Giannina Gibelli and Blake Horstmann began dating after meeting on MTV’s new competition series, All Star Shore
Giannina Gibelli doesn’t believe everyone will be super enthused to see her romance with boyfriend Blake Horstmann unfold on the small screen — but she couldn’t care less.
Sources previously confirmed the pair’s relationship to PEOPLE in January, noting that they met each other on MTV’s All Star Store. Now, fans will get to see their love story blossom throughout the upcoming competition reality series.
“I think it’s safe to say that we weren’t shy about how we felt for each other and how comfortable we were,” Giannina, 29, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “During the show, you’ll see some people being like, ‘Get a room. Can you please figure this out over there? I miss my boyfriend. I miss my husband. You’re making me jealous.'”
She continues, “By the end of it, yeah, you might get annoyed with us, but we were at bliss. We were, like, in our honeymoon. So … I really don’t care.”
Giannina first gained recognition on Love Is Blind, where she met Damian Powers. The couple dated for years after choosing not to wed at the altar, but it was revealed in 2021’s Love Is Blind: After the Altar special that they were facing relationship problems. She confirmed their split last August.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Giannina admits she “wasn’t expecting” to find someone new on All Star Store — but Blake, 33, proved to be just what she needed.
“The moment I met him, he seemed a little familiar because I saw him, I guess, on his promos or [something] like that for The Bachelorette,” she recalls. “I never particularly watched the show, but I recognized his face, and so as soon as I was like, ‘Oh, you’re familiar. Where are you from?’ He goes, ‘I’m from The Bachelorette.’ He just gave me this massive smile.”
“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,” she continues. “He felt very comfortable. 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.”
Though the two struck up a romance during their time on the series, All Star Store isn’t about finding love.
All contestants — including Jersey Shore’s Angelina Pivarnick and The Only Way Is Essex’s Joey Essex — have to partake in a first-of-its-kind competition, which involves the cast battling it out across a series of party-style challenges for a cash prize.
“I did a version of this in college, but it’s supersized now and it’s just very deadly,” says Giannina. “It’s not compared to how it was when I was in college. You are familiar with these iconic games, but they’re just in a completely different ball field. I’m naturally athletic. So, I was like, ‘I got this. It’s probably going to be a little hard, but not too hard.'”
Giannina adds, “Then, I had a rude awakening because I was just covered in just bruises and I had a little incident that you’ll have to see if I make it through it or not. But it was very hard on our bodies, for sure.”
All Star Shore premieres June 29 on Paramount+.
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