Megan-Marie/TikTok
- On July 24, a TikTok accusing a boyfriend of cheating went viral.
- The video purported to have proof that the boyfriend lied about watching the Olympics with friends.
- After the TikTok reached 4.5 million views, the creator said the guy was not actually her boyfriend.
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A viral TikTok that appeared to expose a cheating boyfriend was a hoax in an effort to "bring in the likes," the video's creator said on Tuesday.
The user, whose first name is Megan-Marie, posted the original TikTok on Saturday, July 24, which alleged her boyfriend said he was "watching the Olympics with the boys" when he was actually with another girl.
The video showed a picture supposedly sent by the "boyfriend" showing the Olympic Games playing on the TV screen. But then, the TikTok zooms in on various clues suggesting he was with a girl, showing that the room featured a flower bouquet, a book about Chanel, and what appears to be a woman's knee reflected in the cabinet.
The caption said: "Do I have dumb written on my forehead?"
Accompanied with hashtags like #ClearGenius and #Cheater, the TikTok amassed 4.5 million views and over 800,000 likes. The user later posted follow-ups to "draw out the series" - with one TikTok posted two days later revealing that the photo the "boyfriend" sent was actually a live photo. When activated, a woman's voice could be heard in the background.
But in a poolside storytime posted on Tuesday, Megan-Marie said she met the man in question on Hinge and they were not in an exclusive relationship.
Megan-Marie said that the text exchange and image were real, but that she later learned the girl was just his best friend. "He's not a piece of trash like everyone is saying. It's just funny. Glad this could bring you all a little bit of joy and distract you from your everyday lives," she said.
Still, when reflecting on her conversation with the Hinge man, Megan-Marie said she realized the exchange had the potential to go viral.
"I know what's going to blow up on TikTok because I'm on TikTok and I know what kind of things blow up," she said. "Initially I was going to draw out the series, bring in the likes, and bring in the followers, but that's just not being authentic to the story."
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