Featured Image Credit: TF1/X
Topics: Brad Pitt, Celebrity, Money, Real Life, Sex and Relationships, Technology, True Life, World News, Mental Health
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Brad Pitt, Celebrity, Money, Real Life, Sex and Relationships, Technology, True Life, World News, Mental Health
A 53-year-old French woman divorced her millionaire husband after being under the impression she was dating Brad Pitt.
The woman, who goes by 'Anne', told BFM TV that the ordeal first began a few years back in 2023, when she received a Facebook message from the scammer posing as Pitt's mother.
Over the course of their correspondence, Anne shelled out a staggering €830,000 (approximately £697,000) to help with what she believed was cancer treatment for the Hollywood A-lister, she told French channel TF1.
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Just one day after the scammer, posing at Pitt's mum, messaged her, Anne received another message from an account posing as Pitt himself, saying his mother had spoken a lot about her already.
Anne said she was going through a rough patch with her millionaire husband and she and the person pretending to Pitt struck up an unlikely relationship.
"There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done," she said, as reported by BFMTV.
Admitting she was initially suspicious of the authenticity of the account, Anne quickly became more at ease following daily messaging and after being sent a number of AI-generated snaps.
After months of back and fourth, the scammer eventually proposed to Anne - prompting her to reportedly divorce her husband.
The scammer claimed he had bought his new 'fiancée' a number of luxury gifts but said he needed more than $9,000 to get it through customs, which she provided.
Anne was later awarded a very large sum of money through her divorce settlement, resulting in the scammer telling her he needed treatment for kidney cancer.
He claimed he wasn't able to access his own funds due to his ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The scammer sent a number of AI-generated photos and videos showing 'Pitt' in a hospital bed.
The pair communicated by these photos, along with texts, but Anne said he was never free for a call - something very common with online scammers and catfishes.
It was only when Anne saw paparazzi pics of the real Pitt with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, that she realised she had been grossly deceived.
She had reportedly sent the scammer nearly one million euros over the course of the relationship, per MailOnline.
Anne went on to alert authorities of what happened to her in 2024, who later launched an investigation.
While it's currently unclear whether she had been able to recoup any of her money nearly two years since the relationship started, it's been reported by BFMTV that she is now receiving care for severe depression at a clinic, while police continue searching for the scammer.