Widowed new dad gets national spotlight on Rachael Ray

February 10, 2009 at 10:54PM
Rachael Ray has Minnetonka native Matt Logelin and baby Maddy on her show Wednesday. Logelin gained national attention and support through his blog after his wife, Liz, died after giving birth.
Rachael Ray has Minnetonka native Matt Logelin and baby Maddy on her show. Logelin gained national attention and support through his blog after his wife, Liz, died after giving birth. (Stan Schmidt — Rachael Ray Show/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Word has it that there "are surprise elements throughout" Minnetonka native Matt Logelin's touching appearance on Rachael Ray's show today at 2 p.m. on KARE11.

That's all I could get out of Ray's PR person.

Logelin's appearance is naturally quite melancholy because he talks to Ray about finding support through blogging about the 2008 death of his wife, Liz Logeline, 27 hours after giving birth to their daughter, Maddy.

"In 27 hours Matt went from the best moment of his life, the birth of his daughter, to the worst moment of his life, the death of his wife," said Tom Goodman, Liz's father, a retired attorney who still lives in the Twin Cities.

Matt lives in LA where he works full time for Yahoo, raises Maddy and writes his blog, Mattlogelin.com, which the Jan. 26 issue of People magazine says "has captured the hearts of thousands."

Goodman told me he believes Logelin has tapped into a neglected area of emotional loss. "Really nobody cares about widows and widowers who have small children, so he started a foundation for them, the Liz Logelin Foundation," said Goodman. (No other woman's going to love Maddy the way her mom, the love of Logelin's life, would have, I told Goodman. So Matt needs to be really careful about the women who are going to be drawn to a young widower with a baby, especially after he's been on national TV.)

Ray was very moved by the segment, emoting, "Don't you just want to hug him? I need a tissue."

Maddy reportedly took a shine to Ray's bracelet so she let the almost 1-year-old suck on it throughout the TV segment. Yummmo ... not so much.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject -- "Hello" doesn't count. Attachments are not opened, so don't even try. More of her attitude can be seen on FOX 9 Thursday mornings.

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