Michaella Giorgio Calls Out The Love Is Blind Reunion Edit

Michaella Giorgio was hoping to use the Love Is Blind Season 11 reunion as a platform to advocate for self-love after her disastrous televised engagement. Instead, the 35-year-old retail consultant was ambushed by an ex and forced to sit through photo montages and applause breaks she found disrespectful, and to top it all off, her embarrassing fall on the stage was kept in the Netflix special’s final edit. “I was hopeful they wouldn’t show that, because it’s pretty humiliating,” Michaella tells Elite Daily.

A lot of extremely tough moments led up to that onstage collapse. Michaella fell for the boisterous AI infrastructure salesman Rob Feeley very fast in the pods and was determined to make their engagement work when they began living together in Boston.

But a crude introduction to her fiancé’s friends and Rob’s paranoid blowup at a cast get-together made Michaella realize that she was not with her forever partner. Though she has some issues with how the reunion was edited (read on for all that tea), she doesn’t regret being relatively kind to her ex during the televised special.

I’m grateful I fell in love... and I’m also grateful we’re no longer together.

“I’m really OK with where things stand right now. I said everything I needed to at the reunion,” Michaella says. “I don’t hold any anger or resentment towards him, so I didn’t want to question him there. And I’m just not someone who stays in touch with exes. Overall, I’m grateful I fell in love, because I learned a lot from that relationship. And I’m also grateful we’re no longer together.”

Below, Michaella reveals new info about why Rob ghosting her really got under her skin, the truth about why she blew up at her ex Matt Waldrip, and her statement that was cut from the reunion.

Elite Daily: What hesitations did you have when you were initially signing up to do Love Is Blind?

Michaella Giorgio: I was terrified to date on TV, because I’m normally a very private dater — I don’t even tell my friends about who I’m dating until it’s like a month in. But I was having such a hard time meeting somebody that I wanted to take the risk. Nothing was working for me, so I thought, “If this group of men filled out an application, went through a lengthy interview process, and they’re really ready for marriage, then why shouldn’t I take that opportunity?”

ED: Your relationship with Rob seemed great at first. When you watch those episodes in the pods and in Mexico back, can you pick up on any red flags that you didn’t see at the time?

MG: There’s always a sense of, “Oh, maybe I should have investigated that more” with any relationship. Like when I’m saying, “I know you’re abrasive, but I like it.” I was thinking about my friends and family who can be like that, but on the flip side, how would I feel if that turned toward me at some point? I probably should have explored that a little more. But we really did fall in love, and our engagement was the highest I’ve ever been. So I was in this state of, “This feels so good and fun.”

ED: Rob said in an interview that he felt you didn’t need protecting at that tense dinner with his friends because he saw it as a sort of “Welcome to the family” moment. How do you feel about that?

MG: It definitely didn’t feel very “Welcome to the family” to me. What’s hard is that I’m consistently and accurately described as a very strong, confident woman, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a partner who shows up for me and stops inappropriate conversations.

ED: It sounds like there were some key moments between you and Rob that weren’t shown. Are you happy with how the relationship was portrayed, or do you wish more or less had aired?

MG: That’s a hard question, because putting your relationship on such a public stage is so difficult. I feel like viewers got a really clear picture of what was happening. I think the hardest part was that I was down to leave the show and explore this relationship off camera, because I could feel his stress. And if he wanted to break up, that also would’ve been OK. But continuing to film this show was very much a choice. We were not forced into it. We were not held hostage. We could have left at any time.

His whole thing was blaming the cameras. So if it’s just the cameras and this environment, then those are gone now.

ED: Do you think you and Rob would still be together if you had left the show after the pods or after Mexico?

MG: I think the breakup was probably inevitable; filming just sped it up. I would love to say that the issue for Rob was 100% just the cameras, but over the last year and a half, he could have met me in a different way, and he didn’t. He had the opportunity to be like, “Hey, can I date you in the real world and make this up to you?” If he was really interested, that was an option. I probably would have said no, but still, that’s something he could’ve done that didn’t happen.

ED: Were you surprised that he didn’t reach out to ask you out and try to start over?

MG: Absolutely. Because his whole thing was blaming the cameras. So if it’s just the cameras and this environment, then those are gone now.

ED: What was the hardest part about being ghosted by the man you were supposed to marry?

MG: What really hurt and surprised me was finding out that he was calling the men. He called Stew and apologized for making him uncomfortable at the bar. I know he talked to Blake and John, too. He’s having all these conversations, and I’m just sitting here like, “I thought I was the most important person in this experiment to you, but I haven’t heard a word from you.” At the time, I thought he just needed a break from the whole show, so hearing he was engaging with other cast members was hurtful.

ED: It kind of seems like he places his male friendships above all else.

MG: Yeah. It’s a pattern, so I can’t be too surprised. But I still was.

ED: Well, speaking of friendships, you developed a strong bond with Erika. When you were ending things with Rob, she spoke about this fear of having to start all over if Love Is Blind doesn’t work out. Was that a real fear you were dealing with at that time?

MG: Yeah, she knew how invested I was in this. And you have to remember, this is an experiment to fast-track us into this next stage of life we really want to be in. So, under normal circumstances, it would take maybe like six months or a year to meet your friends and family, go on vacation, all of that. This is our one chance at a shortcut, and it really pushes that finish line back if it doesn’t work. So I think that’s what she was speaking to.

ED: Did you and Rob speak at all in the year and a half since filming?

