Irina Terehova (Russian: Ирина Терехова; born 13 April 1989) also known as Irina Tee is a Canadian model and reality television personality.[1] Terehova immigrated from Moldova to Canada at the age of twelve.[2] From 2015 to 2016, she first gained notoriety as a writer for the Montreal news website MTL Blog.[3] In 2016, she married Lethwei World Champion fighter Dave Leduc in a nationally televised wedding ceremony in Myanmar.[4][5][6] In 2019, she participated in The Amazing Race Canada Season 7 with her husband and the couple became the biggest villains of the Canadian television franchise.[7][8][9]

Irina Terehova
Ирина Терехова
Born (1989-04-13) 13 April 1989 (age 35)
NationalityMoldovan
Canadian
Other namesIrina Tee
Occupations
  • Writer
  • actor
  • fashion model
Years active2004–present
Spouse
(m. 2016)
Children1
Modelling information
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Hair colourBlonde
Eye colourHazel

Personal life edit

Born in Kishinev, in the Moldavian SSR, republic of the Soviet Union, now Moldova, in 1989 to a modest family of Russian descent. Terehova immigrated in 2001 to Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the age of twelve.[2][10]

In 2016, Terehova met professional fighter Dave Leduc when she took a trip to Thailand.[11] The two had never met before, but after writing a story on him in MTL Blog,[12] Terehova decided to leave Canada and meet him in Phuket.[4] The trip was supposed to last two weeks, but Terehova decided to stay and live with Leduc.[13][14][15]

In October 2016, she got engaged to Leduc on the Shwesandaw Pagoda in Bagan.[16] On 13 December 2016, the couple got married in a traditional Burmese wedding ceremony at the Central Hotel in Yangon.[17] The ceremony was broadcast live on national television MRTV with an estimated 30 million viewers, catapulting the couple to celebrity status in Myanmar.[18][19][20][21][4][6]

In 2017, Terehova and her husband started getting involved with children at NLD AIDS center in Yangon, who are infected with HIV/AIDS virus, bringing them chocolate and treats, as well as giving undisclosed donations.[22][23]

Career edit

Writing edit

In 2015, Terehova started her personal blog[24] where she wrote a piece Things I Hate About Dating And Relationships in Canada.[25] It sparked various debates in worldwide media, especially in Russia and Canada.[26] She gained widespread attention because of her writing style and subjects. The same year she got approached to join the MTL Blog team.[27]

While at MTL Blog under the pseudonym Irina Tee, Terehova wrote multiple provocative articles and listicle about relationships and dating. She received criticism for allegedly supporting misogyny. She later became the subject of requests from readers asking for her demission and an open-letter demanding her suspension from her writing position at MTL Blog was posted on The Link, thus making her even more popular online.[28] In 2017, Terehova became a guest writer at Jetli.com now defunct, launched by Jet Li, to share the philosophies about kung Fu and other martial arts.[29]

Modeling edit

In 2004, at 15 years old, Terehova entered a Montreal pageant in Miss Soyuz, reserved for adults and won 1st place. She signed with NEXT Model Management in Montreal and executed modeling contracts for Loreal, La Senza, Escada and Rusk.[30]

In 2009, Terehova was chosen to feature as the Race queen in the EA and Ghost Games celebratory video created for the Need for Speed series.[10][2][31]

Television edit

In 2019, Terehova competed with her husband Dave Leduc on The Amazing Race Canada Season 7.[32] The couple made it clear that they weren't on the show for the prize money[7] or to make friends,[33] it was apparently Leduc's desire since teenage to compete on the show.[34] Undoubtedly the most controversial seasons of the Canadian franchise,[35] The couple became the most notorious villains the franchise has known,[36] while being practically unbeatable for the entire season.[37] The couple outraged a lot of viewers and were deemed "un-Canadian".[15] They fell out of favour of viewers and fellow racers for their cutthroat way of racing,[38] copying an answer at the Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park and stealing cabs in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.[39] The couple later revealed receiving death threats when the show aired.[40] They generated a remarkable amount of hate from Canadian viewers for referring to other contestants as peasants.[8]

