Giannina Gibelli said she had “never” watched The Bachelor franchise before meeting Blake Horstmann while filming the upcoming competition series All Star Shore, which premieres June 29 on Paramount+
Love Is Blind star Giannina Gibelli called her boyfriend and Bachelorette alum Blake Horstmann the “sweetest” person.
The reality star, 29, opened about Horstmann’s best qualities that fans might not see.
“He’s very respectful, but I don’t think that they know just how funny and spontaneous and dedicated he is,” she told E! News at the 2022 iHeartRadio Wango Tango Festival on Saturday.
She added, “He’s doing his DJ gig now and just watching him reach all these new heights and all these goals, I don’t think a lot of people know that he has it in him, but he definitely does.”
Gibelli also looked back at meeting Horstmann, 33, while filming the upcoming Paramount+ competition series All Star Shore, which premieres June 29.
“I’ve never watched the Bachelor franchise or any of that so I didn’t know who he was,” she said about the dating show franchise that introduced reality fans to Horstmann via The Bachelorette. “He seemed familiar to me and he just flashed his big ol’ smile at me and that’s how I met him right on the beach.”
Gibelli also explained why she decided to do another reality TV show after appearing on first season of Love Is Blind, which aired in 2020.
“After I did Love Is Blind, I felt very comfortable being vulnerable and I saw how many people really related with me and I didn’t want to do another dating show,” she said. “Then I was called to do this fun challenge show in the middle of the beach off the coast of Africa.”
She added, “I felt like this would be a good time to show a different side of myself. Love Is Blind was so heavy and this was very fun and party.”
Giannina Gibelli and Damian Powers
Credit: Netflix
On All Star Shore, contestants will battle it out across various party-style challenges, like “Party Pong” and “Shots and Found.” Those who succeed could win a cash prize as well as global bragging rights.
“This is the best show I’ve ever done. I could not be happier with All Star Shore,” Gibelli teased. “There are a lots of surprises that will unfold.”
She continued, “There’s lots of sides to every single cast member that was put on there and the fact that we all fell in love with each other — every single person on that cast is my favorite person — I don’t think you were expecting it from such an eclectic group of people.”
In January, sources confirmed to PEOPLE that the couple’s romance flourished on the set of the new series.
“Blake and Giannina met filming a competition series for Paramount+ that includes reality stars from around the world on shows like The Bachelorette, Jersey Shore, Love Is Blind [and] RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a source said at the time. “On the series, they will battle it out for a cash prize.”
Earlier that month, PEOPLE broke the news that Horstmann and Gibelli were “dating after recently meeting.”
“They’re taking things slow,” an insider said at the time. “But [they] seem really happy together.”
Horstmann was first introduced to audiences as a contestant on Becca Kufrin’s Bachelorette season. After ending the season as a runner-up to Kufrin’s now-ex-fiancé Garrett Yrigoyen, he caused quite the stir on Bachelor in Paradise in 2019 due to his pre-show entanglements with Caelynn Miller-Keyes, Kristina Schulman and Hannah Godwin.
As for Gibelli, she gained recognition for appearing on Love Is Blind in 2020. She met and fell in love with contestant Damian Powers, to whom she got engaged. However, the couple later split.
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