Woman Who Thought Her Boyfriend Was A Catfish Discovers Real Story Is Even Stranger

Well, it's fair to say the man wasn't who she thought he was.

You see, Theo - the name he'd given - wasn't the name that those closest to him know him as, and he wasn't in Nigeria, as he'd said he was.

However, the reasoning behind his reluctance to take a video call from her, despite calling her 'princess' and texting her more than once every day, was because he's a Nigerian prince, and was simply too busy to accept the video calls.

These instances of catfishing often have a really weird twist at the end, but this one will take some beating.

Theo and Esther had been talking and forming a virtual relationship for ages, but they'd never met because Theo said he was away on business in Nigeria.

After a while, Esther's friend Anita became suspicious, so the Catfish UK team got involved to check it out.

Esther told hosts Oobah and Julie: "We've been speaking for about a year.

"He never fails to send me a good morning or good evening message."

"I find that so sweet. He's so thoughtful, he calls me Princess. I love it. I think he could be the one.

"He's from the same tribe as me, which is a big deal. There are 200 million people in Nigeria, what are the odds I find someone from the same tribe that's cute as well?

"But he's always in a meeting, whenever I try to video-call he doesn't pick up. We were on the phone once and I tried to switch it to a FaceTime and he hung up."

Despite admitted to seeing 'a lot of red flags', the hosts began their search.

Eventually, they tracked down Theo's business partner, who said Theo was actually called Michael, and found that his location was South London, not Nigeria like he'd said.

The plot thickens.

However, it turned out that he was real after all.

At Esther and Theo/Michael's first meeting, he explained the truth.

He said: "If you don't really know me, I was telling [you] my name is Theo - which is actually my middle name and if [I know] you quite well and then I'll say my first name is Michael."

Explaining the lack of video calls, he said: "To be honest, I just didn't have the time. I'm quite busy, I own three different business ventures.

"So, to have the time to even to five minute 10 minute video, just wasn't possible.

"The reasons why I went back to Nigeria was because I went for from my Dad's death.

"I was always on the move. There were always people in the house giving condolences or whatnot so I literally had to go for this event, go for this, go for that."

Did we mention he's a Nigerian prince?

He explained: "I've been let down before and disappointed, I wanted you to know me for me."

It's sweet, really.

Esther - predictably - isn't fazed by his royal heritage. She said: "I'm lowkey a Princess too".

It's nice when one of these tales doesn't turn out to be incredibly upsetting or spiteful, isn't it?