Reality TV series Giuliana & Bill followed E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic and her husband
Bill Rancic, who was the Season 1 winner of The Apprentice. But while viewers were let
in on much of the couple's lives, there were some things the cameras didn't show. Here's
a peek behind the scenes.
Giuliana & Bill all started when Giuliana invited the Style Network to film the couple's
wedding in Italy. But what Bill didn't know then was that the event would be the start
of their very own reality series. The wedding special was a hit and the show was born.
"I vow to be the best wife and mother I can be when we do have a child, and I hope it
looks just like you. 'Cause you're the cutest ever."
Bill revealed that he was hesitant about doing the show in the beginning. Considering that
many stars prefer to keep their private lives, well, private, when the couple decided to
launch their own reality show, they were kissing their privacy goodbye. Still, together, and
with the whole world watching, they embarked on their new journey.
But in hindsight, Bill says it was all worth it. One of the best compliments he'd ever
received was when a woman approached him and Giuliana to thank them for showcasing a quote
"healthy relationship" on TV. She reportedly said that she hoped her daughters would find
a relationship like theirs someday, too.
Ever wonder why so many reality TV couples' marriages dissolve and their shows end in
heartache? We're looking at you, Jon and Kate Gosselin. And Britney Spears and Kevin Federline.
And Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. And Linda and Hulk Hogan. Okay, you get the point. Reality
TV is still TV. And viewers love the drama. Bill explained to the LA Times,
"There is that reality show curse, but this [show] is different. It makes being married
cool. There is no flipping tables or cursing at each other. It's very positive."
"If you can replicate this, anyone can replicate this."
"You promise?"
"Right?"
So how did the duo manage to last through their show and beyond? Giuliana told ABC News
it's all thanks to the strong foundation they had already built before the cameras ever
started rolling.
It can't be easy living in the limelight, but Giuliana and Bill decided early on that
they were going to be candid with their viewers about their life together. They weren't going
to be anything less than honest on their show, and they were ready to live authentically
in the public eye. Giuliana told PR.com,
"It was hard at the time and we had a real heart-to-heart about it, but when we signed
up for this show we knew it was all or nothing. Either show this real side or don't show anything."
"This just wasn't our time."
"Next time it'll happen."
"There's a bigger plan."
The couple was open about everything, including their struggle with infertility, their journey
with IVF and surrogacy, miscarriages, and even Giuliana's battle with breast cancer.
When Giuliana was offered the chance to lie and say she didn't want kids, and leave out
that part of their struggle, she claimed it just didn't feel right to hide their actual
reality.
In 2010, Giuliana and Bill endured a heartbreaking miscarriage after a long journey with IVF,
and it all played out on camera.
"We were in the ultrasound room. And suddenly the nurse started acting a little weird. My
heart sank and I just knew that this was not normal."
But while the couple was understandably angry and heartbroken, Giuliana admitted to CNN,
"Half the battle is trying to get pregnant."
And that, they had. Bill revealed that producers gave them the choice to cut the miscarriage
from the show, but they ultimately opted to keep it in to reach viewers who may be going
through the same thing. Giuliana also didn't want to discourage anyone else from trying
IVF by portraying it in a negative light. According to Bill, it was important to both
of them to quote, "turn it into a positive by helping other couples."
Ever wonder why you never really saw Giuliana or Bill break out into blowout fights on their
show? It's because they don't really argue. In fact, they're a pretty drama-free couple,
compared to most reality TV pairings.
"Hi everybody, it's...I can't think of our names."
After their "Fairytale Italian Wedding" became the Style Network's highest rated special,
viewers reportedly wanted a taste of the couple's life post-wedding, but Giuliana and Bill never
considered themselves quote, "scandalous" enough to film their own series. Giuliana
told PR.com,
"We don't curse each other out, and we don't flip tables over, [so] we thought we weren't
interesting enough to have a reality show."
Bill confirmed the sentiment, telling the Associated Press back in 2010 that he and
Giuliana don't have the arguments that other couples have. And it might be because they're
just not that kind of reality-TV crazy.
Giuliana & Bill followed the E! host's battle with breast cancer, particularly in Season
5 of the show. And, while the couple was open about her journey on camera, it wasn't always
obvious to outsiders just how tough things got for the star.
"For me, I just thought, y'know, that the results would be fine, and that this was just
a waste of my time, to be honest."
Receiving her breast cancer diagnosis was the, quote, "worst, darkest day" of Giuliana's
life, which she later admitted in a speaking event. But even though she was facing a steep
climb, Bill was by her side all the way.
"I went from having the absolute worst, darkest day of my life, to the absolute best, brightest,
most incredible day of my life when we welcomed our baby boy."
Despite the extraordinary challenges, Giuliana beat the disease and has remained cancer-free,
ever since.
Fans closely watched Giuliana cope with the news of her diagnosis and subsequent health
journey on the show. Of course, she put on a brave face in front of the cameras, but
she was also certainly not shy about showing her raw emotions on TV. While Giuliana was
an inspiration for others through her journey, she told New York Live that there was one
single reflective moment that happened off-camera that changed the course of her recovery.
"I'm seven years cancer-free now. Thank you, thank you. But it was tough, especially those
first five years."
She explained to the outlet,
"After my double mastectomy, I went back to work and I remember getting my hair and makeup
done, putting on a pretty dress, and looking in the mirror and for the first time in a
long time I recognized the face looking back at me and I thought, 'You know what? I'm back.'"
The heartening moment also led Giuliana to launch FAB-U-WISH, which she says,
"Grants wishes and brings joy to women undergoing treatment for breast cancer."
"It's such a hard thing to go through, right, going through something like breast cancer,
but to be able to find a positive is wonderful."
