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Warning: The Perfect Match season 1 spoilers ahead. As one of the few couples to know each other before filming, it’s understandable why fans are wondering: Are Francesca and Damian are still together from The Perfect Match season 1 and where they are now after filming ended? (Their love triangle with Giannina on Love Is Blind season 1’s “After the Altar” special wasn’t the end of their relationship.)
Francesca Farago, a contestant from Too Hot to Handle season 1, and Damian Powers, a contestant from Love Is Blind season 1, were two cast members on season 1 of The Perfect Match, a Netflix reality TV dating show hosted by Nick Lachey (who also hosts Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum). The series sees former contestants from Netflix reality TV shows—including Love Is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, The Circle, The Ultimatum and The Mole—move into a villa in a tropical location, where they date each other in the hopes of finding their perfect match. Each week, contestants who don’t have a match are eliminated as new contestants arrive at the villa to try to break up couples and find a match of their own. In the end, the couple voted by the eliminated contestants as the perfect match are named the winners and receive a cash prize.
“It’s a show full of love and drama and conflict and strategy and gameplay,” The Perfect Match executive producer Chris Coelen told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2023. “Different people come in with different motivations; different people come in with different emotional baggage. There’s certainly no stated intent in this show that there is a specific goal. It’s very reflective of where they are in their lives, and they might just be looking for somebody to spend the summer with, or have a fling with — or maybe they are looking for someone who’s a life partner. It’s really up to them to figure out what their own perfect match is.”
He continued, “Obviously, Valentine’s Day is a holiday that’s rife with symbolism about love. We’re all into the new year, and we’re thinking about our lives and our partners, or lack of partners. These shows are incredibly enjoyable at any time of the year, but I love that we get to see a show like Perfect Match come out on Valentine’s Day.”
But back to Francesca and Damian. So…are Francesca and Damian still together from The Perfect Match season 1? Read on for what we know about if Francesca and Damian are still together from The Perfect Match season 1 and where they are now since filming ended.
Image: Courtesy of Netflix.
Are Francesca and Damian still together from The Perfect Match season 1? The answer is no. Francesca and Damian broke up in episode 11 of The Perfect Match after Francesca told Damian that she didn’t think their relationship would work off camera. “I didn’t want to leave this house with anyone I wasn’t 100 percent certain on because leaving here in a relationship is so risky to me and I don’t want to do it unless I’m 100 percent certain. But I don’t know if we would work outside of this house,” Francesca told Damian. Damian told Francesca, “I already wanted to commit to you outside of this,” to which Francesca responded, “But why? What do you even like about me? I know you like that I’m attractive, but we were so bad in that compatibility challenge. We don’t sit down and have in-depth conversations about anything. I don’t know if you know me deep down and I don’t know if I know you deep down.” She continued, “I’m just unsure I can move forward.”
Before her relationship with Damian, Francesca was matched with Dom Gabriel, a contestant from The Mole season 1, and Abbey Humphreys, a cast member from Twentysomethings: Austin season 1. In a confessional after she left The Perfect Match, Francesca joked that she was going to “go home and text” her ex. “I had a great thing with Dom, and I had an amazing few days with Abbey, and me and Damian, I’m glad I explored that,” she said. “I wanna say I’m not going to go home and text my ex, but…I probably should do that. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve grown. Just gonna go home and cuddle my dog.” As of writing this, Francesca and Damian still ollow each other on Instagram. Damian also follows Francesca’s Instagram promoting her Only Fans account, @francescafarago2.0.
In an interview with Tudum in March 2023, Francesca confirmed that she’s in a relationship with her ex, TikTok star Jesse Sullivan. “I ended up getting home and messaging someone I had already known,” she said. “We connected right away, and we’ve been really happy together ever since. I’m in a super solid place in my relationship right now.”
Image: Courtesy of Netflix.
Who is Francesca from The Perfect Match season 1? Francesca Farago is a 30-year-old from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was originally a contestant on Too Hot to Handle season 1, where she dated Harry Jowsey, a 25-year-old from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Both Francesca and Harry made it to the finale of Too Hot to Handle season 1 and received a $7,500 prize as two of the 10 winners. Francesca was also on Too Hot to Handle season 1 with Chloe Veitch, a 23-year-old from Essex, England, who also is a contestant on The Perfect Match season 1. Francesca also starred on the Love Is Blind season 1’s “After the Altar” special, where she dated Damian.
