For the past two months or so, I saw my Twitter timeline full of references to a ship called Rosmello. I resisted at first, ignored them, maybe admired a video here and there, but I didn’t want to dedicate my energy to it. Until I did. And it may have been the biggest mistake of my fandom life. The moment I allowed myself to follow them, I was sucked in and they took over my life, all 24 hours of the day for several days.
To make my luck even worse, I got into the ship just as it was ending. So not only was I catching up on all the amazing moments I missed, but I was also mourning how it ended.
The story of Rosmello is complex, long, and as most sapphic stories full of drama, love, and tragedy. I’m slowly moving on from them, but if you, like me, have seen them mentioned around and are curious, I will try to give you a basic knowledge of what their 6 month story entailed. And most of all, as the sapphic fandom moves to something different, something new, I want a tangible recollection, a record we can look back on, of their story.
I don’t mean for this to be the ultimate guide, I got into the ship late and I’m sure there are a lot of things missing. But is a starting point if you want to know more about their story.
WHAT OR WHO IS ROSMELLO
Rosmello is the name of the ship conformed by Brazilian model Dayane Mello and Italian Actress Rosalinda Cannavò. Their closeness on the Italian reality show Grande Fratello VIP (Big Brother VIP) gained them international attention and support.
During the 6 months of the reality they spend time together, kissed, hugged and touched each other constantly. Made plans for the future, said they loved each other, slept together in the same bed, cuddled, and supported each other trough hard moments. They also fought, had disagreements, and at the end distanced from each other.
In classical sapphic fashion, they had a full love story and break-up without even being officially together.
WHO IS ROSALINDA
Italian actress known before this show by her artistic name, Adua del Vesco. During her time on Grande Fratello she talked about delicate subjects like pass sexual abuse, struggling with anorexia and the fact her talent agency made her establish fake romantic relationships with other actors and talked about a period of her life where the stress and pressure of this caused depression and her anorexia.
At the start of Grande Fratello she was in a romantic relationship of over 10 years.
A common comment from her stay in the Grande Fratello house was that she entered as Adua, her “fake persona” and slowly let Rosalinda and all the good things about her shine trough.
WHO IS DAYANE
Discovered as a teenager by a model agency, she worked in Brazil and Chile before moving to Italy for her career. She has a young daughter born out of a relationship with another model.
This Brazilian model had a hard life as a kid. She lived in extreme poverty with her mom, who she revealed worked as a prostitute, and several siblings from different fathers until her father took her and her brother away. During the rest of her life, and until she was a grownup, her relationship with her mother was nonexistent.
During the whole reality, she was one of the main protagonist and favorite to win besides influencer Tomasso Zorzi (eventual winner and favorite from the start). In a sense she was “cast” as the antagonist in the house and was always part of comments and had conflicts with several other participants.
Despite this, she also grew in popularity with the viewers, specially Brazilian and international fans, and was the first participant to secure her place in the final.
IMPORTANT MOMENTS
It’s impossible to recount a show that lasted almost 6 months with a 24/7 view into their lives. There are some twitter threads I will link at the end of the article that try to do just that, but here I’m choosing some pivotal moments.
- On September 14, 2020 the show Grande Fratello started on Channel 5 of Italy. Immediately upon meeting, Dayane and Rosalinda were drawn to each other and started a friendship. Their closeness and physical demonstrations of affection quickly increasing.
- In October during a Halloween party a drunk Dayane says “I’m in love with you Adua” they later show this clip on one of the live galas where both women struggled to explain they had a deep connection that didn’t go beyond friendship. Both were obviously uncomfortable with being exposed, but the show thrived on it and would use similar tactics in the future. Constantly asking Rosalinda what her boyfriend back home would think.
- At the start of December the show was extended because of its success and all participants needed to accept an extension to their contract. Dayane at the start didn’t want to stay longer, what made Rosa really sad and upset. At the end Dayane stayed.
