My own "Inventing Anna" Story

My Own "Inventing Anna "Story

I spent the weekend binging the new Netflix shows called "Tinder Swindler" and "Inventing Anna." I am not sure why these shows appeal to me; perhaps it is because I experienced my own fake friend a few years ago. I can understand telling little white lies, maybe making your life sound bigger and better than it really is. I get it, social media puts a lot of pressure on society to look and live a certain way. From a healthcare standpoint, I can understand how people with mental issues can have a story in their head and believe it is real. But at what point does it hurt the person? Is it when their life comes crashing down? How can a smart, successful woman with a family, make up a story that is so outrageous and was or wasn't afraid to get caught? Especially in the world where social media is everywhere, why would you think no one would fact check you?

A few years ago I took a contract assignment with a local hospital. Some travel nurses travel around the country and world, some of us stay local. I started working in a small hospital that looks like the last time it had a renovation was in 1980. I started floating around units and ended up in a small observation unit. During the first few weeks there, I met Jennifer. Jennifer was in her mid forties, long brown hair, green eyes, with perfect curves, however you couldn't really tell because her scrubs were always two sizes too big on her. I only worked with her a few times over the first few months. One night, it was just us two working in a small 6-bed unit. We had some downtime around 2am, and started talking. She proceeds to tell me about her kids, both teenagers and her husband, who works in financing. They have only been married for a few years and this is her second husband.

Jennifer seems like a normal person and normal nurse. Over the next few months we work the same shifts, and get to know each other better. She proceeds to tell me how she really only has one friend, her friend Holly, that she met working at another hospital years ago. Then Jennifer asks me, " Do you know who my ex-husband is?" I reply back, "No." I assume she figured by now I had heard about her through the small town hospital gossip. She proceeds to tell me that her ex-husband is a drummer for a very popular hair band from the 80s and 90s. ?He was from Europe, spoke a different language and after their divorce, she stayed there to help his parents. At this point, I am intrigued, I have heard of the band, but I don't know a lot about them. Obviously, the first question is, why would the ex-wife of a famous, well know, worldwide band be working as a nurse in some small town rural hospital??

Turns out Jennifer had a very believable and convincing story. Turns out they met around the time she turned 18. She had traveled to Aspen with a boyfriend and his family. She realized she forgot her bathing suit, and borrowed the family's car to go shopping in town. While out shopping, she met the girlfriend of one of the guys in the band. While in a bathroom stall, she heard a female voice ask if someone had a tampon, she slide her one under the door. Turns out it was a very well known actress from the 80s. ?Jennifer recognized her and the actress asked her if she wanted to come with her and the guys from the band to have lunch and Jennifer had said, yes.

Jennifer went to lunch with them, had a great time, and was she and the drummer were flirting with each other. She gave the actress her phone number before leaving. A few weeks later, the actress called her and asked if she wanted to meet up with them again where the band was playing. Jennifer had a friend help her with a cover story to get out of the house and she spent the weekend with the actress and band.

Over the next few months, Jennifer and the drummer started a relationship. Unfortunately, it was a time before social media, so as she said, " You had to wait till the next Teen Beat or Teen Magazine came out before you knew where the band was.

She told everyone at work about the concerts, their wedding, and how they ended up in a small rural time in the South. No one at work every really asked Jennifer about her past, but she was more than welcome to tell us the stories. I don't know if it was bragging or what, but later as things got rough, she would threaten to quit and tell us "She is a rock stars wife, and doesn't need to work!" As time went on, I heard this a lot.

Jennifer had two children that were allegedly the drummer's children. One was in school and lived with her, the oldest child lived with their rock star dad and travel between Europe and the US. The oldest child had very active social media accounts that I will discuss later.?Apparently the rock star did didn't get to see their youngest child much due to scheduling and not being in the US alot.

Jennifer and I became closer as the months went by. We had a great friendship and I never really asked about her past rocker wife experience. I don't know why I didn't ask more, I guess it is because we had so much else to discuss and talk about.?She would pick up a lot of overtime at work, so she would frequently stay at a hotel close to the hospital.?Jennifer actually lived a few hours away from the hospital, so this made sense and since I was local, we would meet up for drinks and dinner when she stayed in town.

