Jillian Michaels, an original trainer on the controversial reality series The Biggest Loser, has recently announced her engagement to fiancée DeShanna Marie Minuto. The couple announced they were in a relationship back in 2018, after Jillian split from ex-fiancée Heidi Rhoades. Heidi and Jillian share daughter Lukensia, 11, and son Phoenix, 9.
Jillian, 47, posted a picture with DeShanna, 36 — and the massive rock — on Instagram, along with the caption “1153 days… here’s to thousands more. She said “yes” ❤️”
“DeShanna is ‘all the things’ — beautiful, smart, funny, creative, quirky, passionate … I could run down the list of adjectives. Those characteristics obviously attract you to someone. But it’s the quality of their character that makes you think ‘Thank God for this person laying next to me’ every night when you fall asleep,” Jillian Michaels told People.
“It’s easy to stay together when everything is going great, but when real life sets in and things get messy, challenging, scary, and even downright ugly — that’s when the truth reveals itself. And this woman has revealed herself to be strong beyond measure, wise beyond her years, and loving beyond my wildest dreams. I am so grateful to officially call her mine,” she added.
Jillian has courted controversy in the past, for instance she made comments about Lizzo’s body. Not surprising, considering The Biggest Loser is infamous for its brutal (if not abusive) treatment of contestants.
On BuzzFeed Twitter’s show “AM to DM,” co-host Alex Berg mentioned “she appreciated celebrities like Ashley Graham and Lizzo who preach self acceptance and celebrate their bodies as they are,” according to HuffPost.
Jillian Michaels wasn’t impressed: “Why are we celebrating her body? Why does it matter? Why aren’t we celebrating her music? ‘Cause it isn’t gonna be awesome if she gets diabetes.”
“I’m just being honest. Like, I love her music … but there’s never a moment where I’m like, ‘And I’m so glad that’s she’s overweight!’ … Why is it my job to care about her weight?”
The thing is Jillian has designed her job — her entire career — around critiquing people’s weight. But she’s right, a level of “care” might be an exaggeration. Jillian has built a brand based on ‘fat bad’ and ‘thin good.’ She’s no ordinary gym trainer. The Biggest Loser’s documented abuse isn’t anything to scoff at. “It’s fun watching other people suffer like that,” Michaels once said on air.
If people are happy in whatever body they have — and we know unhappiness with the way we look usually comes from our relationship with beauty/societal standards — then Jillian loses money. It makes you wonder if that would be a worry, as her partner. Is her love conditional, based on how your body looks? What if you put on a bit of weight?
Good luck to them!
