THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR LOVE IS BLIND SERIES ONE
The last time TV viewers saw the majestically monikered Giannina Milady Gibelli - otherwise known as Gigi - she had been jilted at the altar. In an already iconic moment of reality history, she ran away sobbing, then, as a final insult, she stacked it on a grassy knoll, muddying up her pristine white wedding dress. Fairy tale love story? Nah, this was not it.
But in a plot twist that even Phoebe Waller-Bridge couldn’t dream up, the Love Is Blind reunion show has revealed that not only is Gigi back together with her partner, Damian Powers, they never broke up! They’ve been together since filming ended on the series 15 months ago, but have just never made it public on social media. So how on earth do you come back from being humiliatingly ditched half way through a wedding ceremony?
'I'm just a very quick person,' she tells Grazia, 'So right after the wedding, Damian and I kept speaking. It just didn't feel like our story was done in terms of, "can we be friends?" I wanted us to come to a mutual understanding, I didn't want to leave things on a sour note. So we talked all night and we haven't really been apart since.' They’re not - she’s quick to point out - engaged again, but...it’s complicated: 'He's my ex-fiance, almost husband, now boyfriend,' she laughs.
If their love story has an unexpected ending, it’s because it had a highly unconventional start. If you are one of the minority who didn’t hungrily devour all 10 episodes of the Netflix reality TV show in the space of one night last month, then, what else were you doing? In a 'social experiment' 15 men and 15 women were each put in connecting pods for 10 days. They talked, they 'dated', they had serious wine-fuelled deep and meaningfuls - but they were forbidden to see what the other person looked like. The only way of meeting face-to-face was if the couple became engaged, and then they would be married, just a few weeks later, on TV. It was savage, it was enlightening, it was incredulous, it was like the worst-ever episodes of Don’t Tell The Bride, on speed and supersized. It was obviously a massive hit - on the day the finale aired, it was Netflix’s number one trending programme.
It's complicated: he's my ex-fiance, almost husband, now boyfriend.
The thought of laying ourselves so emotionally bare on global television is a total horror show of nightmare quantities for most of us. But Gigi, 26, jumped at the chance when she was first told about the show: 'I was at a bar with my girlfriends and I was telling them how there were no men in the city, and at that exact same moment, my phone went off and there was a DM from somebody saying they were casting for this experience. So I gave her a call and she explained the premise of the show and I thought the timing could not have been more perfect, as I had given up all hope. I thought, this is a little weird, but I'm a little weird so maybe it'll work out for me.'
'I've always been more attracted to personality and I've fallen for people I never thought I would fall for, so I felt it was the universe telling me to do it.'
Whether it was the universe, Cupid or just a highly canny casting director, she quickly paired up with Damian – they went from 'Hi, who’s there?' to soulmates in an intense few days. She jumped in to interrupt him when he emotionally proposed by tying a bow on his wrist (!), getting in there first. 'One thing I don’t believe in is roles or labels,' she said, while getting down on one knee. 'I see you as my equal, as I’m just as strong as you.' At this point, we had no option other than to stan.
Out of the pods, and into real life (albeit with cameras) - and with their phones finally being handed back to them - the problems began. Gigi had a temper, but there was a bigger issue in their relationship, one which she didn’t hold back on telling Damian: the sex, which was less than thrilling. 'It’s great but it’s not fucking mindblowing,' she told him. 'Why don’t you [ever] initiate it?' The world shrieked; we applauded her for owning her sexuality - and a million memes were born.
'That's a moment that I was so curious about as to how I was going to feel when I saw it on TV,' she says, on watching it back. 'And how Damian was going to feel when he saw it. It wasn't easy for him to watch, and it's not easy for me to see me hurting his feelings like that. But it's a very real experience that a lot of people go through. Whether you're a man or a woman, you're like, how can I communicate this?
'I was staring into the face of my wedding – I needed to figure this out before I get married. I think I could have been more constructive with how I said it, but when I saw it, I was just like, wait, this is just the truth. There's nothing to feel ashamed or awkward about.
'It's a normal thing and I'm just happy because people can relate to it. Because I was able to be open about it, we were able to have open communication about it and he was able to pick it up. I wasn't expecting him to be understanding about it at all, you have that male bravado, but he was able to get to a place where he said: "I want to make this amazing for you too", and that was just really nice.'
Of course, what wasn’t quite so nice was being dumped on her wedding day, in front of her friends and family, when Damian said 'I don’t' after she had said 'I do.' She says: 'It still breaks me up to this day.'
She adds: 'But throughout the whole experience - and this wasn’t shown on TV - I was having cold feet and Damian was telling me: "I'm going to fight for you and I love you", because that's just who he is, so when he said no...it made me think about what we could have done better. I didn't want the wedding that was being put on for us to make or break us. We wanted to give each other more time.'
The only person more devastated that Gigi on her wedding day was her mum, Milady Bartolovich, who she ended up having to comfort: 'She's just an excited mum who wanted to see her baby get married, that's what hurt her, no one wants to see their baby get rejected like that.'
Surely Damian had to beg for forgiveness from her mum before they reunited? 'My mum is very protective over me and she definitely gave him shit for it. She took a while, I had to explain to her how sweet he is, and how he treats me, she was like, “Well, I always liked him so maybe we can move past this".'
And her mum - who used to be an actress in her birth country of Venezuela - is also enjoying the perks of her daughter’s new-found fame too: 'She’s in her element! People stop her for selfies all the time now too.'
My mum is very protective over me and she definitely gave him shit for it.
Gigi - who calls herself a 'soulprenuer' - is still coming to terms with how she was portrayed on the show, which wasn’t always in the most sympathetic of lights. 'I definitely had a lot of feelings at the beginning, just because I'm not used to seeing such vulnerable parts of myself out there. I think I was very honest and rough and that's what is shown. It was such a tumultuous experience, but overall I'm not upset.
'I definitely went through a dip after the show. After you go through an experience like that, your world seems upside down. Damian and I definitely had some rough patches, some soul searching but ultimately growth.
'We talk in so many ways now how we can better communicate. We even have a safe word now so that whenever things get heated we throw that out and calm ourselves down!'
As for the other drama within the couples - such as the love triangle between Amber, Barnett and Jessica - which came to a head on the reunion (which you can watch HERE) with Amber calling Jessica a 'Shiesty...bitch' for flirting with her now husband, Barnett, it all went over Gigi’s head. 'I wasn't aware of any friction going on at the time of filming. That was very interesting to see in the series. I know the feelings that you can harbour or create for someone when you're in that situation. The heart wants what it wants – I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I mean, I made my own mistakes. But I'm not taking any sides on it!'
She adds: 'We all have a WhatsApp chat called The Pod Squad so we all interact with each other, there's originally 30 of us, so we all keep in touch and hang out with each other, I love everyone who was part of it.'
The whole experience she dubs as 'not for the faint of heart' and like 'love boot camp', but it’s not made her adverse to walking up the aisle for a second time - in fact, she’s already planning wedding number two: 'It's totally up in the air - when we're in the moment, we'll know and feel it, but I would definitely like to keep it private as possible. I'd like it to be a little, intimate event, like running away to the other side of the world, on top of a hill in Tuscany or something.
'I kept my wedding dress, it has a lot of memories so I couldn't let her go. But there's no way I'd wear it to the next ceremony.'
So is love blind, after all? It appears it’s neither black nor white - like Gigi’s wedding dress, it’s all very muddy.
The full season of Love Is Blind - including the reunion episode - is now on Netflix. You can watch the reunion episode HERE****.
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