- At some point in the middle of December Rosalinda is shown talking about having doubts in her relationship with her boyfriend. During a live gala they ask Rosalinda and Dayane about this, Dayane is mad and asks what does she has to do with Rosalinda’s relationship they are clearly not happy about the implication made by the show that Rosalinda’s relationship with Dayane is the one causing the doubts.
- 3 new participants enter the house because of the show’s extension. One of them, Sonia, becomes close to Dayane and causes trouble between Dayane and Rosalinda. Rosalinda nominates Sonia and Dayane gets really mad about it, causing a strong fight between them. Eventually they make up.
- At the start of February Dayane’s younger brother died in a car accident. Dayane considered leaving the show, and Rosalinda said she would leave with her, in the end Dayane decides to say and Rosalinda is by her side the whole time.
- Dayane and Rosalinda talk about living together after the show ends.
- A week later, while a vote to choose the third finalist between favorite Tomasso, Rosalinda and other participants is taking place, Rosalinda starts getting close to participant Andrea Zenga. She is informed her boyfriend at home wants to break up with her and has issued a lawsuit banning her and the show from speaking about him. After this, a romance starts between Rosalinda and Zenga. During this time Rosalinda is seen depressed for several days, giving room to theories/speculation about her being instructed by the show to fall into this relationship and she accepting as a way of ending ties with her former boyfriend and her talent agency.
- After Rosalinda starts a relationship with Zenga her relationship with Dayane suffers. Dayane is upset because she is the last one to find out. Rosalinda also votes to nominate a mutual friend of them, Giulia creating another riff.
- During one of the live galas, they show a video of Dayane in the confessionary saying she was in love with Rosalinda, that their relationship was love and not friendship. She also says she is capable of loving both men and women. She says she tried to not talk about it because of her daughter watching the show back home.
- In that same gala, Dayane has the final vote to choose who is nominated to be voted out of the house by the public. She sends Rosalinda and Stefania (a contestant she never got along with and who attacked her constantly) to the public vote, making Rosalinda angry with her.
- Some participants accuse Dayane of lying and making up being in love with Rosalinda, that upsets Dayane but Rosalinda comforts her, telling her she doesn’t doubt her love but that she is upset about the nomination. They spent the next days still distanced.
- Rosalinda is voted out of the house by the public, falling short of being one of the 4 finalists. She leaves the house while her relationship with Dayane is strained, but before leaving they show a video of their relationship where Rosalinda says for her it was also something stronger than friendship.
- Dayane leaves the house after losing the first vote of the final. That day and in later interviews with Italian media both women claim to want to talk and clear things between them to recover their friendship but they are still distanced. Rosalinda continues her relationship with Andrea Zenga and as far as the public knows they haven’t spoken to each other.
INTERNATIONAL FANDOM
When I think of Rosmello it reminds me a lot of the experience we had with Juliantina, where sapphics from all over the world were part of a community focused on the ship. In this case the biggest part of the fandom includes Brazilians, Spaniards people from all over Latin America and the United States, but really there were people following their story from all over the world.
For the duration of Grand Fratello they made it a habit to pitch in money to send air messages (planes flying over the house with banners) for Dayane and Rosalinda supporting their relationship and showing them love.
Thanks to this big following, for example, Dayane’s Instagram went from 90k followers to over a million after the show ended.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Right now there are a lot of things happening in the fandom, those who hate Rosalinda because of how things ended, those who still believe in the relationship and hope for an eventual happy ending, those who keep pestering Dayane and Rosalinda with videos and questions about the ship.
The reality show is over. We won’t have as much access to their lives, we are not entitled to it. We had the privilege of seeing two people fall in love, wrestle with their fears, insecurities and outside factors. But outside of Grande Fratello there are two real human beings that deserve respect and the opportunity to live their lives freely and doing what they consider best for themselves. We can only hope they are happy with whatever they chose.
VIDEOS
The best way to relive their story is trough the videos they left us. I’m linking some of them.
- A cute fan video
- This twitter thread has several videos of important moments and conversations with English subtitles.
- A thread of Rosmello moments
Lesbian Rabbit Hole 