Image: Courtesy of Netflix.
Who is Damian from The Perfect Match season 1? Damian Powers is a 31-year-old from Heidelberg, Germany. He was originally a contestant on Love Is Blind season 1, where he dated and got engaged to Giannina Gibelli, a 25-year-old from Caracas, Venezuela. Damian listed his job on Love Is Blind season 1 as a “General Manager.” Damian broke up with Giannina at their wedding in the Love Is Blind season 1 finale. In Love Is Blind season 1’s “After the Altar” special, Damian and Giannina revealed they were back together before later breaking up again off camera.
Image: Ser Baffo/Netflix.
Who is The Perfect Match host? The Perfect Match season 1 host is Nick Lachey, who also hosts Netflix reality TV dating shows Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On with his wife, Vanessa Lachey. Nick was the lead singer of the boy band 98 Degrees from 1996 to 2012. The group reunited in 2012 and are still together. Nick has also released four solo alums: SoulO, What’s Left of Me, A Father’s Lullaby and Soundtrack of My Life. He was married to Jessica Simpson from 2002 to 2006, and the two also starred in their own reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica on MTV, from 2003 to 2005. Nick is also the winner of season 5 of The Masked Singer during which he performed as the character “Piglet.”
In an interview with Distractify in March 2022, Nick explained that he and Vanessa wanted to host Love Is Blind because of how their own relationship was long distance when they first started dating. “When Netflix approached us with Love is Blind all those years ago, we jumped at the opportunity because the show really spoke to us personally,” Nick said. “When we first started dating, Vanessa was in New York and I was in Los Angeles. We didn’t get to see each other a lot so we had a lot of long phone conversations, learning everything we possibly could about each other.” He continued, “[Those conversations were] really important for building our relationship and knowing we wanted the same things before there were external pressures on the relationship.” Nick also told Distractify that he and Vanessa want contestants to “fall in love for the right reasons and then introduce everything else.”
Nick also told People in 2022 about how he thinks Love Is Blind would’ve worked for him and Vanessa if they had met in The Pods. “We’ve thought about that, often. And I really, I’m not just saying this for the benefit of this show, I think we would’ve,” he said. “We have the same birthday, we have the same passions, we have the same interests, we have the same drive. Things that motivated us.” Vanessa asked “You would’ve found me through a wall?” to which Nick responded, “I would find you anywhere.” He continued, “I really do think we would’ve found each other. I think we would’ve gravitated to each other. That’s what we did in life. Obviously, we knew each other.” Vanessa added, “We did. We had to find our journey to get to each other.”
Nick also claimed to Us Weekly in 2022 that he would’ve joined Love Is Blind if he was single. “I would. I mean, it’s fascinating,” he said. “Especially having seen the success of season 1 and seeing two loving couples still married to this day? If I watched that and I was looking for love, why wouldn’t you wanna be a part of that? You know, it’s proven to work!” He added, “This dating world is not one I ever was part of — this very superficial ‘swipe left.’ There’s so much judgment and you can Google everybody. I’m not from that era.”
The Perfect Match is available to stream on Netflix.
Image: Courtesy of Gallery Book.
For more about Love Is Blind, read Cameron Hamilton and Lauren Speed’s 2021 book, Leap of Faith: Finding Love the Modern Way. In the book, Cameron and Lauren, who were one of two couples to marry from Love Is Blind season 1, share their “engaging and accessible love advice for the modern world” and reveal exclusive behind-the-scenes details from the Netflix series and what went down in The Pods that viewers didn’t see. The book is told from Cameron and Lauren’s alternating points of view as the fan-favorite couple dishes on what it was really like to marry a “faceless stranger” on television and opens up about how their relationship shifted—”for better and for worse”—once cameras stopped rolling and Lauren and Cameron’s relationship continued in the real world. Leap of Faith: Finding Love the Modern Way is a must-read for any Love Is Blind fan.
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