Occasionally while at work, she would have communication with her rock star ex or children. I didn't hear their voices over the phone, but it wasn't like I was listening in on someone's conversation either. I took her word for granted, because well, it wasn't any of my business and it wasn't affecting our friendship.

As time went on, Jennifer started going through a difficult time and having problems. I had just started a new contract at a different hospital, and we still spoke often. I noticed inconsistencies in Jennifer's stories and she said she had started drinking more.?I am not sure if the drinking is what caused the inconsistencies because she "forgot" what she originally had told me or she just forgot what the original story was because at this point, she had told so many lies.?

?She knew I was a Real Estate agent as well as being a nurse. She told me how her "real" home was all brick, located in a gated community was not in her name. She told me her parent's home was actually in her name. Now, with anyone famous, this made sense, so again, I didn't question.

Then, everything started the unraveling about 1 year into our friendship. As I mentioned, I had left the hospital where we worked at but I kept in touch with several nurses we worked with. They were starting to ask me what was going on with Jennifer. Her behavior had changed at work; she had lost a lot of weight, and was just different. I was still by her side and wanted to support her during this difficult time. However, her stories kept changing all the time.

Now, I am not going to say during this that I never "Googled" her online or her ex-husband to try and find pictures of them together. She had a believable or so story for that too. They had dealt with an awful stalker situation in the past, which was also why their actual homes were not in their names, and they spent a lot of time and money on attorneys to have any pictures of their family removed online. I never found one picture of them online. I also never found any pictures of Jennifer on her oldest child's social media accounts. Like I said, the oldest child was very active on social media, so I thought it was weird or odd that Jennifer was never mentioned on birhdays or Mother's Day. The oldest child had pictures of rock star dad, but where was mom? I started to look into any clues that I could. What could I do to help Jennifer?

I never met her husband and felt comfortable reaching out to him. Plus, it sounded like they had their own marriage issues like anyone else, so I just wasn’t' comfortable going that route. Jennifer always told me that I was only one of her two good friends. Me, and a lady named Holly, which she met at another hospital near her home a few years ago.?I wondered how her and Holly's friendship was. Did Holly know about Jennifer's former rock in roll rock star wife life? Again, I just knew Holly's name and I wasn't comfortable trying to find her and reach out.

I started back on social media looking at her ex-husband and oldest child's social media. Nothing that is actually what I found! Nothing every mentioned Jennifer. No pictures, nothing. I started my own search on her ex-husband. I was a small child when he was famous, so I know a few of his songs, but that is all. The good thing was, his new band had released a new album, and he was doing a lot of press and interviews. I found a few recent interviews and a few from a few years ago, where he spoke about how he has never been MARRIED before!?What? Maybe he was just saying this because of the stalker situation they had back 20 years ago and he was protecting his kids and wife? But one thing was for sure; his interview answers remained consistent over time. Jennifer told me there were over 200 guests at her wedding, wouldn't someone have uploaded that picture online? Wouldn’t a fan ask if he was still married or seeing someone? Wouldn't a picture of another celebrity at their wedding show up online? I mean she did say there was music executives there, Axl Rose, etc. I loved New Kids on the Block and I would want to know if any of them are still single. Just saying.?I found several interviews where he mentioned his oldest child, but he never once mentioned the youngest child they had together. ?Why would he only talk about the oldest child and not the youngest??If it was due to the stalker, he wouldn't mention either, right??It's odd that a famous man would discuss how much he loves being a dad and father, but not mention his youngest child in any interviews.

Next, I started looking more on the oldest child's social media page. Jennifer had told me that while her and the rock star was dating; he had a girlfriend back home in Europe. She said while they were just starting to date, he was with the girlfriend in Europe when he was there and with her, when he was here in the US.?I searched for the girlfriend in Europe that Jennifer said he was with while there. I found her! I found the girlfriend. Even better, I found an old picture of the girlfriend and the rock star online. That was something and it proved he really did have a girlfriend back home in Europe like Jennifer said. ?Then I noticed something interesting, the girlfriend in Europe and the rock star's oldest chid were both at a Rolling Stones Concert at the same time in Europe on the same day. I couldn't find any pictures of them together, but they were both on the stage taking pictures that day. Maybe a coincidence, maybe a mom and child date?