Giuliana may have exhibited an incredible amount of strength and courage on the show,
but going through a double mastectomy certainly isn't a walk in the park. She told Glamour
in an exclusive interview that she was experiencing unbearable pain at times following her surgery,
revealing,
"I was screaming and crying. I had four drains under and above my breasts, and they're stitched
into your skin. When you try to get up, the drains pull, and you feel like knives are
poking you inside."
"I remember in my head, as tears were streaming down my face, I was like 'Why, why?'"
Despite the grueling pain, Giuliana made it a goal to walk three and a half laps around
the hospital after waking up from surgery. And just two weeks later, Giuliana went back
to work.
Giuliana and Bill wanted to have a second baby while filming their show, but in a devastating
turn of events, the surrogate that had successfully carried their son Duke, suffered a miscarriage.
Giuliana told Extra in 2014 that she and Bill were crushed when they got the call. Since
Giuliana had already experienced a miscarriage herself, she better understood what her surrogate
was going through at the time. But the couple took a moment to process the news off-camera.
"We just kinda wanted to hear the news and then get away from the camera, to process
it ourselves."
Once they were able to face their own emotions, Giuliana said that they were then focused
on making sure their surrogate knew that the miscarriage wasn't her fault. Miscarrying
is a common occurrence, as Giuliana explained to the outlet, but they wanted to make sure
that their surrogate was mentally and emotionally stable after the loss.
Giuliana and Bill experienced a whole lot together while on their show. As fans know,
they initially began their relationship as a long-distance couple. Along with struggling
with infertility and enduring a long journey with IVF, as well as a miscarriage and their
surrogate's miscarriage, Giuliana's personal battle with breast cancer and a double mastectomy
was all fodder for the series. On a much happier note, the couple also became parents during
their time on the show. All things considered, you can certainly see why Bill considers his
and Giuliana's journey to be nothing short of miraculous. He told ABC News,
"It's been a miracle if you look at where we've come from. We've had some of the darkest
days of our lives…to some of the greatest days of our lives."
"There weren't many nights where I wouldn't be on the floor, hysterical. Literally, just
pounding the floor, going why, why, why, why is this happening to me?"
Despite all of the challenges, Giuliana also claimed that they wouldn't trade their journey
for anything.
Viewers knew that Giuliana and Bill were tirelessly trying to start a family while filming the
show. And even after the birth of their son Duke, the cameras kept rolling, which is why
it may have come as a surprise when Giuliana and Bill later decided to pull the plug on
their show for Duke's sake. Giuliana explained their decision in 2016, telling HuffPost,
"[The show] was a very rewarding experience, but, at the same time, we needed to pull back
a little bit just because our son is four, and he was getting to an age where…I don't
know if I would have wanted to show cameras at his preschool or him going through certain
milestones."
"Let's not kid each other, it's all about Duke. I mean, the guy is a ratings machine."
Giuliana claimed, quote, "some things have to be private." And even though she and Bill
were always open to sharing their own lives on the show, they simply needed to take a
time-out in order to protect their son.
Giuliana and Bill had the power to make edits to their show, and even cut entire scenes
and storylines if they wanted to. Producers gave them a lot of creative authority and
frequently checked in with them to make sure that they were comfortable sharing their journey,
including all of the highs and lows.
Throughout their time on TV, Giuliana and Bill endured many tough times, but they chose
not to cut any scenes that had been filmed. This meant sharing big moments, like their
struggle with infertility, but also small moments, too, like, for example, when they
were maybe not looking their best. Giuliana told ABC News,
"We get [that] there's cameras around. We never, ever cut anything out of the show.
If I look like crap without my makeup, I don't care. We put everything in the show."
While many reality TV stars may later cringe at what they said and did on air, Giuliana
and Bill don't look back on their show with any regrets. In an interview with E! News,
Bill revealed,
"There isn't one episode that we're ashamed of. There isn't any flipping tables or drunken
fights or pulling out women's hair weaves like some of these other shows."
While those shows may rake in the ratings with their sensational storylines, Giuliana
is glad they stuck to their guns. She told Ryan Seacrest,
"We don't have any regrets at all because a lot of people do these shows and are like,
'What was I thinking?' Not at all. So proud of it."
"I'm genuinely impressed."
"Yay! Round of applause!"
Before the couple decided to take a break for Duke, Giuliana told E! News that she actually
wanted to keep doing the show forever. She admitted that they had been so, quote, "clean-cut
and un-scandalous," and still, people tuned in to watch them for multiple seasons. The
couple joked that while they're not the kind of people who do drugs or cheat or start tons
of drama, so long as they could continue to entertain people, and it wasn't, quote, "worse
than watching paint dry", they wanted to keep doing the show.
The couple ultimately called it quits on filming their show in 2014, but even off-camera, their
relationship has been going strong. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest four years later,
Giuliana teased a possible future iteration of their hit series, when she said,
"We were so proud of [the show], and I wonder if there is a version of it…now that Duke
is a little older, maybe we will have to revisit it."
After all, Giuliana told HuffPost in 2016 that the reason they took a break from the
show in the first place was to protect their young son. But with Duke getting older by
the minute, they might just have a reason to get back into it.
"Every day, he makes me laugh even harder than the day before, and just blows my mind."
Duke also seems to love being in the spotlight, at least, according to what his mom told People
magazine. He would visit Giuliana at work all the time and even asked her to get him
on TV, which he once managed to do all by himself.
"Honey, Mommy's working."
Think there might be a Giuliana & Bill, and Duke reboot in the near future? A season 8
topper on their already sensational run? It sounds like fans will just have to stay tuned
to find out!
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