple: her career is stable, her family is growing, and her private life moved forward at her own speed after the divorce. For fans, the useful move is to follow the verified dates and resist the internet’s urge to turn a quiet life into a soap opera — because the real story is already interesting enough.

Additional sources

usmagazine.com

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Frequently asked questions

Does Candice King have children?

Yes. She has two daughters with Joe King, both born during their marriage. She and Steven Krueger announced in December 2025 that they are expecting their first child together, due around May 2026.

What is Candice King’s net worth?

There’s no verified public figure. Celebrity net-worth estimates vary widely and are not backed by audited financial records, so treat any specific number as speculation.

When is Candice King’s baby due?

She announced the pregnancy in December 2025 and said the baby is due in May, close to her birthday.

Are Candice King and Paul Wesley friends?

There’s no evidence of a falling-out. They worked together on The Vampire Diaries for eight seasons and the show’s cast has generally described the set as friendly.

Did Candice King and Joseph Morgan ever date in real life?

No. There’s no credible reporting that they dated; their characters’ chemistry stayed on screen.

Why did Caroline Forbes forgive Klaus in The Vampire Diaries?

The show framed it as compassion, not absolution: Caroline could acknowledge Klaus’s capacity for change without excusing his past, which is why the “forgiveness” stayed complicated.

How did Candice King meet Steven Krueger?

She hasn’t shared a detailed public account, and major outlets haven’t confirmed the exact circumstances. Their relationship became public after her split from Joe King.

The pattern: The questions circle back to the same split between public facts and private details.

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