Jennifer told me her current husband brought her home some beautiful roses. I looked on her Facebook page, and sure enough, there were the flowers, along with a good focused picture of her living room area.?Remember, I said I was in Real Estate? I looked up pictures of Jennifer's home online when it was sold to her. I looked up the tax records, found the home she said her parents lived in, which by the way was in a different city than the one she told me. In the pictures, in the home she told me her parents owned, was the same exact living room! The flowers her husband brought her home, where in the home where she told me her parents lived. They were not in the $500,000 mansion in the gate community she lied about. They were there, in a normal house just like mine. Same fireplace, same mantle, same layout. She had told me she had painted and changed out the floors when she moved in, and there they were, the red wall and new hardwoods.

Why would Jennifer lie to me? Why? We are adults, in our forties. We had become such great friends, I thought. I never questioned her story up until now. Why would someone lie about something that can be easily found out? ?

I didn't confront Jennifer about what I had found. I wasn't that type of friend but I kept looking.?Jennifer had kept her old posts on Facebook back when she gave birth to her youngest child, etc. I noticed there were no pictures of her oldest child anywhere on her social media. No mentioning of how proud she was of them, no Happy Birthday to the child who made me a mommy, nothing. She only had some posts of her youngest child, the one the rock star never mentioned during his interviews or online. Someone had commented a few years ago on her social media page about the oldest child, but Jennifer never responded.

Was the oldest child not Jennifer's child? Was the oldest really the child of the rock star and the ex-girlfriend? Was Jennifer's youngest child not the rock star's child? ?I knew the youngest child had different last name than Jennifer or her rock star ex. Again, this was due to the stalker situation she said. I saw Jennifer was friends with a guy, with the same last name as her youngest child. Again, was this a coincidence? Was this the youngest child's real dad? I think so.?The guy had pictures of Jennifer's child on social media, bragging about his child and also tagged Jennifer. OMG!?Jennifer lied to me and I had proof that her youngest chid was not the rock stars. The child had a dad that worked and lived in the city they lived in! It was during this time; Jennifer kept mentioning her ex-husband more and more. I frequently heard how she was going to quit her job and ask her ex to give her the couple of millions she was promised.

?Again, I still wasn't ready to confront Jennifer. During this time, I had become close with another nurse at the hospital I was working at.?One night, she said, " Have you tried messaging the rock star?" No, rock stars don't answer their messages from regular people. I did. I messaged him on social media. A few months went by, no response of course.

Jennifer and I have birthdays close to each other, so we decided to do a girl's trip to a very fancy resort and spa about 1 hour away from each of us. A full weekend of pampering, drinking, and girl time. I was so excited to go and I hadn't seen Jennifer for about a month now. We planned our trip and were set to go in a few months. Since Jennifer was still struggling and at this point was thinking bout quitting her job, I wondered what I could do to help. My co-worker asked me, " Why don't you message the oldest child?" I didn't think of that.?I didn't want to intrude on their relationship, and I didn’t know how much the oldest child knew about their alleged mom's struggles.?Did the child know about me, being their mom's close friend? The oldest child was active on social media, and I was thinking, maybe the oldest child could fly in and meet us on our trip. Per Jennifer, they were in the US hanging out in LA right now. I messaged the child on social media and they messaged me back!

I messaged the oldest child and introduced myself. I told them how I was friends with their mom, and wanted to invite them on our birthday trip. I was hoping Jennifer maybe had mentioned my name to them. The oldest child responded to me within a few hours and I was not prepared for their response!!! Holy SHIT! This is what the rock star's child told me.

For years, people have been reaching out to them about my friend Jennifer. People have messaged them for YEARS about a nurse, named Jennifer that claims to be their mom.?Jennifer is not their mom and has been telling lies about them and acts like they know them. The story has been the same for the past few years and the rock star's child would like me to ask Jennifer to stop with her lies. They are concerned that someone in the nursing profession could be acting like this and would like Jennifer to get some mental health.

