Malta’s teenage starlet Gaia Cauchi celebrated her Sweet Sixteenth last weekend in style, inviting friends and family to a fabulous do. But one guest who surprised everyone – including Gaia herself – was none other than Jon Guelas, the member of X Factor UK’s recently eliminated boyband United Vibe.

Having met on X Factor UK earlier this year, the pair have been calling each other “best friends” for quite some time. Now, however, Gaia and Jon seem to have taken things to a new level, and this latest sweet stunt has everyone falling in love with ‘Jaia’.

“Best birthday surprise ever!” Gaia captioned an Instagram post showing the young couple happily celebrating Cauchi’s birthday. In less than 24 hours, the photo had already received nearly 8,000 likes… and that’s not even mentioning Jon’s own post.

“Happy birthday you absolute stunner,” Guelas told Gaia on Instagram, racking up a cool 13,000 likes in 20 hours. “I hope you’ve had a lovely day.”

What followed on the two young stars’ Instagram stories was a series of snippets from the day, featuring everything from adorable selfies to a healthy amount of inside jokes.

“I’ve had a lovely birthday,” Gaia can be heard saying in one of Jon’s Instagram’s stories, following it up with a cute couple of videos showing the couple covering One Direction’s ‘Perfect’.

At the end of the series of stories, Gaia cheekily smiles at the camera, telling viewers, “I’m not Jon’s best friend.”

18-year-old Guelas was recently eliminated in the final round of X Factor UK with the boyband United Vibe.

Touted as a potential follow-up to previous X Factor supergroup One Direction, United Vibe have already won the hearts of thousands around the world… but it was only Malta’s own Gaia who seems to have managed to win Guela’s affection.

David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).