Who Is Olivia Jade Giannulli's Boyfriend?
Olivia Jade Giannulli was already famous on social media when the news broke about the college admission scandal — specifically that her allegedly parents paid a $500,000 bribe to get her (and her sister) admitted into the University of Southern California, according to The New York Times. After that, it seems like every aspect of her life became a news story, thanks to both the paparazzi and the scrutiny of an angry public. Pro-tip: don't read the comments.
One of the things people were especially curious about after the fallout is where Giannulli was living, as she reportedly moved out of her parents' mansion, according to E! News. As it turns out, she was laying low for a while at her boyfriend's home in Malibu, according to People magazine.
So just who is this mystery man who has become linked with the now-sullied Loughlin-Giannulli name? Is he as wealthy as they are, or did he come from more humble stock? Is he an influencer like his bae or does he chase other pursuits? Read on to find out everything we dug up about Jackson Guthy, the supportive gent at Giannulli's side.
Dad and mom are loaded
If you thought Giannulli came from a wealthy family, prepare to be shocked, as Guthy's family is worth a whole lot more, according to Celebrity Net Worth. To be precise, the Guthy family patriarch is worth a cool $600 million, which makes the combined $100 million in the Loughlin-Giannulli coffers look like chump change. They're so rich that they shelled out $13 million from the family purse to buy Ellen DeGeneres and Portia di Rossi's Malibu bluff house, according to Variety magazine. The owner before that was Brad Pitt, so you know this place is fancy.
So how is it that the Guthy family came into its wealth? Chalk that up to Bill Guthy's entrepreneurial smarts, as he's the Founding Principal and Co-Chairman of Guthy-Renker, a company that does everything from produce infomercials to sell Proactiv, an acne treatment you're likely to see in said infomercials. So when you're flipping channels late at night and you stumble across Tony Robbins, you have the Guthys to thank for that.
Music in the heart from the start
Some people change careers multiple times in their lives before they find their true calling. Others know what they want to do from the very beginning, and follow that pursuit with all of their heart. The latter was certainly the case for Jackson Guthy, who's been chasing and honing his passion — music — since he was little. "I got started at a really young age," he shared in an interview with Seventeen magazine. "I was about two years old when I started playing the piano and around seven or eight when I started writing my own chords and putting words together." That's pretty impressive stuff right there!
Guthy is confident, too, that he has something unique to add to the musical landscape. "I think my music is a lot different than what is already out there and people will be really attracted to it," he continued. It sounds like he was just born to bring tunes out into the world, so keep your eye on this emerging troubadour.
His mom always supported him
Like all artistic pursuits, excelling at musicianship is something that has to be nurtured and studied in order to truly manifest and maximize innate talent. Fortunately for Guthy, he had that support at home right out of the gate, which helped him cultivate the discipline needed to excel later in life. "My mom was a really good support for me," he revealed in an interview with Last.fm. "She always helped me and told me, 'Instead of going out and hanging with your friends and doing stupid stuff, you should do good at piano and singing.'" That's certainly a good way to help someone develop while they're young, too, as studying music is good for the developing brain, according to Time magazine.
Guthy is super grateful that his mother made sure he stayed focused on music, and he knows that had a hand in his success. "I feel like had she not done that, I probably wouldn't have gotten to where I am now," he continued. "I'm super excited that it happened like that." Good job, mama! That's exactly how it should be done.
Ellen DeGeneres jump-started his career
Opportunity came knocking pretty early for Guthy, when one of the biggest names in all of television offered him a slot on her show — before he celebrated his 15th birthday. "Ellen DeGeneres actually put me on her show when I was 14," he recalled in an interview with Sweety High. "It was crazy because I hadn't really done any live performing." Seriously? That's an intense way to make a stage debut, for sure. Can you imagine what all of those nerves must have felt like?
Fortunately, Guthy didn't choke or let the enormity of the situation get the best of him. "Going on as your first performance for five million people was very scary," he continued. "But it helped me overcome my fears." That's a super healthy way to seize the day, Jack. No wonder he was asked to perform on the program not just once, but twice.
Appearing on the show also opened a lot of doors for Guthy, and it helped him forge connections that would propel his career forward. "It was just really cool," he added.
He toured with the big dogs
Once the world got a taste of Guthy's musical skills, doors began to open for him, and incredible opportunities presented themselves. After his first appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Guthy went on tour with pop juggernauts like One Direction, Big Time Rush, Cher Lloyd, and Fifth Harmony, performing as the opening act. Talk about the chance of a lifetime!
Guthy wasn't cranky about being the opener either, as other folks in his position might have been. Rather, he was excited to warm up the stage, and he took a lot away from his experience. "I think as an opener it's really cool because you're able to pick up a lot from a lot of different people that you get to tour with," he explained in an interview with the Zach Sang Show. "Every single one of them has a different thing that they always do in a different way... so it's really cool to learn their stories and kind of see how they make it, so you get to pick up a lot." That's certainly a great way to see how it's done in the industry — by the best of the best.
He takes his education seriously
Going on tour with Big Time Rush and One Direction sounds like a blast — who wouldn't want to travel the world and hang with famous people? But hitting the road at such a young age can also be a lot to manage, especially when it comes to juggling work and school. That's something that Guthy had to contend with, given that he was still a teenager when he hopped on the tour bus. "It was really cool being out on the road and doing school with my tutor over Skype or on the phone, but it can definitely be difficult," he shared in an interview with Seventeen magazine. Can you imagine him doing his math homework in between stops? Did Harry Styles help him with his flash cards?
Guthy didn't let anything slide, either, as he knows the value of school and learning. "My education is the most important thing so I always have to make time for it," he continued. He must have a pretty good head on his shoulders to prioritize that.