In the first episode of the season, in Kamloops, British Columbia, the couple quickly stood out and became the season's villains after trash-talking Canada’s Choice Jet & Dave.[41][42] In the fifth episode, in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, the remaining contestants teamed up and tried send the Quebec couple home, but as the couple said, it was a "drastic failure."[36] Despite a well-laid plan against the couple and a record number of penalties taken by multiple teams, it was ultimately the Halifax twins who got eliminated.[43][44][45]

Dave and Irina led the charge out of Thunder Bay to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, but faltered at the apple sorting challenge and were eventually the last team to meet host Jon Montgomery at the mat at Luckett Vineyards.[35][9][46]

Filmography edit

Year Title Role Notes
2004 Naked Josh Hot blonde Naked Josh at IMDb  
2013 In Faustian Fashion Russian vampire In Faustian Fashion at IMDb  
2014 Too Tall Tall blond Too Tall at IMDb  
2016 The Game Warden Redneck Girl The Game Warden at IMDb  
2017 La Fosse aux Tigres Herself La Fosse aux Tigres at IMDb  
2019 The Amazing Race Canada Herself Season 7 at IMDb  
Underground Wife of Dave Leduc Myanmar movie in Burmese

References edit

  1. ^ Rebecca Perez (30 December 2015). "30 under 30". Goss Club.
  2. ^ a b c "Уроженка Молдовы стала героиней игры Need for Speed (Russian)". All Fun Moldova. 1 September 2017. Archived from the original on 7 January 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  3. ^ Beland, Veronique. "Cette Québécoise va te donner envie de partir à l'aventure et de jamais revenir". Qc LifeStyle. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Pierre-Paul Biron (27 May 2017). "Ils ont changé de vie: il vend tout ici et devient une vedette en Asie". Journal de Quebec.
  5. ^ Martin Comtois (13 December 2016). "Victoire à mains nues". La Presse.
  6. ^ a b Anthony Da Silva-Casimiro (20 December 2016). "Tout sauf de la chance pour Dave Leduc". La Revue. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  7. ^ a b Marc-André Lemieux (19 August 2019). "Dave et Irina, ennemis publics no 1". Le Journal de Montréal.
  8. ^ a b Kelly, Brendan (7 August 2019). "Hate is on for Montreal couple on The Amazing Race Canada". Montreal Gazette.
  9. ^ a b Alyssa Goulart (6 September 2019). "The Most Hated "The Amazing Race Canada" Couple Leave The Race Saying "It's For The Best"". Narcity.
  10. ^ a b "(foto) Cine este modelul din Chișinău care a fost selectat pentru rolul de "Regină a drumurilor" în jocul Need for Speed - #diez" (in Romanian). Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  11. ^ Draicchio, Emily (12 June 2017). "10 Montreal Couples on Instagram That Are Living The Life You Want". MTL Blog.
  12. ^ Terehova, Irina (7 March 2016). "This Canadian Man Dropped Everything To Live His Dream Life In Thailand". MTL Blog.
  13. ^ Beaudin, Marlie (16 June 2016). "Une Montréalaise quitte tout pour vivre le grand amour en Thaïlande". Journal de Montreal.
  14. ^ "Cette Québécoise a tout abandonné pour aller rejoindre son grand amour en Thaïlande". Huffington Post. 16 June 2016.
  15. ^ a b Jean-Michel Clermont-Goulet (21 August 2019). "These Two Quebecers Are Irritating The Whole Country On "The Amazing Race Canada"". Narcity.
  16. ^ Tee, Irina (16 January 2017). "How I Met My Husband Thanks To MTL Blog". MTL Blog.
  17. ^ Tom Taylor (19 July 2019). "The King of Lethwei: Dave Leduc is conquering the world's most brutal sport". B.J. Penn.
  18. ^ "Un Québécois vedette des arts martiaux en Asie". TVA Nouvelles. 16 February 2018.
