Calling it quits. Candice Accola and Joe King‘s divorce news comes after their followers started to question whether they had parted ways.
Following weeks of speculation, Us Weekly broke the news on Tuesday, May 24, that Accola, 35, filed for divorce from King, 41, one month prior. The pair, who celebrated seven years of marriage in late 2021, pulled the plug on their marriage three months before the legal petition.
Accola and King started dating shortly after they met at a Super Bowl event in 2012. The musician popped the question during the pair’s trip to Florence, Italy, one year later. “The engagement was a complete surprise,” the actress told Us in June 2013. “It was perfect and special and just for us.”
The duo later tied the knot in an elaborate New Orleans ceremony with several of Accola’s The Vampire Diaries costars in attendance. “Officially Mr. and Mrs. King! Best night ever!” the CW star captioned a compilation of Instagram photos from her October 2014 nuptials.
In 2015, Accola and King confirmed that they were expecting their first child together. The Fray band member also shares daughters Elise and Ava with ex-wife Julie King.
The major milestone was also written into the script for Accola’s character Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries. Ahead of the story line shift, her costar Michael Malarkey revealed that he spoiled her pregnancy news during a table read.
“I ruined the surprise. I didn’t know!” the actor, who played Enzo, 38, told Us in October 2015. “She was like, ‘Alright, before we start guys, I have an announcement to make.’ And I was like, ‘You’re f—king pregnant!’ She was like, ‘Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m pregnant.’”
Accola and Joe went on to welcome daughter Florence in January 2016. They expanded their family again with their second daughter, Josephine, four years later. “Last week our baby girl flew into the world and into our hearts,” the Juno star shared via Instagram in December 2020. “We love you Josephine June King! 12/1/20.”
Ahead of their little one’s first birthday, Accola penned an essay about realizing that she needed help in the first few months after giving birth again.
“I was living in quarantine due to the ongoing global pandemic, with two teenagers doing distance learning, a 5-year-old begging for a playmate, a dog begging for a walk, and a newborn baby who was having trouble sleeping because she only poops once a week (apparently it’s a thing). Needless to say, as a parent, and as partner, I was not the best version of myself,” she wrote for SheKnows in May 2021. “We needed sleep. I wanted help.”
She continued: “Once I was able to admit that I needed help, it felt like the pressure I’d put on myself to ‘do it all’ dissipated. As my body continued to heal, and my hormones began to regulate, I continued to feel stronger and more capable as a mother for all of our children.”
The following year, Us confirmed that Accola had filed for divorce due to “irreconcilable differences.”
Scroll down for all the signs that hinted at Accola and King’s split:
