I feel like Jillian Michaels was at one point a big promoter of diet culture, given that she was a trainer on that show The Biggest Loser. I avoided that show when it aired as I’ve always thought the entire setup was pretty cruel. In recent years Jillian has said some remarkably reasonable things about Ozempic and keto diets, so I have softened towards her a bit. I’m grateful someone in the “wellness” space will defend carbs these days. Jillian just got married to DeShanna Marie Minuto, a designer, at an opulent ceremony at the Aman hotel in Venice. They’ve been together since 2018 and got engaged in 2021. This is technically the third time they’re getting married. They had a courthouse wedding in Miami last year, followed by another private ceremony in Namibia. I think this is their big “party” wedding with all their friends and extended family. People has the photos and details about the wedding weekend. The food sounds extremely fancy.
Their welcome dinner sounds delicious: Guests arrived by mahogany Venetian boats where they were greeted with champagne before a three-course dinner of tomato steak salad with samphire and pumpkin seed sauce, ricotta and spinach mezzelune with aged parmesan, plus scallops with a pistachio sauce and potato puree.
Jillian didn’t believe in marriage before DeShanna: “She’s beautiful, she’s funny and she’s so creative, Jillian tells PEOPLE. “But all that shiny stuff in the beginning doesn’t last. So what makes you say to yourself, ‘I want to walk alongside this human for the rest of my life.’ And I take that really seriously. I’m 49. I’ve never married anyone. I just didn’t believe that there was a human I could do that with until DeShanna.”
Zuhair Murad designed both of their wedding dresses: During the ceremony, which was planned with the help of Design Anarchy Studio, DeShanna wore a boat neck mermaid Zuhair Murad gown adorned with cascades of asymmetrical handmade beadwork with a faille overskirt and bow detailing. The dress took over a year to create. Jillian also opted for a black dress with sheer sleeves and beaded applique by the same designer.
The wedding dinner sounds even better: Guests then sat down in the Baroque-style palace for a candlelit dinner of tuna tartare, paccheri cacio e pepe and fillet with courgettes cream and a saffron and Amarone reduction. Decor featured custom made table linens, dark and blush garden roses, glass candelabras and delicate handmade Murano glass flowers. Following dinner, guests took boats to Chiesetta della Misericordia, a historic church that was converted into custom nightclub for the masquerade after party, where dancing went on late into the night and acrobats performed on a disco ball.
I like how Jillian wore black and DeShanna wore white. Seeing the way that queer couples interpret wedding style is one of my favorite things because it’s so unique to each couple. The white dress comes across a little bit overdesigned to me but the silhouette is beautiful. Jillian and DeShanna look gorgeous. And yes, I am fixated on the descriptions of the food. But you know, food at weddings is usually a little bit bland, and everything sounds amazing. Saffron and Amarone reduction? Sign me up for whatever that is! I suppose you’d expect as much if your wedding is in Italy, right?
One of these days I’d like to go back to Venice and stay in one of the nicer hotels. The last time I was in Venice I stayed at a youth hostel. On the very first night there, I saw a bed bug crawl across my pillow and I “noped” out hard. Only Edward Cullen is authorized to make a blood meal out of me, my friends. I slept outside on the stone balcony and the sofa in the common room. When we got back to London, where I was studying at the time, I went straight to the laundromat and washed everything in hot water for two cycles. Then I threw my suitcase in a dumpster, because bedbugs can hide in the linings of a suitcase. My friends teased me for being dramatic. But bedbugs are almost impossible to get rid of, so being paranoid is not unreasonable! Needless to say I’d love to experience Venice the right way, sans bedbugs, because it is so beautiful. I won’t have the budget Jillian and DeShanna have, but it’s nice to dream.
Congratulations to them. May they have many happy years together.
I still can’t stand Jillian and the way she kept Lizzo’s name in her mouth and dissed her weight. She did it for clout cause no one was checking for her since that weight lost show of her isn’t on air.
Yah I know you’re supposed to be nice on a wedding post but I can’t. My mom is anorexic and has that same kind of visceral disgust for fatness. Like to be fat is an aggressive obscenity. When I reached my full size (5’10”, 165 pounds) my mom would go to great lengths to borrow special chairs whenever I came to visit, so I wouldn’t break her normal chairs designed for average people.
I am so sorry that you had to deal with that abuse. Especially from your mom. The way that people think they can treat people poorly because of their weight is beyond me. Everyone has a damn opinion.
165 isn’t “average”? Does your mom not know any men or tall women?
The both look gorgeous. I wish I was invited to that party!
And yes to carbs. As a distance runner and distance walker, I could not do it without the carbs. I probably wouldn’t want to either, lol.
I’m not much of a wedding person in general (and I don’t care for cake) – but that food sounds delicious!
I’m a sucker for a good tuna tartare, and the scallops with a pistachio sauce and potato puree are speaking to me this morning lol
It’s amazing how someone’s appreciation for delicious food can convince me to unsee their less appealing behaviors. All of this. Damn.
Also: They look spectacular. I love Jillian’s lok, and her hair is my goals. I know she’s said/done some problematic things (The Biggest Loser should never have even been allowed to air), but as an overarching whole, I’ve found her to be a really positive voice for fitness and health. And I LOVED her workouts back in the day.
Lovely, lovely photos. And this is what being in the weight loss biz can buy you. What a weird world we live in.
The wedding looks lovely.
I could have sworn she was married to her ex partner that she has children with, but I guess she proposed but never actually got married.
She used to have a podcast with practical advice, but over time and there were comments that I really disagreed with and got turned off from.
Not sure if Jillian is trying to rewrite her own history, but she and Heidi were engaged and together for almost 9 years. Sounds like she had some belief in marriage back then.
They adopted their daughter from Haiti and Heidi gave birth to their son.
https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/jillian-michaels-heidi-rhoades-split-after-nearly-9-years/amp/
I would argue that consciously choosing to have children with someone is a more significant commitment than a marriage; you can never fully disentangle your life from that of your children’s other parent.
Also, it always makes me cringe when people with children who are in a new relationship make remarks that diminish the importance of the previous relationship. Your children are hearing/reading that, and while you think you’re paying your new partner a compliment, it’s at the expense of your children’s other parent. So tacky.
Carina–15 years ago my friend and I went on a European adventure and the only souvenir I brought back was bed bugs 🙁
If you’ve ever taken acid and had that bug-crawl feeling, it was like that but ALL. THE. TIME to the point where I was sleeping on my roof deck. Nightmare shit. My landlord at the time lived in Singapore so she was no help but I ended up using a green extermination company that did a great job getting rid of those evil bastards.
But I digress..Jillian annoys the living hell out of me but she and her wife are absolutely gorgeous. Love the vibe of their wedding.
I’ve heard of people having PTSD from a bedbug infestation.
It is seriously TRAUMATIZING, Coco.
I know Carina was a student at the time & maybe couldn’t afford full replacement of her clothing, but I’d’ve been seriously tempted to just leave everything behind in Venice. Buy new clothes at the airport, change there, and return to a hopefully bed bug free existence back in Blighty.
I (so far!) have never experienced bed bugs when traveling, but as a foreign exchange student in high school I was given the lower bunk in my sister’s bedroom. That lower bunk had a straw mattress & had been the family dog’s customary bed until I showed up. Sweet dog, but when I was introduced to it I patted it on the head & oooh, wished I hadn’t. I don’t think that dog had ever had a bath in its life. And the straw mattress? Full of fleas. I was flea bit head to toe for an entire month.
Oh, I definitely struggled for years after experiencing a bedbug infestation. I would awaken in the night convinced one was biting me. I’d jump out of bed, turn on the light, throw the sheets back in search of one. I hired an exterminator to come to my new place because I was convinced there was an infestation. Ill never forget the incredulous look on his face when he told me the sample of “evidence” was just dust.
In my last job as a social worker, I had to go into people’s homes that I knew had bed bugs. Bee bugs are nasty.
Anyone going on vacation? Please check mattresses, headboards, and sheets (pull them back). Put your luggage on a desk, do NOT leave it on the floor! I take a bed bug spray and spray my suitcase before I go in the hotel and after I leave when it goes in my car. Then, when I get home, I leave my suitcase in the sun on my porch (they die in the heat). If possible, take all your clothes out and wash them on hot and dry them for at least 50 minutes immediately.
Bed bugs are no joke and my company paid for exterminators for clients and the average price to get rid of a bed bug infestation is about $4,000-5,000. My friends think I’m crazy but I’m not paying that to have my house fumigated with chemicals.
BTW, I love their dresses and wish them all the happiness. 💜
Last time I went to Venice we stayed at the Hotel Abbazia. it’s a converted monastery and it was incredibly beautiful and felt rather luxurious for the price (then, around 200 euros per night).
it’s close to the train station so a little bit away from the crowds, but walking back at night after everything has shut down was a wonderful experience.
Just googled it, lovely! Venice has been a lifelong dream of mine, although I think I’ll have to be content with my ten days in Rome that I had the good fortune to share with friends 15 years ago. Also a place by the train station, which we found quite handy as it was the hub for the subway & buses, as well as trains. Plus it had fantastic coffee & gelato shops!
Jillian has form for these sorts of relationships – I wish them well all the same.
I dealt with bedbugs for months and they are truly so hard to get rid of. I would have stayed in a different hotel that night.
Good to see she’s leaning into the villain look. Goes with a lot of what we’ve seen of her personality.
Beautiful photos. The traditional wedding dress is gorgeous.
Jillian is problematic (to put it mildly), but her wedding was beautiful. Love both dresses. What I find most interesting is that this is the THIRD time they have gotten married. They had a courthouse ceremony and a ceremony in Africa. So this big to-do is EXTRA extra. But if you have the money, more power to them.
I feel like there’s a message there, right? I read the article linked above and she did get engaged on television, had a legally recognized domestic partnership but no wedding and now all of this.
Jillian Michaels is the type of person to mold herself to the beliefs and life style choices of each partner — like a female Brad Pitt. So is this the woman who inspired Jillian to take a hard right turn, move to Florida and become a Ron DeSantis supporter, as well as get chummy with crypto scammers and anti-vaxxers?
Very happy for them!
Congratulations to the happy couple!
Both brides are stunning.