The Bachelorette alum Blake Horstmann and Love is Blind star Giannina Gibelli are finally speaking out about their relationship after several months of dating, and they appear to be head over heels for each other.
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Blake and Giannina, who met each other while filming Paramount+’s new series All Star Shore, have finally gushed about each other on social media after teasing their relationship — and trying to keep it under wraps — for months.
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“Happy…Just so damn happyï¸� @gianninagibelli,” Blake, 33, captioned a Wednesday picture and video montage featuring sweet moments Blake and Giannina have shared in the last six months.
Blake, who added a red-heart emoji to his post, continued, “If you are wondering how the hell this happened, tune into @allstarshoreofficial on @paramountplus starting today.”
For Giannina’s part, the 29-year-old brunette beauty posted similar images on her own Instagram account and called her boyfriend Blake “my worst kept secret.”
Blake jokingly commented on her post, “‘This is brand new information’ phoebe voice. You da best babe.”
The former Netflix star also took to TikTok to boast about how serious her romance with Blake has become.
“When you go on a reality TV show and meet the love of your life,” she gushed.
Blake and Giannina technically went Instagram official in early April, when Giannina posted a selfie with Blake during their romantic getaway to Spain on April 3 via Instagram Stories, months after reports began to swirl about the couple dating.
Blake was reportedly celebrating Giannina’s 29th birthday and their travels began in Rome, Italy before they eventually took off to Spain.
In the selfie, Blake had his arms around the brunette beauty and they were both smiling big. However, Giannina noticeably attempted to block Blake’s face with her camera phone, which was a poor attempt to keep his identity a secret.
Instead of posting photos of each other’s faces, they chose to upload solo pics from the same European vacation on their respective Instagram accounts.
For instance, Giannina had shared photos of two cocktails, two coffees, a man’s hand holding hers and more, which all showed that she was enjoying a trip with her significant other. But she couldn’t fully give away the fact the man was Blake.
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Blake and Giannina were presumably contractually obligated not to showcase their relationship on social media until All Star Shore premiered.
In December, the pair reportedly took a break from social media to film the new series for Paramount+, which will feature several reality TV personalities competing for a cash prize.
When a fan asked Giannina about Blake in March amid dating rumors, Giannina reportedly responded, “I can’t officially post him [right now], because we did a project together that hasn’t been announced yet.”
She added, however, that she’s “really happy to be sharing these moments” with Blake “in private for now.”
Reports Blake — who finished The Bachelorette’s eleventh season starring Becca Kufrin as the runner-up and failed to find lasting love on Bachelor in Paradise — and Giannina, who appeared on Love is Blind in 2020, were dating first surfaced in early January.
“[They are] dating after recently meeting,” a source told People at the time. “They’re taking things slow. But [they] seem really happy together.”
Romance rumors sparked when eagle-eyed fans noticed Blake and Giannina were posting photos with similar backgrounds on social media.
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Blake, for example, posted a photo of himself sipping on cocktails in front of a big wooden barrel at Mile High Spirits in Colorado on New Year’s Eve, and Giannina’s Love Is Blind co-star Kelly Chase commented, “Happy new year.”
Giannina subsequently posted a picture of herself posing in front of similar barrels the next day.
Giannina, wearing a sexy white dress at the time, captioned her post, “Repeat after me: I am about to walk into the best year of my life.”
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One fan account, @myteaandroses, also pointed out how it appeared Giannina had uploaded an image from Blake’s bed via Instagram Stories on New Year’s Day.
And several days prior, Giannina revealed on Instagram that she was about to travel from Miami “to the mountains,” hinting she was headed to a colder destination on December 28. Blake, as fans are well aware, currently lives in Denver, CO.
Giannina got engaged to fellow Love Is Blind contestant Damian Powers on the show in 2020, but during the season finale, Damian reportedly admitted at the altar he couldn’t go through with marrying her so soon.
The pair chose to stay together and continue dating, but then Giannina announced in August 2021 she and Damian had split.
“I am officially single. Me and Damian haven’t been dating for a couple of months now,” Giannina told Entertainment Tonight at the time.
Giannina said she had “moved on” from Damian at that point and felt “really, really good” about where she was at in life.
During the Love Is Blind: After the Altar special that was released last year, it was revealed that Giannina and Damian reportedly had their fair share of problems, such as Damian’s too-close relationship with Too Hot to Handle star Francesca Farago.
(According to People, however, Damian denied any romantic involvement with Francesca).
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As for Blake, his breakup with Becca on The Bachelorette finale in August 2018 was excruciating to watch considering Blake had said he was madly in love with the show’s leading lady.
Blake was admittedly “blindsided” by Becca’s decision to dump him because he appeared to be her frontrunner all season long.
“I truly thought that if it came down to me proposing, that she wouldn’t say no,” Blake told ET in 2018. “I thought what we had was real.”
Blake added it was “incredibly hard” to get over his heartbreak at first.
After appearing on Becca’s The Bachelorette season, Blake had flings with The Bachelor alums Caelynn Miller-Keyes and Kristina Schulman.
Blake then appeared on Bachelor in Paradise’s sixth edition and came across like a playboy.
He was romantically interested in Hannah Godwin on the ABC spinoff, but she chose to pursue a relationship with Dylan Barbour instead.
Blake said on Instagram in Summer 2021 that he has no interest in appearing on the franchise again for the sake of his mental health because he believes the franchise “breeds toxicity and emotional abuse.”
Blake led Bachelor Nation to believe he and Becca were getting back together last year, but Becca denied that was the case and chose to look for love on Season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise in Summer 2021.
Becca is now happily engaged to her Paradise co-star and The Bachelorette 17 alum Thomas Jacobs.
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.