We should never have doubted that reality drama queen Giannina Milady Gibelli had one more plot twist up her sleeve for the Love Is Blind reunion. At the top of the special, which premiered on Netflix Thursday, Giannina and Damian Powers reveal that they are, in fact, still dating one another—despite Damian rejecting Giannina at the altar during the show’s wedding ceremony.
Giannina stormed off once Damian jilted her, and eventually became the “runaway bride” used in many of the season’s promotional materials. And in an interview with The Daily Beast after the finale, she explained why she had decided to mend things with her meaty-armed betrothed.
After their explosive argument at their wedding venue, Giannina said she still felt that she and Damian needed to talk things out. She could tell he was hurting, and after everything they’d been through—like, she was going to marry him—it felt wrong not to be there for one another. And so, after a couple hours had passed, the two spoke again.
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“Maybe you’ve noticed by now, I’m someone that can kind of, like, react and then calm down pretty quickly,” Giannina said. “So that’s exactly what happened.”
Things have been good between the couple so far, Giannina said. One old source of conflict they’ve managed to work out? Her frequent use of social media—which she pointed out on the show is part of her job. “I actually help him on his social media now,” she said.
Giannina said she occasionally forgets that she and Damian met on a bonkers dating show, and insists that despite their many on-screen arguments, “We’re very much the same as far as like, that we come from different viewpoints but we always come to a mutual understanding.”
But wait—how is her mother handling all of this? It was mother-in-law-to-be Milady Gibelli who delivered the most quietly virtuosic flourish of Love Is Blind’s extremely dramatic finale: throwing down her bouquet the moment Damian blubbed, “I do not.” When Giannina fled the building in the finale, Milady chased her down, embracing her daughter and weeping into her shoulder. “This shouldn’t happen,” she sobbed. “Who does that? You should have said ‘no,’ no?”
After she and Damian reunited, Giannina said, “My mom definitely gave him shit. She hates seeing her baby, like, you know, being rejected. Who wants that?”
But that was just because he’d rejected her, Giannina said. Now that she and Damian have made amends, she said, Milady and Damian “chat all the time. She sends him, you know, really funny videos. It’s a fun relationship to be in.”
