Nina Dobrev has revealed she left The Vampire Diaries over a pay dispute.

The actress opened up in a new behind-the-scenes book about the hit TV drama series, explaining she walked away from the show over her salary.

"Candice (King), Kat (Graham), and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons," Nina, 36, claimed in I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries.

She went on to explain she was particularly upset about the pay disparity because she played two separate characters, giving her a much heavier workload.

"It was a bit of a tricky situation because my contract only said to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters, which doubled my workload," Nina said.

"I had to be on set for double the amount of time, I had to memorise double the amount of lines... I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys."

After ditching the role at the end of season six, Nina said, she again fought back after she was offered "five times less" than her season-six salary to return for the series finale.

"I had to put my foot down and say if it didn't happen I wouldn't be able to come back," she said. "And it wasn't about the money. I didn't give a s**t about the money at all - it was the principle."