Fans of Love Is Blind fell in love with this beautiful, vivacious Latina almost as quickly as Damian Powers did. Giannina Gibelli quickly became a fan-favorite on the hit Netflix TV show for her (sometimes brutal) honesty, her fiery passion, and when she spoke about losing her “butterflies.”
Netflix released its experimental dating show, Love Is Blind, which set out to prove that love can exist beyond the prejudice of appearance and outward influences. The goal of the show was to essentially prove that love is blind and that it is truly based on emotional connection. The social experiment/reality TV show managed to do what they set out to do, according to all of the contestants who got engaged on the show, love is, in fact, blind. Though Gi and Damian had never met prior to their engagement, there was no doubt that the spark of physical connection was there. Even though the feisty blonde didn’t get married at the finale of the show, she showed fans that not all “happily ever afters” end in marriage. Damian and Giannina’s emotional connection was one of the strongest on the show and fans fell in love with their genuine and true love for one another.
Screen Rant got the opportunity to speak with the Venezuelan beauty about how her life looks now after the chaos of the press tour has died down while simultaneously being thrust into quarantine with her man. In this interview, the self-professed “soul-preneur” discusses the many career changes she’s had in the last year, her future with Damian, and of course, pod sex.
During your wedding on Love is Blind, we’re you 100% ready to say “I do” to Damian at the alter, or did you feel pressure from production?
Well, that’s a really good question. I mean think was going through so much on the show because I was trying to figure out, ‘Hey is this someone who can handle me at my best or my worst, and all these different incidences in between because I know me. And he really did, he really got me. I felt like he’s my soulmate and so you know I was ready. But I really think at the end of the day, we both needed some time because of the way he reacted and that’s perfectly normal, especially with such a short time frame to figure out ‘am I going to live with this person, or like [to] be with this person the rest of my life.’
And now, because I’m not in such a timeline anymore, I am honestly just dating normally. You know, whether we get married in the next couple of years, that’s all up to us as far as when we feel like the timing is right again. People date for years before they get married and that’s totally normal for people, or if they find the love of their life within a month. So I’m kind of really enjoying just getting to know each other outside of that timeframe.
So when you said “I do,” you were all-in.
Oh yeah, there was just so much that I knew he was my person. But everything happens for a reason so that’s good.
You talked about a future wedding, a re-do wedding that isn’t televised, what would that look like?
I really have this image in my mind, I don’t know why, but I just imagine like running away to the hills of Tuscany to this really beautiful outdoor garden. Just having a really beautiful, intimate wedding. I mean, I wouldn’t mind it being televised, but for me. That’s where I see myself, eating pasta in my wedding dress in Italy.
I’m sure fans would love to see that televised.
We’ll see!
Fans saw on Love is Blind that you never met Damian’s parents before the wedding, I read that you did, in fact, meet them, but it was on their terms and not on the show’s terms. How is the relationship between you and Damian’s parents now?
The relationship now is just like a normal relationship with your “maybe” in-laws. I saw them for Thanksgiving, right after we wrapped the show. I spent Christmas with them. It was just so homey. I’d have never spent Christmas without my family and that year I spent with both of them, ever. It was really nice. I just felt right at home. And I understood why they didn’t want to be part of the show. Your son signed up for it, you didn’t sign up for it. So I totally understand that, and it’s not for everyone. It’s definitely a choice. So I understood that. But I also knew that his kind heart and his soul and his spirit came from somewhere and I knew that was his family. Yeah, I think we just have a very good relationship, they’re so funny. I don’t think people got to see Damian’s funny side, it’s definitely there. But they’re hilarious.
What is your message to fans of the show who say that you shouldn’t have given Damian another chance after saying “I don’t” to you at the altar?
At the end of the day, every relationship you have is between you and your partner and that’s the only opinion that should matter is yours and the ones you love’ [opinons]. I think the heart wants what it wants and if you make decisions based on other people’s opinions, you’re never going to live your own life. So do what feels right for you and if that means getting engaged without seeing each other and getting married a month after then we will talk.
Related: Love Is Blind’s Mark Cuevas ‘Forever Grateful’ to Jessica Batten ‘For Everything She Taught Me’
I know that you would like to start a family in the future, does Damian match up with you on that. And if so, when do you think fans can expect little Damian’s and Gigi’s running around?
