Love Is Blind’s Damian Powers and Giannina Gibelli’s Ups and Downs: From Falling in Love and Beyond

Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Love Is Blind’s Damian Powers and Giannina Gibelli’s Ups and Downs: From Falling in Love and Beyond

From the pods and beyond. Since Damian Powers and Giannina Gibelli first met and fell in love on Netflix’s Love Is Blind, they have experienced both highs and lows throughout their multi-year relationship.

Powers and Gibelli were one of the six couples who got engaged within 10 days while filming the reality show in 2018, which premiered two years later. Within a few episodes, the couple’s connection was evident to viewers before the Venezuela native proposed to her newfound beau.

Following their whirlwind engagement, the remainder of the season followed their journey to the altar. However, as time went on, they soon discovered jarring realizations about one another.

While the pair were both nervous heading into their wedding day during the finale, Gibelli was eventually ready to take the plunge and say “I do,” but Powers was not. He tearfully revealed that he could not marry the business owner because she had been all over the place with her emotions.

“I do not,” Damian explained in the episode. "I stayed consistent all the way through this and you have not.”

After learning of his rejection, Gibelli ended up running away from the wedding venue — even falling in the mud and ripping her dress — to think things through. She later returned to the venue to hear out her former fiancé, where he expressed he still loved her and that he didn’t think their love story was over.

Weeks after the show’s finale was filmed, the pair revealed during the first reunion special that they were back together and had actually only split for a few hours.

“There was so much that happened,” Gibelli told Entertainment Weekly in March 2020. “At the end of the day, the relationship is between you and this person. Who better to understand that than you two? … I love Damian, I know his heart, I know everything about him. I really wanted us to heal together because we had gone through such a big, scary thing and it just didn’t feel right not being together in that moment whether we were going to end it together or not. It was something I wanted to go through with him and just see, are we OK? Are our hearts OK?"

While they continued to date and take things slow, Powers was spotted hanging out with Too Hot to Handle’s Francesca Farago in August 2020, sparking speculation that the formerly engaged couple had split up. However, the reality stars were quick to clarify that they were still together and Powers was just friends with the Canadian model.

“Over the past week, I have been in L.A. with my attorney, Alex Ion, pursuing new projects and business ventures," Powers told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "Francesca and I both share the same attorney. Alex arranged for both Francesca and I to meet with him for dinner at the Eveleigh in West Hollywood along with some of our other friends, including Mitchell Crawford and Raiane Macedo. Francesca and I are not dating or romantically involved but remain friends.”

At the time, Gibelli and Powers continued to post loved-up selfies and TikTok videos together amid quarantine until they went to film the Love Is Blind: After the Alter special a few months later.

During the special — which aired in July 2021 — Gibelli expressed her confusion over where the pair stands since they still don’t live together but are still dating. Things later took an unexpected turn when Farago turned up the filmed reunion party as Powers' date, which caught Gibelli “off guard.”

“My blood boils just thinking about that,” the Atlanta resident told Entertainment Tonight in August 2021. “I also wasn’t expecting to be treated that way either. You know, if you’re going to bring someone as a friend, then why am I the one being treated like the stranger?”

Since their big blowup at the reunion, the pair have called it quits on their relationship, she confirmed to ET.

“I am officially single,” she explained at the time. “Me and Damian haven’t been dating for a couple of months now. It was a lot to process and it was a very long breakup. I have never been one to just, like, not peel off the Band-Aid so this was new … it was just like that trust wasn’t really there [anymore].”

Scroll down to relive Powers and Gibelli’s ups and downs through the years:

Credit: Netflix

Meeting in Pods

The pair joined the Netflix dating show in 2018, where they initially got to know one another by speaking through the walls of their secluded “pods.”

Credit: Netflix

Flipping the Script

Within a few episodes — which aired in 2020 — the couple’s relationship blossomed and Powers was ready to propose to the woman he loved before ever seeing her. However, Gibelli explained in the episode that she “doesn’t believe in gender roles” and instead popped the question to Powers, who tearfully said, “Yes.”

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

A Rocky Engagement

After getting engaged, the pair started to settle into their new life together. However, as viewers saw, they got into several fights before the finale. In the seventh episode, they even recreated the pod conditions during a fight over her dissatisfaction with their sex life. She stood in the kitchen and yelled at him, while he laid on the bed in the next room.

“You know how you tell me this is the best sex of your life? Have you noticed that I don’t return the compliment? I don’t say it’s the best sex of my life, too,” the business owner said at the time. “It’s great but it’s not f—king mind-blowing. That’s the problem — thank you so much. Why? Why don’t you initiate it? Why don’t you seduce me, even though I jump on you every freaking second? Why don’t you just look at me and take it? I do not understand. Why can’t you just seduce me?”

Powers then explained his lack of initiative was a result of Gibelli putting him “on an emotional roller coaster.”

Credit: Netflix

Calling it Off

On their supposed wedding day after she said “I do,” Powers turned to her and replied, “I do not” because of this so-called emotional rollercoaster. As a result, Gibelli ran away from the venue in the now-iconic scene where she's spotted falling in the mud, which stains her white gown. She eventually went back to confront Powers, even ripping off a piece of her dress to give back to him to symbolize a bow he had for her during the pod proposal.

Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Back Together

The couple gave their relationship another shot a few hours after “the footage stopped,” Powers told Entertainment Weekly.


"It’s hard for people to understand," he said in March. "We both had our moments leading up to the wedding where it could be harsh but there were also so many beautiful moments that weren’t shown. Even at the wedding, it wasn’t just Damian saying, 'I do not,' to get back at her for all these things, it was literally what I felt was best for us to have a healthy relationship because there was so much stress leading up to that. I was almost afraid like, will this work if we get married? We’re both free spirits, we don’t want to feel contained, I wanted something beautiful with her. I think people will be amazed that we’re still together after the wedding but it’s a year and a half later, we’ve hid our relationship and that hasn’t been easy."

Credit: Courtesy of Giannina Gibelli/Instagram

Taking it Slow

Following their post-finale reunion, they’ve remained solid. Gibelli explained on After the Altar, which aired in July 2021, that they did not live together or were engaged, with neither of them in a rush to tie the knot.

Credit: MEGA

Breakup Speculation

In August 2020, Powers was pictured looking cozy with Farago while out in West Hollywood amid new romance rumors. At the time, Powers and Gibelli both confirmed they were still together and that the Too Hot To Handle star was just a friend.

Credit: Courtesy of Giannina Gibelli/

Change Is Coming

Their relationship shifted at the 2021 reunion special when Powers brought Farago as his date without informing his longtime girlfriend prior. Their exchanges were tense from there, as Gibelli warned the model to stay away from her boyfriend, who dished that the Atlanta native had not told her about the seriousness of the relationship. 


While Farago eventually ducked out early on her own, Gibelli told her partner that she no longer trusted him. She also complained that his interactions with the Canadian native were very different than how he treated her in an explosive on-camera fight.

Credit: Netflix (2)

Calling it Quits

Gibelli confirmed she has been “officially single” for a couple of months during an August 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight. She also noted that she’s “moved on” from her former beau. “I feel really, really good. I’m definitely at a really good place in my life.”