Minnesota House member makes appearance on ‘Love Is Blind'
Rep. Mary Frances Clardy, DFL-Inver Grove Heights. Photo from Clardy's official Facebook account.
Minnesotans are basking in the national spotlight with the Feb. 14 release of the first six episodes of Netflix's reality series 'Love Is Blind,' and local politicos may have caught a glimpse of a familiar face.
Minnesota House Rep. Mary Frances Clardy, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, briefly appeared in a trailer for next episodes that are set to come out over the next three Fridays.
Sorry, Clardy's not the one featured on the hit reality dating show. Her daughter Virginia is on the show, which features Twin Cities-based men and women this season.
The show places men and women into rooms, known as 'pods,' where they talk without seeing each other, in what's termed 'an experiment' to see if 'love is truly blind.'
A House DFL spokesperson confirmed that Clardy and her daughter are on the show. Clardy, through the spokesperson, declined the Reformer's interview request about her 'Love Is Blind' experience because she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Couples on the show can get engaged, and only after they agree to marry can they finally see what the other person looks like in the 'reveal,' where the men and women — sometimes awkwardly — hug, kiss and meet their betrothed for the first time.
The couple then move into an apartment together for four weeks to test their relationship before marrying — or breaking up, often in dramatic fashion — in the season finale.
In the first six episodes of the latest 'Love Is Blind' season, Virginia — a 34-year-old health care recruiter and former NBA dancer — got engaged to Devin. He's a 29-year-old youth basketball coach.
Virginia said she was on the show because in the past she has dated self-centered men, and she wants to be emotionally vulnerable.
Clardy appeared to be in a restaurant in the preview of the next 'Love Is Blind' episodes, where couples usually meet their fiancé's parents. In the preview, Virginia appeared to be joking with Clardy and Devin about the trio's similar physical appearance.
The first six episodes of the latest season have received poor reviews, with Entertainment Weekly calling it 'the most boring season of 'Love Is Blind' to date, with couples whose romantic travails are about as spicy as macaroni salad,' which also seemed to be a dig at Minnesota's infamously beige cuisine and salads sans greens.
Clardy spent 27 years working as a teacher in St. Paul and served on the Inver Grove Heights school board. She was elected to the Minnesota House in 2022.
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