Giannina Gibelli and Damian Powers.Photo: Rachel Luna/Getty Images
A tough breakup didn’t keepGiannina Gibellifrom embracing love again.
Giannina, 29, first gained recognition as a contestant onLove Is Blind’s debut season airing in 2020. While on the Netflix hit, she metDamian Powers.
The pair became engaged but Damian, 31, chose to not go through with marrying Giannina while at the altar. Though they continued to date thereafter, their rough patch became a focal point in theLove Is Blind: After the Altarspecial last year.
“I’ve always had the philosophy of, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. It depends on what you do with it, moving forward,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I just didn’t want to be bitter. I wanted to always have my heart open and to be able to let love in, in whatever shape or form that may be, because that’s just the sweet part of life.”
Giannina Gibelli and Damian Powers.Netflix
Giannina firmly believes that “everything happens for a reason.” Fortunately for her, she says she “just so happened to find a really good part of that on the show,” which involves several reality stars from popular franchises competing across party challenges to win a cash prize.
PEOPLEconfirmed in Januarythat she’s dating herAll Star ShorecostarBlake Horstmann. While the pairdidn’t publicize their love right away, Giannina notes that it was “the worst-kept secret ever.”
“He’s just such a genuine person, and he’s just a delight to be around that I genuinely wanted to get to know him and to be around his energy, and he felt very comfortable,” she says. “Within the first couple of hours of meeting him, we were already next to each other, like Velcro. We were like sticky tape, all the time.”
Paramount+
But Giannina also found love through friendship on the new reality competition series. “We are all in one big group chat. We send each other funny things, but we actually did a trip to Mexico in February with all of us,” she shares.
“That was really fun because we miss each other and we needed more of that. That was a really big reason why I went on this show, too, because I wanted to find new people that had gone through similar experiences, but know what life is like,” she continues. “And we all get to enjoy and understand what it means when I say, ‘Oh, I’m stressed out about this,’ or, ‘I’m really excited.’ ‘How did you deal with X, Y, and Z?’ You’re really in a group of your comrades and your friends. It feels really good after that.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
All Star Shorepremieres Wednesday on Paramount+.
source: people.com
