Giannina Gibelli insists that fans only saw one side of her on Love Is Blind. The contestant has received a lot of hate since appearing on the show, and many fans have labeled her behavior as toxic, bipolar and childish. While Giannina admits that she didn't come off the best on the Netflix series, she also insists that the haters don't know the real her.
Giannina got engaged to Damian Powers on the first season of Love Is Blind. While their relationship had a cute beginning that included both partners proposing to each other, it was anything but smooth sailing once the pair actually got to spend time together in person. They fought more frequently and with more passion than any of the other couples, and Giannina was often the catalyst for their biggest disputes. She struggled to control her temper and would often turn to yelling and cussing when she felt that Damian wasn't listening to her. She called out his lack of passion in the bedroom one minute, only to be making out with him the next. The up and down behavior eventually took a toll on Damian. When their wedding day arrived, Giannina said "I do," but Damian said, "I do not." Although the pair broke up, they rekindled their relationship after filming ended and have been together ever since.
While Giannina is happy with Damian, she hasn't been able to escape the brutal hate she's received online about her behavior during the show. On a recent episode of the Love in Sight podcast (via Cheat Sheet), the reality TV contestant admitted that she tries to ignore the mean comments, but she also wants to get to a place where they don't bother her. She said, "I try to stay away from Twitter but I also face it because I’m building this wall of like, ‘It doesn’t hurt me.'" She went on to explain that, while the comments are difficult to hear, she can see some truth in the accusations. Giannina said: "In the beginning, I couldn’t. I was like, ‘Why is this happening to me? People don’t get it.’ And I still get, ‘You’re toxic. You’re a child. You’re immature. You’re bipolar. You don’t deserve him.’ And it’s just like, I understand why you would say that because everything that’s shown will pretty much, whenever I look at it, confirm that."
Although Giannina understands that her behavior on the show wasn't the best portrayal of herself, she's also adamant that it isn't the full picture. “You don’t know me," she said. "You don’t know who I am. You weren’t in my position. You weren’t in any of our shoes. I get that you saw what we went through, sort of, beginning through end, but, I don’t know how many times I’m gonna say it, but no one will understand how it was." Giannina went on to say that the show helped her to look at herself and change some of the behaviors that were getting in the way of her happiness. She said, "It was a really big learning experience for me and when people say, ‘Oh, you suck,’ or, ‘You’re toxic.'" Giannina continued, "It’s like, well, I can be. Obviously, you can see that. But I also did a lot of introspective work within myself within that whole experience. So I get more positive than negative.”
Dealing with online trolls is difficult and unfair. Haters can be brutal, and it's hard to respond to their comments with maturity and kindness. But that's exactly what Giannina did. Instead of allowing the online hate to bring her down, she found a way to turn the negative into some sort of positive. She still doesn't deserve to be berated by people who don't know her, but it's obvious that she has grown and matured a lot from her experience on the show.
Love is Blind season 1 is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Cheat Sheet