Love Is Blind cuts right to the core of who someone really is — like it or not. Freed from the pressures of physical appearance and the rules of dating in the digital age, the singles entering the experiment are able to be themselves. But for Season 8 pod squad member Madison, that’s clearly never been an issue.
“I don’t know how to not be myself,” she told Tudum weeks before the reunion. And heading into the pods armed with that confidence comes in handy. “You don’t have your normal support system. You’re developing a relationship with someone on the other side of a wall,” she explains. “At the end of the day, all I have is myself, and I trust myself enough to make good decisions.”
But being so self-possessed doesn’t make Madison’s Love Is Blind journey easy. Her honesty and unwavering commitment to her own instincts stir up plenty of drama, especially at the Season 8 reunion, where she clashes with Alex, Mason, and Meg — the other sides of her messy pod love rhombus. So grab your Bearlien and keep reading to hear from Madison about where she stands with everyone now and what her life looks like after filming.
“I refuse to date right now,” Madison says. “Maybe I’m still avoidant, but I do think that there has been a lot of self-growth.” Instead of focusing on romantic love, the Minneapolis artist has embarked on a “huge healing journey” over the past year.
“When you are able to own your shit, no one can say anything that brings you down,” Madison explains. “That’s the most powerful thing that I’ve been able to gain already from this experience.”
While she’s never been more sure about herself, Madison is questioning everything that went down with her almost fiancé, Alex. “It was just very clear to me that the person I had been getting to know in the pods was not the person that was standing in front of me,” she says. “The guy in the pods was created for television. And his ultimate goal wasn’t to get married.”
Alex, who declined to comment any further, had an entirely different perspective at the reunion, asserting that Madison’s claims about what happened after filming “make zero sense” to him. “I thought that Madison was a little manipulative,” he says at the reunion. “She was completely different people [with me and Mason].”
Since filming, Madison says her impression of Alex only solidified, and any chance of them being friends was extinguished. “There just was so much lying happening that I was like, ‘I can’t even be friends with you or have you in my circle,’” she claims. Plus, Madison believes Alex went out of his way to paint her in a negative light, ultimately leading to her many clashes at the reunion couches. “It was extremely hurtful because I was like, ‘I had these feelings for you.’”
Ahead of the reunion, Madison believed that she and Mason were on good terms after burying the hatchet one night while out at Minneapolis bars after filming. “We just ended up talking for a long time, and he apologized to me. Him owning up to his own things just made the world of a difference,” she shares.
At the time, she also thought that she and Meg were at least “cordial” — despite the two never really forming a friendship. “We don’t talk or hang out intentionally,” says Madison. “Seeing how she handled herself after the pods just really didn’t make me feel like she was a trustworthy person or someone that I wanted in my circle.”
Even after getting herself into some “sticky situations” this season, Madison still views her honesty as one of her strongest qualities. While she does recognize that “sometimes it’s OK to just keep some things to yourself,” she isn’t holding anything back at the reunion.
One of the standout moments of the episode comes when Madison pulls printed-out text messages from former flame Alex out of her armpit. This bold presentation of her perspective mirrors how she approached her time in the pods. “I did everything in my power to make sure that no one misunderstood me,” she shares. But, through the experiment, Madison realized “some people just aren’t capable of understanding who you are — or just don’t want to.” So, having shared her receipts and closed this Love Is Blind chapter for good, she’s moving forward with “radical self-acceptance.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
