Call Her Daddy

Dove Cameron: Toxic Patterns, Engagement, & Entering 30's

February 4, 2026

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  • Dove Cameron feels entering her 30s is positive because she is finally shedding the self-sabotage and desire to people-please that characterized her 20s. 
  • Early childhood trauma, specifically the murder of her best friend at age eight and witnessing her father's struggles with bipolar disorder, fundamentally fractured Dove Cameron's psychology and influenced her tendency to accept unhealthy dynamics in romantic relationships. 
  • Dove Cameron views her time on Disney Channel as a positive, life-changing experience where she was a 'good employee' by adapting her public persona to fit the children's network's expectations, which she no longer needs to maintain as an adult. 
  • Dove Cameron shared the deeply personal and ongoing struggle of processing the sudden, unexpected loss of a loved one by suicide, particularly the haunting nature of imagining their final moments. 
  • Dove Cameron detailed the 'meet cute' and subsequent timeline of her engagement to Damiano, emphasizing that she knew early on he was 'the one' despite initial emotional distance and that their relationship progressed naturally after she was personally healed and ready. 
  • Dove Cameron found that sharing her past trauma and difficult life experiences with her fiancé was a profoundly healing process because he met her vulnerability with intuitive support rather than trying to 'fix' her pain. 

Segments

Turning 30 Feelings
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(00:01:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove Cameron feels great about turning 30, anticipating more respect and seriousness than she received in her 20s.
  • Summary: Dove Cameron expressed feeling positive about entering her 30s, noting she always felt older than her age. She looked forward to this decade because she felt younger people are often not taken seriously or respected. She anticipates that reaching 30 will align the world’s perception of her with her own self-perception.
Leaving 20s Behind
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(00:02:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove is eager to leave behind imposter syndrome and self-sabotage rooted in feeling undeserving of her accomplishments.
  • Summary: A key aspect Dove is leaving behind is feeling like she doesn’t deserve a seat at the table, which fueled self-sabotage and imposter syndrome in her 20s. She also wants to abandon people-pleasing driven by the fear of upsetting others. This shift toward wisdom and power is seen as terrifying to a society that benefits from repressing women in their prime.
Aesthetic Pressures and Healing
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(00:05:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove stopped self-harming aesthetic behaviors after realizing they were attempts to feel safe rather than beautiful.
  • Summary: Dove Cameron previously engaged in shape-shifting behaviors related to aesthetics, food, and over-exercising, which she now recognizes as self-harming rather than efforts to feel beautiful. She believed that achieving physical perfection would make her safe from harm, stemming from past trauma. She has since stopped these behaviors after extensive therapy, leading to an external transformation.
Childhood Trauma Revelation
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(00:09:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove Cameron’s childhood was marked by the murder of her best friend, Haley, by Haley’s father when Dove was eight.
  • Summary: Dove grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in an idyllic but small-town environment. She learned about her best friend Haley’s murder by Haley’s father via a phone call from their preschool principal while sick at home. This event fissured her psychology, leading to anxiety and a lasting sense of life’s potential for sudden, black-and-white reversals.
Family Dynamics and Father’s Illness
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(00:22:40)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove’s father struggled with depression and bipolar disorder, leading to intense emotional swings that she learned to navigate from a young age.
  • Summary: Dove was aware of her father’s intense emotional swings early on, learning to prepare for or work around them, which subsequently affected her dating patterns. She views her father’s behavior as an affliction resulting from his own trauma and lack of tools, not intentional malice. Her defiance against his poor treatment contrasted with her sister’s tendency to avoid his triggers.
Escaping Home Life
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(00:38:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove’s desire to escape her turbulent home life fueled her intense focus on moving to Los Angeles for acting opportunities.
  • Summary: The breaking point for her parents’ divorce occurred when Dove was around 12 or 13, leaving her and her mother alone, which reduced distractions for her parents. Dove became deeply depressed, staying up all night watching movies and believing Hollywood was where she belonged among emotionally understanding people. After a confrontation where her father threw her out of bed, she left to live with her mother, convincing her to move to LA shortly after.
Disney Channel Arrival
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(00:40:56)
  • Key Takeaway: Despite feeling too dark for Disney, the role on Liv and Maddie changed Dove Cameron’s life financially and professionally.
  • Summary: Dove felt she was too dark and disturbed to fit the fresh-faced Disney persona, anticipating difficulty breaking away from the role later. However, the show’s pickup call while she and her mother were struggling financially on the 405 freeway was life-changing. Disney was upfront about wanting her to be more relatable, and she played the part well, viewing the experience as joyful and appreciating it for what it was.
