Considered one of the main personalities of “Grande Fratello VIP”, the Italian version of Big Brother, model Dayane Mello did not win the program, but gained thousands of fans after facing 11 “walls” and being a constant victim of xenophobia and misogyny from the other participants.
In interview with HANDLE, Mello states that inside the house he did not understand the reason for the attacks, but that he now believes that, in addition to xenophobia, they were due to her “being a woman and having the freedom to live and think”.
Excluded by some of the participants, the Santa Catarina native experienced several uncomfortable and embarrassing episodes. In one of them, one of the celebrities even stated that the majority of women in Brazil worked in prostitution.
Actor Mário Ermito even suggested to another competitor that he take advantage of the Brazilian woman at a party, where she was under the influence of alcohol.
In one of the most aggressive moments, sports journalist Francesco Oppini even said that the Brazilian would be “raped” in Verona, upon seeing the clothes she was wearing. Furthermore, he joked that the model “jumped from bed to bed”.
At the time, she asked for respect, mainly because she wouldn't want her daughter to suffer from malicious statements at school.
Fans of the program asked Dayane Mello to leave Italy
Outside the house, some viewers asked Mello to leave Italy, the country where she has lived for 10 years. She, however, remained firm and assures that she does not allow these types of comments and prejudices to be part of her life.
“I think that everyone, when they leave their homeland and decide to face a new market, to have a life in a new country, suffer some type of prejudice, either because they are foreign, or because they are a woman, or because of their way of living. But that's how I am, I don't act like a victim and I don't accept this role, I try to show why I'm there, show my work, my personality and not let these things affect me”, he explains.
The experience at Grande Fratello VIP is classified by Mello “as a great challenge”, mainly because she was the only Brazilian to compete for 100 thousand euros and because she “is a free woman”.
“I maintained my path, my principles. Of course, I faced the challenge of not being completely accepted among them. But I had a purpose and I stuck to it,” she adds.
Competitor suffered from the death of her brother
However, the biggest difficulty Mello faced was having to deal with grief. At the beginning of February, the Brazilian suffered a severe blow with death of his brother Lucas Mello in a car accident in Santa Catarina.
The model, however, decided to continue in the dispute and followed the funeral for around 15 minutes via video call with family members.
“This moment really was a blow, it was a mix of feelings, but I was aware that, at that moment, I couldn't be with my family because of the pandemic”, she explains, saying that, “in this moment of great pain ”, felt “welcomed and loved” by all the participants.
Even though he didn't win the Grande Fratello VIP, Mello says he won thousands of admirers for his authenticity amid all the conflicts unleashed on the program.
“I think I won over all these fans in my own way, because I didn't allow myself to be manipulated by the game, I was myself from beginning to end, without quotes, without commas, I was Dayane for Dayane, I didn't allow the authors to create a character , and from the messages I receive, I believe that this made me loved out here by so many people”, he says.
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