Girls grow up watching fairytales and movie plots about finding their prince charming one day who will come and sweep them off their feet, but little did this 21-year-old fashion student know that her fairytale daydream was about to come true!
Esther appeared on MTV’s Catfish UK after her friend contacted the show with a nagging suspicion about Esther and her beau – Theo.
The pair originally connected over Instagram and have since talked daily without fail – but they’ve never met and never facetimed. In fact, whenever Esther tried to meet or video call Theo, he was always suddenly unavailable. He claimed that he was busy running his business or that he was in Nigeria.
Despite this, Esther was smitten with the young man. She explained that he lived in the UK but was also from the same Yoruba tribe of Nigeria as she was.
“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?” she explained.
It was now up to the Catfish team to investigate this strange case.
When explaining their relationship, Esther tells the Catfish team, “we’ve been speaking for about a year. He never fails to send me good morning or good evening messages,
“I find that so sweet. He’s so thoughtful, he calls me princess. I love it. I think he could be the on,
“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 FaceTime and he hung up.”
Initially, the team stated that this seemed like a classic case of catfishing.
As the investigation went on, more evidence seemed to come that proved this.
Though the hosts declare that his social media pages look genuine, they begin to have suspicions after contacting one of Theo’s friends. They found said friend through a comment he’d posted on one of Theo’s photos, as well as another friend who was tagged in one of Theo’s photos.
The pair stated that Theo was not actually Theo – he was Michael, and he was a business partner.
“Who on earth in Michael”, says one Catfish host.
They then went on to investigate ‘Michael’ and found a social media profile that was much plainer than Theo’s was. They also received a message from one of ‘Theo’s best friends’ who urged them to stop investigating, saying that he is a very private man.
Undeterred, the investigation continues and leads them to discovering that ‘Theo’ was not in Nigeria and has actually been in London the whole time.
The closer to Catfish team gets to ‘Theo’, the more barriers and obstacles they find around him.
Eventually, Theo texts Esther with an address to meet. When Esther and the Catfish team arrive, they find out that the man they meet is actually Theo – he is not a catfish but rather he is a Prince in Nigeria.
“If you don’t really know me, I was telling my name is Theo – which is actually my middle name and if you quite well and then I’ll say my first name is Michael”, the prince explains.
He went on to explain that he has genuinely been incredibly busy running three business ventures and dealing with the death of his father.
He then added that he wants to pursue something with Esther and that he is a Prince in Nigeria.
“I’ve been let down before and disappointed, I wanted you to know me for me,” he says.
Three months on, the couple are still connected and planning to make things official soon. Just like a modern fairytale!