Without a doubt, one of the biggest college sports stories of 2013 was the incredible senior season and personal story of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o. Not only did Manti play so well that he was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy (awarded to the best college football player of the year), but he did it all while dealing with the overwhelming grief that came with finding out that his grandmother and his girlfriend died on the same day. The odds of that happening were incredible, as was the support he got from fans and the media.
But the tables turned and the support quickly evaporated when it was revealed that Manti's girlfriend didn't die — she couldn't have because she was never alive in the first place. Though the concept was still relatively new at the time, it turned out that Manti had been catfished and strung along by someone pretending to be a beautiful young woman named Lennay Kekua.
While Manti's experience with catfishing may have been the most sensational, it turns out that he's far from the only celebrity or high-profile individual to be duped, swindled, or tricked by a catfisher pretending to be someone they are not. Read on for 15 jaw-dropping stories of celebrity victims who lost time, money, and maybe a little dignity to sneaky catfishers.
John Henson
Comedian and TV host John Henson was the victim of a serial catfisher. He was contacted by someone pretending to be the mother of a cancer-stricken child named Scarlett who was a fan of his show Wipeout. The catfisher sent emails, drawings, and even journal entries from the girl, but John eventually got suspicious when the girl's supposed mother couldn't answer some basic questions. He hired a private investigator who revealed that it was all a hoax. And, as we'll see, John wasn't the only one who got scammed.
Brad Paisley & Kimberly Williams
Country star Brad Paisley and his actress wife, Kimberly Williams, were scammed by the same catfisher who targeted John Henson. A police statement about the matter, published by ABC, reveals the story: "I was contacted by Brad Paisley on September 18th, 2012, and he advised me that he had been scammed by a female (later identified as Hope Lyn Jackson). Mr. Paisley also stated that the woman he and his wife had been corresponding with had told them that she had a daughter who was dying of cancer. She led them to believe this was true by sending them emails and photographs that she had used from other websites of actual children who were in fact sick and/or dying."
Johnny Depp
Hope Jackson, the same woman who catfished John Henson and Brad Paisley, also told ABC's Nightline program that she'd used the same story of a child sick with cancer to catfish Johnny Depp. Although his representatives declined to confirm it, she said she spoke with the Pirates of the Caribbean star on the phone and received gifts, including games and a lunch box, for her fake child.
Ian McKellen
Beloved British actor Sir Ian McKellen recently revealed on Twitter that he'd been the victim of catfishing by Russian comedians who tricked him into thinking he was in conversation with the president of Ukraine. That is despicable on a whole bunch of levels!
Manti Te'o
We talked about Manti Te'o already, but those who want to do a deeper dive into this super public catfishing will be pleased to know that Netflix just released a documentary on it. Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist tells the whole wild story, with interviews from Manti and his now-remorseful catfisher.
Danielle Fishel
Actress Danielle Fishel has one of the scarier stories. She recently revealed on the podcast Pod Meets World that she was catfished when she was only 12 years old (and starring on the classic Boy Meets World series) when an adult man started writing her letters, pretending to be a young girl. He eventually escalated to becoming a stalker, even showing up at her school. Yikes!
Nev Schulman
We all know that Nev Schulman knows about catfishing. He basically made it a household word with his successful MTV show Catfish. Some people may not realize that the show came from his own experience, as he was the victim of a long-term catfishing scheme by a woman who pretended to be in love with him but who was actually an older, married photographer using someone else's images to trick Nev.
Pat McAfee
Another professional athlete who had to deal with catfishing is Pat McAfee, a former NFL player and now sports announcer. He has shared the story of getting repeated flirty messages from a woman/would-be groupie named Abigail Johnson. He eventually decided the account was fake and ended contact. One day, however, he was watching the show Catfish and saw a story about someone else who was wondering if the beautiful Abigail was real. Yep, another serial catfisher on the loose!
Thomas Gibson
Criminal Minds star Thomas Gibson was catfished so convincingly by a sexy catfisher that they had an online relationship for two years! The relationship included Thomas sending her homemade movies, including some in a hot tub. The catfisher eventually revealed to TMZ that the photos used for the fake profile came straight from a porn site.
Kate Gosselin
Add reality star Kate Gosselin to the long list of people who were catfished by Hope Jackson. She believed the story of the cancer-stricken (fictional!) child so much that she even had an episode of her show Kate Plus 8 dedicated to the girl.
Bow Wow
In 2013, rapper Bow Wow was involved in a catfishing scam and he didn't even know it. A woman named Dee Pimping, who happened to be an aspiring rapper, was using Bow Wow's identity to catfish a young woman named Keyonna, who thought she was in a romantic relationship with the celebrity.
Meri Brown
Meri Brown, one of the titular wives in the TLC show Sister Wives, was catfished by someone pretending to be a man named Sam. "Sam" turned out not to be real, and the whole strange situation was recorded on a TV special called Catching the Catfisher.
Little Big Town
For anyone who was hoping to make it to the end of this roundup without hearing the name Hope Jackson again, we've got bad news for you! The country group Little Big Town joins the long list of her victims, and it really raises the question of how this woman had so much time on her hands to catfish this many celebrities?
Tracie Thoms
Tracie Thoms (an actress who's starred on Broadway and in TV shows including Station 19 and 9-1-1) actually turned to Nev Schulman's show Catfish for help when she suspected she was being tricked by a superfan named Sammie, who turned out to have invented a fictional woman named Reese who tried to befriend Tracie before Sammie killed her off. Sammie admitted on the show that Reese had never existed.
Iggy Azalea
Aww, the story of how Iggy Azalea got catfished is actually kind of sweet! The rapper started messaging with an Iggy Azalea fan account because, as she told The Cruz Show: "There was this one fan, and I was like 'Oh, I like this fan. This fan is cool. I'm going to add them.'" She soon learned that the fan account was secretly run by none other than her own mother. Talk about a lifelong fan!
