I catfished a girl for 10 years. When it started, in 2016, she was 18 and I was 22. We met on Habbo. I had never done anything like that before. For a few years, I would sometimes go on there and meet people, and I did lie to them about things in my life, but I never pretended to be someone else.
After a bad experience, I stopped going on there and stopped meeting people online for a couple of years. Then, at the end of 2015, I was bored and decided to go back to pass the time, but this time I decided to protect my identity. I chose a name, an age, a city, and simply interacted with people there for a while without putting my identity at risk.
Not long after that, I met this girl, and I got hooked on the way she treated me. I thought, “Well, flirting for a while can’t hurt. It’s the internet, it never goes anywhere.” And that was my first mistake: believing I could flirt with her without actually becoming emotionally attached.
We moved to WhatsApp, and the flirting kept escalating until, within barely a month, we were already confessing our feelings for each other, and after two months we became a couple.
Meanwhile, obviously, I didn’t just fail to tell her the truth about who I was—I built an entirely fake family, financial, and social life. During the first few weeks, I told her that I didn’t want a video call to ruin the magic of seeing each other’s expressions for the first time in person, and she agreed. We agreed to meet, but it never happened. I don’t remember what excuse I gave.
The thing is, the relationship kept getting more and more serious. I wasn’t able to stop because I felt loved in a way I had never experienced before, and she never pressured me enough for me to even feel afraid of being caught.
And this is the part I can’t get past. For 10 years, that first excuse for not video calling was enough for her to never ask again. We supposedly lived only two hours apart, and after that first attempt to meet, she never asked whether we could see each other. Even when my father got sick two years ago, she never asked whether I wanted her to come see me, which would be the normal thing to do in a relationship.
Because that’s what we were. We talked 24/7, behaved like a couple, had sex, intimacy, affection, and plans for the future (which I obviously knew were never going to happen).
She also ignored other very obvious signs, like seeing my real name on a banking app or on an official document and assuming it was due to some kind of computer error. And whenever she asked about something, I would give her some absurd explanation and she would just let it go. And there were many more things like that, some more obvious than others.
The thing is, three months ago she discovered the Instagram account of the person whose photos I had been using, and obviously that was the end of it. And what amazes me the most is that if it hadn’t been for Instagram’s algorithm, we would probably still be in that relationship today.
Although, honestly, I was already very tired and was planning to leave, especially after my father died.
Over these past three months, I’ve gone over the relationship again and again and again in my head, and I keep reaching the same dead end: “How could this have happened?”
I know I’m the one to blame. I started therapy two months ago, and although I still sometimes fantasize about getting her back, I’m being honest with myself and respectful of her.
But there are days when I feel angry at her, because I reach a point where I think, “Either she was playing me too, or she’s the most innocent person on planet Earth.”
The thing is, I know she wasn’t playing me. I know she is exactly who she says she is—100% confirmed. I’ve wondered whether she might have been in another relationship or seeing other people, but I genuinely don’t know when she could have maintained something like that when she was always available to me.
I’ve heard that woman cry on the phone simply because she thought I was angry with her. Just four days before the breakup, she had an anxiety attack because I was already preparing my escape plan and letting her see that I might move away. She was very dependent on the relationship.
And that’s where I reach the dead end. No catfish, no cheating. How can someone who seems confident, has a healthy environment around them, and is intelligent overlook and fail to connect such obvious signs?
To what extent did she need the relationship so badly that she was afraid to burst the bubble and ask me to meet in person?
I want to clarify that during those 10 years I never manipulated her by using illnesses or serious situations. Unfortunately, the only illness present during the relationship was real, and it took my father from me. Other than during the first 2–3 years, it wasn’t even a toxic relationship. In fact, it was very monotonous. There were no major fights. I never pretended to be the victim because of mental health issues, and I never tried to isolate her.
I’ll repeat that I know I am 100% at fault, and even though I never planned for it to happen, I should never have done it. And once feelings became involved, I absolutely should have stopped.
But I’ll always carry the question of what was going through her head for her to put up with something like this. I’m pretty convinced that she was looking for a long-distance relationship, and that achieving that goal, combined with a lot of idealization, made her stop paying attention.
But I have the feeling there was something more, and I don’t think I’ll ever find out. And that’s what makes me feel both more guilty and, at the same time, relieved.
Because I hurt someone who was that good.
But I also know that we were two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. We probably both needed to hide, we just did it in different ways.
I know what I did was incredibly wrong, so you can spare me the insults. I’m not going to feel any worse than I did when she asked me to take care of myself because she couldn’t stay after a lie like that.
I just needed to vent. Sorry for my English.