Captain Glenn Makes a Surprising Confession About His Girlfriend

Captain Glenn Shephard is shedding more light on his love life.

In late 2022, the Below Deck Sailing Yacht captain publicly announced his relationship with Danelis “Dani” Jimenez, a fellow sailing professional who hails from the Dominican Republic. Though Glenn confirmed that the romance started before the Below Deck Sailing Yacht series premiere in February 2020, the vague timeframe left many fans wondering just how long he and Dani have been together. Well, they finally got their answer.

How Long Has Captain Glenn Been Dating His Girlfriend?

During a recent interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Glenn revealed he started dating Dani just months before Below Deck Sailing Yacht’s inaugural season aired: “We’ve been together for four and a half years,” he told the outlet.

Glenn explained that he and Dani were initially hesitant to share their status with the public, but they decided to come forward after an unspecified life change.

“It’s not so much about [hiding the romance from] the fans, more about stuff in our personal life that we didn’t really want it to be public,” he said. “It’s hard for me to talk about. I can’t really go into details, but things in our lives changed where it made sense that we could. And so we did… And at the beginning, it was more like a long-distance relationship because I was working more. Now I’m working less… But yeah, it didn’t make sense for us to put it all out there at the beginning. But now it’s OK.”

Who Is Captain Glenn’s Girlfriend, Dani?

Glenn also confirmed that Dani has earned multiple certificates in the sailing industry, but she is unlikely to work on the boat full-time. 

“She doesn’t speak that much English,” the captain said. “Because of the language difficulty, when you’re in the middle of the season, you’ve seen what it’s like, and if the communication is not 110%, it’s going to lead to problems. And I wouldn’t want to put her in that situation. I think she just gets it, but I think that would be a bit too hard. So in between seasons, yeah, but in season, I think it’ll be too hard for her. It wouldn’t be fair.”

So What’s Next for the Happy Couple?

A lot more globetrotting. 

“I just dropped [Dani] at the airport in Madrid. We’ve been, like I’ve said, traveling around southern Spain for the last week or so, 10 days maybe,” Glenn recently told The Daily Dish. “She has to shoot back home. We live in Palma de Mallorca, which is almost like a bus ride from Madrid… We’re planning to head up to Andorra, which is in the mountain range between Northern Spain and France, and hopefully get a little bit of snowboarding in before the snow disappears for this winter. Right after that, we’re going back to the boat in Greece, and we’ll probably cruise around for a few weeks, and then I’ll have to go back to work for the summer on Parsifal somewhere in the Mediterranean doing charters.”

He continued: “I’ve got a little boat. Actually, I had it in Sardinia, and my girlfriend and I cruised around Sardinia a little bit and then we went to the islands near Rome — Ponza, Ventotene, places like that. And then the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Ischia, and finally down to the Aeolian Islands, Panarea, Vulcano, Stromboli, and then through to Corfu.”

—Additional reporting by Allison Crist