A young woman from Scotland has issued a public apology after admitting she faked an entire pregnancy and pretended a lifelike doll was her baby, a deception that shocked social media and devastated those close to her.
Kira Cousins, 22, from Airdrie, confessed to fabricating an elaborate story about being pregnant and giving birth to a baby girl she claimed was named Bonnie-Leigh Joyce. For months, she reportedly wore a prosthetic baby bump, shared fake ultrasound images, and even staged a gender reveal party to convince family and friends that she was expecting.
In a now-deleted Instagram story posted Tuesday morning, Cousins wrote, “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t pregnant. There was no baby. I made it up and kept it going way too far. I faked scans, messages, a whole birth story, and acted like a doll was a real baby. I know how bad it is, I f***** up. I just didn’t know how to stop once I started.”
Cousins said she was struggling mentally, but admitted that there was no excuse for her actions. “I wasn’t in a good headspace, but that doesn’t make what I did okay,” she wrote. “I know this is gonna stick with me for a long time and that I’ve probably lost friends I’ll never get back”, as per Daily Record.
She went on to apologize directly to her loved ones, saying, “You cried happy tears, picked me up, brought me places, believed everything I said. You didn’t deserve to be lied to like that. Everyone who came to the gender reveal, all the people who gave me gifts or support—I f****d up and I hurt a lot of people.”
Cousins also apologized to the man she falsely identified as the baby’s father, writing, “I made you out to be horrible people when really, I was the one in the wrong. Completely.”
She defended those who believed her story, noting how realistic the “Reborn” doll looked. “In everyone else’s defense, the doll could move. You could change the facial features, arms, and legs. You could feed the doll, making it ‘pee or poo.’ So when no one was close to it, it did look real,” she explained.
Friends said the deception extended for months, with Cousins sharing videos of her “baby bump,” newborn clothes, and even posts about fake prenatal complications. One friend, Neave McRobert, revealed she discovered the truth after noticing Cousins had deleted all photos of the supposed baby, as reported by The New York Post.
Reborn dolls, like the one Cousins used, can cost anywhere from £30 to £2,000 and are crafted to closely resemble real infants. The bizarre case has sparked widespread discussion online about mental health, loneliness, and the extremes of social media deception.
@neavemcrobert ♬ original sound – NeaveMcrobert
KIRA COUSINS AND BONNIE-LEIGH
@neavemcrobert ♬ original sound – NeaveMcrobert
(@sarahs_sparkling_services)