Damian definitely wants kids, for sure. And I definitely want kids. I could totally see them with like blue eyes running around. My mom has bright blue eyes, so I have that gene in me. But I don’t know, I see having kids like whenever it happens it happens. I never really saw myself as like that girl that’s like, “I’m going to be married and have kids by this age,” I’ve never been that way, so I think whenever it happens, it happens. Yeah, I’m excited for it though. That’s definitely a part of my life that I want to experience. I think maybe travel first, but you never know.
How many could you see you guys with? You mentioned that Damian comes from a big family.
So he comes from a big family, much more of them, there are a bunch. And for me, it’s only me and my brother, but I grew up with my cousins, like my extended brothers and sisters, so I see like maybe 3 or just 2, 2 or three, and hopefully sure they have that same relationship with their cousins.
So did you have any connections with any other guys in the pods other than Damian, to the point like you could see yourself with this person?
Not to the point of “I could see myself with this person” like long-term. I did have this brief connection with Barnett at the beginning. He was like my first date ever. I just went in their like, “Wow this is such a deep conversation” and he was just so funny and we just quickly dropped of each other’s list.
Good thing or it could have been you in that Jessica-Amber-LC- Barnett love triangle.
I know, right? I was like, “Okay, he’s cute, he can make jokes,” but I was like, “Nah, there’s no substance here.” I was trying to help LC and Amber through it, but at the end of the day, it’s like between you and the other person.
That must have been really interesting to live with all of the other women and hear who they’re dating. So how was it living with the women? How long did you stay in that house together?
We stayed in there like 9 or 10 days, we were like out of there by the 10th. It was just, for me, really nice. I just live by myself. I never really saw myself as a girl’s girl, I always saw myself as like a guys’ girl, so I was like, “Oh, how is this going to play out?” I’m not into drama, and I know this is going to sound contradictory as hell, but I’m just not into it. I didn’t want to be involved in any cattiness or jealousy, but that didn’t happen at all. We were so great with each other, it was such a great sisterhood. It was just like a really fun sorority we had, type of deal. We just had a ton of fun girls, just like drinking wine wearing onesies. It was just fun.
It was great to see you not involving yourself in the Amber and Jessica drama. It felt like you had enough drama to deal with on your own.
Yeah, I had my own thing going on. There was enough to go around. But I liked everyone, there was never a bad thing I could say about any one of them. We each had our own journies. Only we know what we all went through, so it’s like this special bond we have.
You talked about how you wished the audience would have seen more of those magic moments in the pod when you were falling in love. What were those moments that made you realize that this was the person you wanted to be with?
I loved that we had these little gift exchanges. It was like a tale tail sign for me, because me and Dame, we had got, he had got me these tokens for what he thought this person would be interested in as for gifts before he had ever met me. And they were just like so perfect, the personality, who I was. I was like, you knew me before you knew me. So it was just a really powerful moment. I brought my piano from when I was like 14 years old, this keyboard. I was like, “Ok I know that I’m going to marry this person after I give them this keyboard.”
I ended up giving him this keyboard. I hadn’t listened to it, the sound of it, for like 7 years. And randomly I hear it go off, and it’s because Damian got batteries for it. So, there were just these cute little moments. We wrote so much together. When you see us in the pods, you see us with our notebooks with us, that was to take notes about who the other person was, your thoughts, and whatnot. Like you’re pretty much in quarantine. I wrote stories about him, and poems, and he did the same thing, it was just very sweet. We just got each other.
So tell us, was there such thing as pod sex?
Pod sex. Pod sex is a very real thing. I mean there was the visual portion of it, the flirting portion of it, when you’re flirting with someone you’re going to ask. Like before you meet them, you’re like, does this person vibe with me, do they have my sexual vibe. Are they firey, are they kinky? But yeah, pod sex is a very real thing.
On the show, you prove that you’re a very sexually expressive person, I saw sometimes that you were initiating that more than Damian was. There was also that very serious sex talk that happened, that became iconic. So I assume things have gotten better in that department.