MG: We met up once, and he was exactly how he was on the show. Then I called him before we left for the reunion, because we hadn’t spoken in over a year and it didn’t feel right for our first time talking to each other to be on the reunion stage. But the conversation wasn’t anything spectacular. I was just like, “It’s a lot to have to watch us fall in love right now. I’m having a hard time.” And he was like, “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” Very basic.

ED: Speaking of the reunion, it seemed like you were surprised that Matt (the beekeeper) came forward with this love story about you two. What threw you off about that?

MG: I am not denying that Matt and I dated, and I actually really liked him. They cut out me saying that Matt was a soft place to land after Rob, and he represented this stability, family, and availability that was the exact opposite of what I just experienced. But he broke up with me the night before Thanksgiving last year, saying he wasn’t attracted to a relationship with me. I hadn’t spoken to him since that day, so his professing those things at the reunion really caught me off guard. I wish it didn’t activate me so much, but it was hurtful. It was not an act of love at all.

ED: Did it feel like a side of Matt you hadn’t seen before?

MG: Yeah, I was truly like, “What is going on?” That’s why I looked at Erika and was like, “This is insane.” And what you don’t see is everyone was chattering about how insane it was. He broke up with me out of the blue, and then he said he’s in love with me — I was like, “What?!”

We filmed that reunion for nine hours, and they cut out the questions I was asked.

ED: Matt said in an interview that he has no recollection of you taking mushrooms when you were together. Can you clarify what was going on with that comment?

MG: We went to dinner, and we were going out after, and I was like, “Do you mind if I take a mushroom chocolate?” He was like, “No.” So he didn’t take one, but I did.

ED: There were some reactions on social media saying that you had more heat for the rest of the men at the reunion, but not so much for Rob. How do you feel about that?

MG: I don’t think I gave the men any heat. I was asked my opinion, so I gave it. We filmed that reunion for nine hours, and they cut out the questions I was asked. I wasn’t just suddenly saying things. Nick and Vanessa [Lachey] asked me direct questions about these relationships, but only my answers made the edit.

Elite Daily reached out to Netflix and Kinetic Content about Michaella’s claims about how the reunion was edited but did not hear back by the time of publication.

To see him get this whole photo montage where the dialogue was about how Rob may not have left with Michaella, but he left with his buddies — I’m like, this is so insulting.

ED: There’s a moment in the reunion where Nick leads the room in applauding Rob after he says he stopped going out for a couple of months and tried therapy after filming. How did you feel in that moment?

MG: It was upsetting. First of all, I want Rob to be well, and I want him to do the things he needs to do so he doesn’t have moments like this in his relationships anymore. But doing the “75 Hard” and not drinking for 50 days are not the remedy for that. And it’s really not enough for how he made not just me but everybody feel that night. So to see him get this whole photo montage where the dialogue was about how Rob may not have left with Michaella, but he left with his buddies — I’m like, this is so insulting. I’m sitting right here, and it’s as if his friendships are a bigger prize than me. And that’s not Rob’s fault. He didn’t create that, but it was a hurtful narrative.

ED: You mentioned the reunion took nine hours to film, and they cut a lot. So how did you feel when your fall made it into the final edit?

MG: I mean, I was hopeful they wouldn’t show that, because it’s pretty humiliating. But it’s funny, I guess. And honestly, the room had so much tension, and my fall made everybody laugh, so it broke that intensity. If it had to come from me, sure. It was all in the name of female friendship — I still got to give Sarah a hug.

ED: Was there anything that wasn’t included in the reunion that you think should have been?

MG: My conversation with Rob was a lot longer than what they ended up airing. Also, he said that if I ever needed anything, he said that before Matt said the same thing. So that was clever [how those statements were reorganized].

ED: Oh, so Matt was repeating something Rob had already said at the reunion?

MG: Yeah, that was the second time I heard that, and that’s why I was like, “I need nothing from either of you!” I was fed up, because I was like, neither one of you is actually here for me, if we’re being honest.

But the biggest thing I wish they’d included was how I talked about all the work I’ve done on myself and how it’s been reflected back to me. I thought the prize was finding my person and getting married. But what I really learned is how to choose myself and be my own best friend. I really wish they kept that, because I think it’s an important message for men and women to hear.

ED: What’s dating been like after the show?

MG: It’s been hard to date, just because this thing has been kind of looming over me. If I were with someone while all of this was airing and I was going to film the reunion, I think I would get very caught up in their emotional experience of it. So I’m very grateful to be single right now, and I’m going to take a few months off because I’m still sort of revisiting and reviewing everything. Dating isn’t really on my radar at all right now, but I am excited to date again because I feel like I have such a different perspective.

I’m learning to celebrate that I am so much, not too much. The girls that get it, get it.

ED: What’s it been like navigating social media these past few weeks?

MG: It’s hard, because people feel like they know me from just watching me for like an hour, so they are so quick to judge. But of course I’m not perfect and composed all the time — there’s a reason I got emotionally activated at the reunion. I’m just a girl trying to find love. And when you write hateful comments on my posts, I do see them, and it hurts. I know you’re supposed to ignore it, but what people say is so mean, and it cuts me at my deepest. You’re saying my biggest fears out loud, like that I’m too much. I’m learning to celebrate that I am so much, not too much. The girls that get it, get it.

ED: What’s the main lesson you are taking away from this whole experience?

MG: The love and loyalty you can give to another person first have to be turned back toward yourself. I’ve always measured my value in a relationship by what I can offer. And now I’m ready to flip that. I know what I’m bringing, so I’m focused on what I’m receiving.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.