Exclusive: "To Rome For Love's" Diann Thompson Talks Prepping The Ladies For Drama-Free Relationships (Exclusive Clip)

“To Rome For Love” Airs Sunday Nights On Bravo!

The woman behind the show that pairs black women with eligible European men said her work begins way before the ladies meet their “Italian Stallions.”

“To Rome For Love’s” Diann Valentine said she endeavors to build up the women by tackling their toxic belief systems and rebuilding their sometimes shattered self-esteem.

“What I know for sure is that no man will ever compete a woman,” Valentine told BOSSIP. “She has to be full and complete on her own. A man can enrich your life, offer lots of joy and marriage, but I do think that you have to be willing to do the work on yourself first. You can’t go through marriage or life being broken. You carry baggage from relationship to relationship and we develop ‘blind spots,’ areas in our lives where we cannot see the behavior al patters that are causing us to perpetuate this single syndrome.”

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Case in point, Valentine talked about a breakthrough she had with Nakita McGraw, 37, a divorced mother who was convinced her full figured size was driving the men away. She took Nakita shopping, and the pair spoke frankly about body image before she took the divorcee to a private mixer where all eyes were on her.

“She felt like she was getting the men at the bottom of the list because she’s a big girl,” Valentine explained. “She got to see what the men saw, a gorgeous girl on the inside and out. I really saw her blossom from that episode.”

Five years ago, Valentine founded “Venus Affect,” which offers luxury custom tours where single women can meet European men, and has been matchmaking ever since. Valentine, who herself is married, insisted that women who are looking for love to never give up. But first, you have to make sure that you are whole yourself before you become someone’s partner.

“Men and women, we were created to be with each other,” Valentine said. “That’s a natural part of being a human being, and when we don’t have that, it’s something off balance. But when you’re committed to doing the work, love will be there. It’ll be around the corner, it’ll be at Starbucks. You have free your heart and surrender yourself to the love that life wants to give you.”