This is what it's like working with boy bands
One Direction and Big Time Rush aren't the only boy bands that Guthy opened for when he was in touring mode. In fact, he also opened up for Emblem3, so he definitely knows how to prep the crowd for group performers — and might even be a little envious of them. "It makes me slightly jealous because it seems kind of fun, having people to always surround yourself with," he admitted in an interview with OK! magazine. However, he also sees the advantages of taking the stage on his own. "Being a solo artist on that kind of tour is a great opportunity for me because people aren't used to seeing a person alone on stage." Still, that doesn't exactly sound like the easiest thing in the world.
But the ever-wholesome Guthy sees more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to being a solo opener for group acts. "Boy bands have a great fan base," he continued. "It's nice to go out in front of other people's fans and show them what I can do." That certainly takes a lot of confidence — we're super impressed!
Randy Jackson took him under his wing
After being the opener for so long, it was time for Guthy to become the main event. And fortunately for him, he had the help of a musical powerhouse in his corner to help make that a reality: Randy Jackson. "He sees the artist that I want to become, and he kind of takes that and puts stuff all around me that's going to make me that artist," Guthy shared in an interview with Charged.fm. "It's really cool being able to do all this and not be like a choreographed dancer — I just like playing music." It sounds like Jackson really gets him and isn't trying to mold him into something he's not. That's refreshing!
Jackson is just as into Guthy as Guthy is into him, too, from the way he tells it. "I heard a bunch of demos," Jackson recalled in an interview with Billboard. "Then I saw a video, then I met him and kind of fell in love with his talent and his songwriting capability. It all naturally came together." That sounds like a match made in heaven, for sure.
Becoming North of Nine
It didn't take long working with Randy Jackson for Jackson Guthy to realize that he wanted to pivot away from pop music and into something that would allow him to be taken a bit more seriously. "When you're in the pop lane, people look at you and think that you're just going to put out a pop song that's gonna make teen kids wanna have fun — that radio song," he explained in an interview with L.A. Music Blog. To that end, he and Jackson got to work forming a band that Guthy could front.
The result of their efforts was North of Nine, a five-piece rock ensemble that Guthy was super stoked to be working with. "I've always loved the thought of having people walk on stage with me," he gushed in an interview with Billboard. "Especially these guys, my friends. It's a much more collaborative process." He finally got to be part of a group, and we are here for it!
North of Nine released an EP in 2015, and they then embarked on a short tour that included several dates at SXSW.
He's definitely a dog person
It's obvious that Guthy would eat, sleep, and breathe music all day given his passion. That said, he does have other interests in life, one of them being dogs — and he holds his furry friends in especially high esteem. "Cruise is a myth, a legend, some would even say a hero," he joked about his dog at the time in a 2014 interview with Last.fm. "He is the fattest English bulldog. He's awake one hour of the day, sleeps 23 hours ... he's the best." Guthy also pointed out that his pup is only awake to eat and take care of bodily functions. Can you imagine a better life than that?
More recently, Guthy took to Instagram to show off another pupper, who looks just as fat and content as Cruise. "We were just trying to get a pic, then duke had to photobomb," he wrote in the caption. There's nothing quite as cute as a man and his dogs, huh?
As if that wasn't sweet enough, Guthy posted a photo of himself snuggling with a little puppy in February 2019 — with a girl who appears to be girlfriend Olivia Jade Giannulli in the background. Awwww!
His big goal in life
Jackson Guthy's aspirations go beyond getting some recognition for a song or two, even if they're successful — he wants more than that. "My goal in life isn't necessarily to have a song called 'Young and Single,' and have that just be my thing, be that 'Young and Single' kid," he revealed in an interview with Last.fm. In other words, he doesn't want to be known for one pop hit that he wrote when he was, you know, young and single. That's fair, Jack! Life is long!
Instead, Guthy hopes to stay the course, even if that means progressing at a slow and steady pace. "I want to get my name out there, and I want to be able to play the music that I really love so that I don't make it and then be done when I'm 30," he continued. "I want to make it later if that has to happen, and then be playing when I'm 70." It's impressive that he's already thinking about the long game, instead of getting swept up in the moment as is so common in youth.
What he has to say about social media
It's hard to imagine that social media didn't always exist in the way that it does now. Once upon a time, you had to wait for a letter in the mail to arrive before you got big news or you were tethered to your home phone line while waiting for a call. These days, everything you need is right at your fingertips, courtesy of your smart phone and its many apps.
Part of that milieu is social media, which has, without question, been a game changer, and Jackson Guthy is here for it. "I think social media is a real big thing for artists," he explained in an interview with Charged.fm. "I think it's really changed the dynamic of the music industry." No argument there!
That's not all it's done for musicians either, in Guthy's opinion. "It's actually given us an opportunity to be able to contact our fans," he continued. "Back in the day, you had all these fans across the world, and you wouldn't really have an open line of communication." Well, you certainly do now, Jack!
Is the romance coming to an end?
In the wake of the college admissions scandal, it was reported that Olivia Jade Giannulli was leaning on boyfriend Jackson Guthy for support, according to Us Weekly. That's not surprising, given how huge the scandal is and how high the stakes are for her parents — and what the fallout has meant for her both as an individual and as a brand. Certainly she'd need all the kindness she could get from someone she loves and trusts.
But in early May of 2019, multiple news outlets including Us Weekly reported that Giannulli and Guthy were spending less time together and that Giannulli was moving into her own place. Some outlets, such as People magazine, went so far as to say that the couple had broken up, albeit without any acrimony.
But whether the couple are actually still together or if they plan to rekindle their romance when things are less crazy for Giannulli, Guthy and Giannulli appear to remain friends by all counts.