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The Daily Beast said they spoke to five other cast members from season five, including Tyranny Todd and Hayden Weaver, who confirmed parts of Gianna’s story.
Tyranny claims she heard Gianna trying to push away the male co-star’s advances, and at one point, she noticed he was on top of Gianna.
“I’m just like, what the f–k?” Todd recalled. “We went over there to try to get him off of her because we were like, ‘This is weird.’ I remember just always being really, really mad because we knew that Gianna was taken advantage of. I can remember it clear as day, he was on top of her and to turn around, like, ‘What the f–k? This is not cool.'”
Hayden, who dated Gianna two years after the show and shares a son with her, told the outlet he saw Gianna going into the bedroom to lay down. Although he went outside, he claimed to have a clear view of the bedroom.
“I remember at one point looking at the room and there was a camera pointed where Gianna was laying,” he recalled. “I couldn’t see what exactly they were filming. I just assumed they were getting some shots of people sleeping that they can edit into stuff for the show. I came to realize later that [the male cast member] was basically starting to touch her and they were filming it as if it was like a hookup.”
After trying to put the pieces together, Gianna explained that her feelings toward the male contestant are complex.
“I didn’t know how to feel about it and there’s still a part of me that I still don’t know how to feel about it,” she said. “I do have anger for him, but I guess I just won’t ever feel like he had a malicious intention. I don’t think this was something he planned to do.”
Gianna hopes that sharing her story will help others with similar experiences as hers.
“I spent all these years not saying anything while it aired and while it was still fresh in everyone’s minds because I was scared,” she expressed. “I might as well just come out with it and share my experience. [It’s] lifted a lot off my shoulders. I felt like it’s not something that I have to carry on my back in secret or feel ashamed that it happened.”
She later added, “At the end of the day, I would hope that anybody who is interested in doing reality TV could hear this and just know that it’s important to be able to stick up for yourself.”