We definitely have our balance, right? But really, after I was able to speak to him about it, we had this really great conversation and continued to have really good conversations, I don’t always feel like I’m always the one initiating. I feel like anything, sometimes it’s like, “Ok, stop touching me.” Now it’s definitely like a normal relationship.
So how are you handling the self-isolation due to the Coronavirus epidemic, so are you and Damian hunkering down together?
So I think that we have a really good balance, we spend every night with each other. We both have our own apartments, so let’s say I need to go home and do a project, I go home. He will then come and spend a couple of days with me or he will stay home and do laundry. So we have a little bit of a balance because we don’t live together. But yeah, he’s my quarantine buddy for sure. I would be so lonely.
What have you been doing when Damian’s not around to keep you occupied while at home social-distancing?
It’s so weird because I usually love to stay at home, I can be such a homebody, so I just manage to keep myself entertained somehow, I love having my plants. So I tend to them. I do so many DIY projects, with facials. I grew up just taking pictures around my house, so I do that. I think [I do a lot of] cooking. I’m trying to cook like not horrible stuff, I’m trying to find a good balance. Yesterday I made carbonara and today I made a salad. Just cooking all of the time, trying new recipes.I’ve been going on walks. I think people forget how good nature is to our immune systems. Yes, stay at home. Yes, social distance yourself, but being out in nature boosts your red blood cells and the oxygen in your body.
As long as your not close to anyone, keep your distance, go on a little walk and move your body, get out of that stir crazy feeling. This is actually a really healthy thing for us to be going through, I mean despite the fact that there’s a virus, I think a lot of people need that. I went immediately from a press tour to quarantine. So I need a lot of people need that [time] to reconnect, rebalance, recharge. There were times with jobs before that I wished I could have stayed home for like a week or two or longer, but now it’s like be careful what you wish for.
Speaking of jobs, during the reunion you speak of having 7 career changes in the last year and a half since filming wrapped, can you explain to the audience what those were?
Well, it was crazy. Well throughout, since college, I’ve always been attracted to opportunities. So that’s how I pretty much ended up owning a business in the first place. Being able to go on a show like Love is Blind is because I always went with my heart, I was like, I know my skill, I know my worth. If it’s not here, it can be somewhere else. I learned my lesson here. I learned a really valuable skill here but now I can do something else with it. So that’s always how I saw everything, kind of like these lessons. After the show, I realized, “Okay, I’m working here 24/7, I’m not really fulfilled anymore.”
So basically, what I was doing as a business owner was I partnered with three locations in the Atlanta area. We were selling beauty tools and consulting on those. So the people in the mall who are like, “Hey come try this,” that was the brand. So I had 12 employees, it was very much energy-based. So you had to be in a good mindset to attract people. It was really cool. I was like everyone’s therapist I was like the number 1 seller. It was just fun. So after that I kind of went back to my digital route, I started out in social media at the Universal Orlando Resort. I was like, Ok I want to go back to digital, I don’t want to be tied to a specific location anymore. I want to be able to travel the world and wherever I go, be able to work.
So after that, I was a roofer. I needed a way to pay bills, and on top of that, I started knocking on people’s doors trying to sell them roofs because they had damages or leaks. Then I was a consultant coordinator at an agency here in Atlanta, doing reputation management for social media. Then I decided to do it for myself, then I found two clients. Then my biggest client dropped me, so I had to find another job which was dog walking and social media consulting with this boss in the area, and so I also a receptionist for them. And then, I finally, through all of that, literally getting every single job that I applied for. In doing it, I was like, “Okay, this is good for now, but I know where I want to get to.” By just digging my way out of it, I finally landed a social media representation with a privately held company that is really really great, up until like a month ago. And now I am just an entrepreneur once more. I 100% go with the flow, if it feels good for me, I take it in and I work really hard at everything I do.
How has fame changed your life?
It feels like I’m in a film, in a way. Like, wow, I have gone through so much and I have poured my heart and soul into so many things that I do. I have this life philosophy in a sense, go with your heart, go with your gut, go with what makes you feel good. And sharing that, in my own way, like through my Instagram. I love taking pictures, I love doing that type of stuff. I always approached it as my creative outlet. And the fact that people are taking notice, like “I love the things that you’re doing, I love your quirks, or how you think or how you speak.” It’s like, “Wow,” it’s just such a humbling and grateful feeling. It’s just great. I already felt like this is my purpose and the fact that people see that it just kind of a full-circle moment for me.