  19. ^ Bhrodri Morgan (30 July 2019). "A royal portrait: Dave Leduc, King of Lethwei". The Body Lock.
  20. ^ "ดีกรีไม่ธรรมดา! ส่องหวานใจ "เดฟ เลดั๊ค" นักมวยจอมเกรียนชาวแคนาดา (ภาพ)". Sanook.com. 18 May 2021.
  21. ^ Joe Henley (28 January 2018). "Burmese bare-knuckle kick-boxing goes mainstream as foreigners discover ancient combat sport". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021.
  22. ^ Myanmar New (5 October 2017). "ကနေဒါနိုင်ငံသား မြန်မာ့လက်ဝှေ့ ကမ္ဘာ့ချန်ပီယံ Dave နှင့်ဇနီး NLD AIDS Center သို့ သွားရောက်၍ ကလေးများအတွက် မုန့်များပေးဝေ". CantWait2Stay. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  23. ^ Carter, Matthew (10 April 2019). "Lethwei Superstar Dave Leduc Has Pocketed Over 1 Million $". Lethwei World. Retrieved 1 February 2024. Their focus is mostly on the NLD AIDS Center on the outskirt of Yangon.
  24. ^ Orlick, Kim. "30 Canadian Power Couples". Narcity Canada. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017.
  25. ^ Владимир Бучельников (19 June 2016). "Что раздражает в американских мужчинах русскую канадку". Vesti.lv Russia.
  26. ^ "Dating: Russian vs Canadian". Time All News Russia. 30 June 2016.
  27. ^ "Что раздражает в американских мужчинах русскую канадку". Creu Russia. 30 November 2016.
  28. ^ Boisse, Meagan (3 December 2015). "An Open Letter to MTL Blog and Irina Terehova". The Link.
  29. ^ "Author Jet Li : Irina Terehova". Jetli.com. 15 May 2017.
  30. ^ "Miss Soyuz 2004". Online-Montreal. Archived from the original on 6 March 2006. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  31. ^ "(Rus)Уроженка Молдовы стала героиней игры Need for Speed (Russian)". Actualiti. 30 August 2017.
  32. ^ Amber Dowling (11 June 2019). "Watch out for flying chairs when this passionate 'Amazing Race Canada' team hits the starting line". The Loop.
  33. ^ Philippe Melbourne Dufour (21 August 2019). "UN COUPLE DE QUÉBÉCOIS FOUT LE BORDEL À "THE AMAZING RACE CANADA" ET LE ROC N'EST PAS CONTENT". Le Sac De Chips. Journal de Montréal.
  34. ^ Martin Comtois (17 June 2019). "" Le Nomade " à Amazing Race". Le Droit.
  35. ^ a b Greg David (3 September 2019). "AMAZING RACE CANADA SHOCKER: AND THE FINAL THREE TEAMS ARE…". Tv,eh?.
  36. ^ a b Mark Daniell (5 September 2019). "'We changed the game': 'The Amazing Race Canada' villains blast haters". Toronto Sun.
  37. ^ Alexandra Toutant (22 August 2019). "Montreal Couple Irina & Dave From Amazing Race Canada Couldn't Care Less About The Haters". MTL Blog.
  38. ^ Mark Daniell (19 August 2019). "BFF moms brand Dave and Irina 'biggest villains' on 'The Amazing Race Canada'". Toronto Sun.
  39. ^ Greg David (23 July 2019). "AMAZING RACE CANADA: EXPRESS PASSES AND STOLEN CABS IN YELLOWKNIFE". Tv,eh?.
  40. ^ Elizabeth Keith (12 September 2019). "Amazing Race's Quebec "Villians" Received Death Threats For Being Un-Canadian". Narcity.
  41. ^ Amber Dowling (24 July 2019). "Villains emerge on this season of 'The Amazing Race Canada'". The Loop.
  42. ^ Mark Daniell (3 July 2019). "'I'm in denial': Canada's Choice sent home on 'Amazing Race Canada' premiere". Toronto Sun.
  43. ^ Mark Daniell (31 July 2019). "'Two words we never want to hear again': Clam-digging challenge sinks Halifax twins on 'Amazing Race Canada'". Toronto Sun.
  44. ^ Mark Daniell (30 August 2019). "Vancouver couple sound off on surprise Amazing Race Canada elimination". Toronto Sun.
  45. ^ Amber Dowling (31 July 2019). "'The Amazing Race Canada' teams really dug themselves into a hole this week". The Loop.
  46. ^ Kelly, Brendan (6 September 2019). "Much-hated Montreal couple bounced from the Amazing Race Canada". Montreal Gazette.

External links edit