Jillian Michaels was quite literally running out of time to propose when she finally found what felt like the right moment to pop the question to her girlfriend, DeShanna Minuto, after a series of failed plans. “I had a plan to destroy our anniversary and pretend all was going wrong and then propose — that got ruined. And then, there was a family trip, and that got ruined. Then, I wanted to go to New York, to the place on our first date, and then that got ruined! And I was like, oh my god and time is running out,” the fitness guru explained on the HollywoodLife Podcast. “Nothing would line up. So it was like a Sunday morning, and we were just laying in bed lazy…and you know, you sit there and you think ‘God, I love this person. I cannot imagine waking up without this person?’ In that moment, I was ‘Fuck this!’ and I was like, ‘I love you more than anything in the world. You’ve been all these things for me. Will you marry me?'”
The Fitness App founder continued, “She laughed and thought I was kidding! She was like, ‘That’s cute.’ And I was like, ‘No, I mean it. This is it. I just gotta go get the ring!” Jillian admitted that the pair were ‘running out of time,’ as they were already planning a July 2022 wedding in Italy, prior to the November 2021 proposal. “The planning started before the proposal, not intentionally, but because of dates being backed up due to COVID, and me needing to have both kids at the same time. So it had to be summer, and these really specific dates in July,” Jillian explained.
DeShanna and Jillian began talking about the possibility of marriage after “enduring the worst” together during the pandemic. “When we first met, I was like, ‘I don’t have the bandwidth for more kids.’ And she had said, at the time, I don’t think that’s a deal breaker for me if I’m involved with your kids, but I will need to be married one day.’ And I thought, ‘Well, nothing’s a sure thing, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Jillian recalled of the pair meeting in 2018. “We went through hell together! COVID, locked in a house together with the kids, anything that you think is going to change somebody or break up a relationship we went through together and we came out of it stronger people and a better couple.”
She continued, “I felt actually like, ‘Man, if I can make it through life with anybody, it would be her. So, we started talking about it and planning.” Jillian told HL that the couple plans to wed in Venice in July 2022, with their honeymoon in Namibia. “I’m going to wear Zuhair Murad — a black, ready-to-wear and she’s wearing Zuhair Murad bridal.”
Jillian revealed her 9-year-old son, Phoenix, will be her best man, while her daughter, Lukensia, also 9, will be a bridesmaid. “I went through the duties with Phoenix. I was like, ‘Buddy, I need a party,'” she laughed. “The ideas he’s giving me — it’s just a disaster!”
You can listen to the full interview with Jillian on the HollywoodLife Podcast here!