Father’s Suicide Aftermath
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(00:59:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove learned of her father’s suicide via a cryptic Facebook message to her mother, followed by a phone call from her uncle, triggering severe panic.
  • Summary: Dove received the news of her father’s death by suicide when she was 15 through a message to her mother from a community linchpin, which immediately caused her stomach to sink. She experienced a panic attack upon hearing the news over the phone, noting that all three of her major losses arrived via phone call, leading to significant phone anxiety. The sudden, unexpected nature of the loss meant there was no time to say goodbye, leaving her riddled with warped emotions.
Processing Sudden Loss
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(01:03:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Sudden, unexpected loss creates a unique grief where shock and the inability to say goodbye warp the grieving process.
  • Summary: The feeling of trying to purge sudden loss is impossible because the shock and grief are wrapped together without time for a proper goodbye. The body and brain can shut down, leading to an emotional numbness where one can discuss trauma as if it happened to someone else. The most persistent pain involves imagining the deceased person’s final, lonely moments and questioning if things could have been different.
Changing Name to Dove
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(01:11:16)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove Cameron legally changed her name from Chloe to Dove as an intimate tribute to her late father.
  • Summary: Her father used to call her ‘Dovey’ as a personal and sweet nickname when she was a child. Changing her name was a way to feel connected to him and carry a piece of him with her everywhere she went. This decision was made even before his passing as a desire to feel like his daughter.
Meeting Fiancé Damiano
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(01:15:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove Cameron knew Damiano was ’the one’ very early, despite his initial emotional distance, because her body and mind felt certain about their future.
  • Summary: She felt uneasy because she knew so early, even before telling him she loved him, that if he wasn’t the one, it would break her heart. Damiano was in a different, struggling emotional place initially, making him seem like an enigma behind layers of glass. Their relationship began after meeting briefly at the 2022 VMAs, where he seemed unfriendly because he was struggling, not because he disliked her.
Clarifying Relationship Timeline
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(01:17:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The initial online narrative suggesting Dove Cameron pursued Damiano for years via DMs is false; their connection began after she tagged his band as a fan, and they reconnected a year later when both were single and in better places.
  • Summary: Their first interaction at the 2022 VMAs lasted only about 14 seconds, and she took his distant vibe personally, though later learned he was in a bad place. The confusion arose because Damiano mentioned her name in an interview about celebrities sliding into DMs, which was actually about her tagging his band after an iHeartRadio performance. They reconnected properly at the 2023 VMAs when he was single, invited her to a show, and they began dating simply.
The Proposal Story
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(01:23:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Damiano proposed in a deeply personal, non-extravagant way while they were packing at home, emphasizing his desire for a normal life with her, which perfectly aligned with her Capricorn nature.
  • Summary: Damiano, being a regimented Capricorn, had openly discussed his intention to propose within a couple of years, so Dove knew it was coming but not when. He chose a normal moment—while she was packing in a t-shirt with no makeup—to propose, stating he wanted to marry ’this life’ and ’this normalcy’ with her. He was secretly videoing the moment, fulfilling her request for photographic evidence, and the ring was rose gold, which surprised her.
Sharing Trauma with Partner
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(01:34:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove shared all her traumatic history and mistakes with Damiano early on, and his intuitive, supportive reaction to a trigger scene in Titanic confirmed he was the right partner to handle her past.
  • Summary: She shared everything she considered ‘make or break’ immediately, and he accepted it by ‘picking it up and putting it on his back,’ which was healing for her. A key moment occurred while watching Titanic when a scene depicting suicide triggered her; he immediately changed his posture, pulled her close, and wiped her tears without her having to ask. He has never wavered, serving as a basin for her grief without trying to carry it for her, demonstrating he is evolved and supportive.
New Show: 56 Days
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(01:40:19)
  • Key Takeaway: Dove Cameron’s new show, 56 Days, is a pseudo-sexual thriller based on a novel, utilizing dual timelines where a love story culminates in one character being found dead in acid after 56 days.
  • Summary: The show progresses toward day 56 while police retroactively solve the case over one or two days. Dove felt comfortable with the nudity required for the role because she views naked bodies as innocent art, and the reactions of others are what create objectification. The sex scenes serve as a storytelling device, showing the dynamic shift between the couple over time, which she found more effective than other narrative tools.