Seven Utah women confront female 'catfish' they believed to be the man of their dreams

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Friday on the Dr. Phil show, seven female students from Brigham Young University in Utah opened up about being catfished by the same 24-year-old woman (who was pretending to be a man).

The women believed they were in romantic relationships with a local Mormon man — when in reality they were being conned by a young black women from Texas named Kayla. Kayla’s deception came to a head when she was confronted by her victims on Friday’s broadcast.

When asked what triggered her to create such an extensive lie, Kayla explained to the women, “It’s for the simple fact that being gay and being Mormon is hard. Your church tells you, ‘We love you, but we don’t love who you are.'”

Kayla had taken the identity of a man named Keagan, who goes to school in Montana. He also appeared on the show and apologized to the women who thought they were speaking to him. They women looked visibly disappointed that the man who had told them he loved them was just a catfish.

The term catfish has become popular largely in part to the MTV’s tv show Catfish, which exposes those who create fake profiles online in order to get people to fall in love with them.

“I created an online persona so I could figure out who I was, and figure out if I was gay or not and figure out if I wanted to be part of the religion or not,” says Kayla, who now has come to terms with her sexual orientation.

She added: “Do I want to be part of the church, or do I want to be gay? And unfortunately, I saw myself in a position where I couldn’t have both… You don’t understand how difficult that is.”

You can watch the full episode above.