?She said my story was nothing new, it appears to be the same story every time they reach out. She even said someone reached out to her a few months ago about Jennifer! They were saying they were concerned for her mental health and was hoping her child could help!!! What? Who else would have reached out to the rock star's child? I honestly think it was a coworker from the hospital Jennifer was still working at. The rock star's child was very nice to me and answered my questions. I apologized for reaching out and messaging them. They were very understanding.

So why lie? Why lie to everyone you work with? Jennifer appeared to have a good life at home, good marriage, a husband and child at home that cared about her. What about Holly? Obviously being from the same town as Jennifer, Jennifer would have not lied to her. So why come to work at this hospital and tell everyone this crazy ass story? The rock star's child said this had been happening for a few years now and that would make sense. Jennifer had been with the same hospital for a few years. ?Why would the lie just start at this hospital? Was it a joke to her? Was she trying to make friends? I don't know.

The time came for our trip and I was nervous. I had yet to confront Jennifer about what I knew. I knew that when I confronted her, it would be the end of our friendship. I just had that feeling. Would she finally admit she was lying or continue with her story because she was afraid I would tell everyone we had worked with?

I was the first to arrive at our hotel. Jennifer was running late for our massages and facial so I decided to wait outside. In the horizon, I finally see her bright red sports car speeding up to the front of the hotel. She had recently traded her in Mercedes the rock star ex-husband bought her. I go to meet her. I can tell immediately, something isn't right.?The Jennifer I knew, and the person I saw, was two different people. We completed our spa treatments and went to get settled into our rooms. Afterwards we went walking down to the vineyard and shops on the hotel property. On the way back, Jennifer was having trouble walking back and there was questions regarding a medical diagnosis, but that is a whole different story to tell. Anyway, she was being very dramatic on the way back to the hotel.?After we reached our room, I offered to get her bags out of her car. When I went to grab her makeup bag out of her car, I found several mini bottles of alcohol. Perhaps this was the reason she was acting odd, and she had confessed to drinking more these days.

After resting, we got cleaned up and went to dinner.?At dinner I was quiet, just because Jennifer had just talked and talked the entire day. She was spinning circles around the same conversation over and over again. I honestly just had a headache and was fed up with it at this point. We went for a late walk on the property after dinner, and there I confronted her. She started talking about her ex-husband, the rock star again. I asked her if she had spoken to her eldest child lately. She gave me an odd look, and said yes. I said, " I also spoke with them." Jennifer looked confused. I told her the entire story about contacting "her child" to arrange for them to meet us here at the hotel for our birthday weekend since they were in the US. She asked me, " What did they say?" I told her the truth, exactly what the rock star's child said. How over the past few years, people have reached out to them about a nurse named Jennifer claiming to be their mom. How they did not know Jennifer, and was concerned about her mental health. Jennifer looked at me and said, " They are just saying that they don't know me because of the stalker from years ago." I said, " If that was true, then they wouldn't be all over social media, letting others know where they are." I asked Jennifer about the guy who I thought was the real father of her younger child. She denied it. She just looked at me in disbelief of how I could confront her with this. I even showed her the messages. I felt awful, I didn't come to our beautiful weekend to confront her, but I needed to know the truth. I went upstairs to our room, packed my clothes and left. That was the last time we spoke. I drove home that night. She called me about 20 some times during my drive. I didn't answer.?Why would she not tell me the truth? It was the perfect time. Was she ashamed that I knew or ashamed for what she did?

Now, unlike the shows on Netflix, I wasn't scammed out of any money. Anytime we went out, we split the bill. But I was scammed out of truly knowing someone. I knew part of a person, but that was it. I knew part truth about them, and then the other part a made up story. Yes, I miss her. She was my friend; regardless of her bat shit crazy story and I only hope the best for her. I haven't spoke to her since. That was almost a year ago now. People battling mental health issues or any type of addiction need help. I don't know if this was what was going on with Jennifer or not and I won't ever know.