Are there any drawbacks to all of the attention? Did you ever wish that you could just go back to normal?
I think you come to a point where you realize that you can’t please everybody, no matter what you do. Again, I’ve already kind of had those lessons in my life. You’ll never be able to please everyone. So your own happiness is your main priority. As much as it does take a toll on your perception about what you can and cannot do anymore, it’s just important to me to stay grounded. Being socially aware, conscious, and setting good examples, but the more I keep myself authentic to me, it’s what makes me happiest.
I try not to give it any drawbacks. To me, if anything, it’s just helped more than anything else. Having such a great platform and a voice, throughout growing up, I always felt like I had a voice, but is anyone listening? So I think it’s more empowering than anything, just keeping it authentic is what works for me.
Have you had any celebrities take notice?
Yeah, they’re so sweet. I mean people are just people. I haven’t had many celebrities reach out to me but I have had seen people who have watched the show and it’s like, “I know you saw my face, Kim Kardashian! I know you saw it and I’m so happy, I love you!” I have had some reach out, it’s been so sweet. I met one of the girls from Stranger Things she was in the area, we’re both in Atlanta. It was just really cute.
Have your friends and family accepted the fact that you’ve taken Damian back, after being told “I don’t” at the alter? Have they come to terms with it a year and a half later?
Oh yeah, totally. I think my friends and family saw the love between Damian and I and saw Damian is this super generous and kind person. When my mom saw him, she’s like, “She’s going to marry him.” They all understood that the time frame was a lot of pressure. We got to know each other, but we put each other through a lot of respectively, honoring our feelings. It wasn’t a hard sell at all. They were like, “Oh okay, you guys are dating? Good. I like you guys, but you just needed more time.” It’s been smooth sailing.
Has being on reality TV affected your mental health at all. It must be very odd to see your face everywhere suddenly.
I mean it definitely feels like a dream sometimes. You kind of have to knock on a wall to see if it’s real, but I think I don’t know how other people deal with it. I think it’s always going to be a surreal thing to see yourself up there. Have my friends see me up there on the TV, they’re like “it’s just like hanging out with you. There you are. It’s like chilling with you.” I kind of see it as an extension of that, some people know some sides of me. You can never expect to see yourself up there. I am totally fine with it. I love it. I don’t see it as this weird thing. I find it more comforting than anything if that makes sense. I mean, it’s hard for me to watch myself sometimes. You see really weird angles of you, you’re like “Oh man.” Do you know what I mean?
You talked about self-sabotaging in the show. You talked about how you subconsciously ruin good things for yourself because you’re scared of it being too good to be true. What advice would you give to someone else who is struggling with the same thing?
The first step is to be self-aware, to be like “Okay, I’m someone who does that, great, I can admit it to myself.” In the show, you definitely see when I do that. It was where I would push him away because to feel like now I can wallow in my own pity. But you have to be your own best friend, the best way to get over that is really trusting yourself and not letting any of that fear or doubt take over because most of the things I was fearful about didn’t even happen yet, so I think self-sabotage is just really big self-doubt. To get over it, it takes a lot of being kind to yourself and not reflecting that on other people. But self-sabotage is such a real thing, you have to catch yourself and when you do it you can always learn from it. But just remember to truly be your own best friend and know that everything is going to be alright.
Can you tell us about how you are helping people back in your homeland of Venezuela? What should people learn from the tragedy that is happening in your home country?
Yes, thanks so much for mentioning that. So I think Venezuela is a really good example of such a beautiful country that was taken aback by fear, a lot of corruption, a lot of people being unified when they should have. I really feel for them, I always question what my life would be like if I would have stayed. It would not be like this. I really want to bring awareness to it because so many people have never heard of what’s going on just a couple miles south, I’m in Atlanta, right. Just being aware of what’s going on in other cultures and governments, it just a good way to learn empathy. I really want to start a non-profit to be able to give back in any level. Whether that’s awareness or actual supplies, whatever that may be. I want to be able to help share the corruption but also the fight and the hope that my people have in Venezuela.
Love Is Blind season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.
Screen Rant edited this interview for Clarity.
