A mantra on the "Jersey Shore" reality show warns, "Never fall in love at the Jersey Shore." It seems that Sea Isle City's Jacklyn Romano has taken that advice to heart, going international to find her soulmate on a new dating show.
Romano, a 25-year-old gym and boutique owner, is a contestant on Peacock's "Love Undercover." The show follows five current or former professional soccer players from around the world as they mask their identities in the hopes of falling in love with an American girl who isn't after their fame or fortune. The first four episodes are available to stream on Peacock, and new episodes will be released every Thursday.
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"I've never dated anyone with an accent," Romano said Monday. "So the whole time I'm like, 'Can you repeat that? Can you say that one more time?' I've never dated an international man, so I was very interested in the show."
Romano was born and raised in Sea Isle. She graduated from Ocean City High School, where her father and grandfather also attended. For the past six years, Romano has run a female-focused fitness studio, Jacklyn Fit Studio, on Sea Isle Boulevard — "It's all pink; it's super cute. I'm just super passionate about women empowerment" — and launched an online swimwear company three years ago. She is also an influencer with 100,000 followers on Instagram. It was through an Instagram message from a "random casting account" that she was recruited for the TV show.
Romano isn't the only South Jersey girl on the show. Tinah Ogalo, a 26-year-old podcaster from Sicklerville, was also part of the cast but chose to leave after just two episodes due to a lack of connections with the men.
The soccer players on "Love Undercover" include:
• Jamie O'Hara: A retired English midfielder who came up through Arsenal’s academy and went on to play for eight different English clubs in his career, including Premier League teams.
• Marco Fabián: A Mexican midfielder who won an Olympic gold medal and made his MLS debut in 2019 for the Philadelphia Union.
• Ryan Babel: An Amsterdam-native striker who came up through Europe's Ajax Academy, played in the Premier League for Liverpool, and played in two World Cups.
• Lloyd Jones: An English-born defender who plays for League One side Charlton Athletic.
• Sebastián Fassi: A Mexican-born goalkeeper who plays for San Fernando in Spain.
Several of the players have more than a million followers on social media, but none of the 16 American women recognized them in the first four episodes.
"I watch the NFL, I watch the Eagles with my dad," Romano said, noting that she didn't know much about soccer before going on the show. "Never did I really play soccer, never did I get into soccer."
Adding to the confusion, the men were presenting fake résumés to the women. They assumed careers like ad salesman, restaurant manager, strength coach and construction worker.
"When they pitched the show to me, clearly we all didn't know that they were famous, but (producers) were like, 'We're gonna fly you to L.A. and you're gonna date rich, successful foreign men,'" Romano said. "I didn't want to seem superficial, but I'm out here running my own businesses, (and) you guys told me I'm taking time out of work to date guys that you claimed were successful. I just felt super lied to."
During the first episode of "Love Undercover," Romano is among the initial group of women to arrive. They must choose which of the five men they'd like to take on a date simply by looking at a photo of them. Not knowing the men were actually watching a live stream of each woman's reaction to their photos, Romano proceeds to roast the men. She says that Jones looks like a "f***boy" and says that O'Hara's eyes are "scaring" her.
"I'm speaking my truth," Romano said of her caught-on-camera reaction to the photos. "I'm a tough girl from South Jersey, I have a lot of opinions. I have high standards. So when I went out there, and I didn't know that the guys were watching. ... I was pretty out of pocket. But I stayed true to myself. And pictures don't do justice. Like as I got to know the guys, I loved all of them."
Despite saying he looked like "the toxic type I go for," Romano followed her gut and chose Jones for her first date. They went to a public market to walk around and try foods, but didn't quite hit it off at first. Romano said he seemed nervous, which she realized in retrospect was was probably due to holding his secret of being a professional soccer player.
"I'm such a strong, big personality that when he wasn't carrying the date, it really turned me off because I'm like a powerful woman," Romano said. "I'm looking for a guy who's more powerful and aggressive."
After feeling no spark with Jones, Romano shifts her sights to Fassi. The pair hang out at the guys' penthouse and Romano opens up about growing up in the small "fairytale land" of Sea Isle, which has only about 2,100 year-round residents. Things get complicated when Fassi begins forming connections with other women and Romano feels neglected.
"There was drama," Romano said of dating the same man as other women. "It did feel like a competition."
Romano and Fassi have a blow-out argument, during which he calls her an "asshole," and they seem to call it quits. As of the latest episode, Romano does accept an invitation to move into the men's penthouse and continue the journey as one of the 10 women remaining. But there's no telling which undercover soccer player she'll end up falling for.
"I think you'll see a really big shift in my character, in who I am," Romano says of the rest of the season. "I come in really hot and really strong. I'm not putting my guard down. I'm sticking true to who I am in my beliefs. But after a while, I do start to take my guard down with someone on the show. And I'm excited for people to see that side of me."
Romano said that regardless of the drama, she did form friendships with many of her cast mates. Back in Sea Isle, she celebrated the premiere on Thursday with a pajama party including 50 of her friends and fellow female business owners.
"Everyone is so excited," she said of the reaction from her hometown. "I come from a super small town. I have a close knit family. Everyone knows I'm crazy, but they probably didn't know I was this crazy. So it's been good. It's good to put the town on the map and to get the word out."
Watch a trailer for "Love Undercover" here:
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