“Hello and welcome. Everyone knows why you’re right here.”
With these 9 phrases, TikTok person @ReesaMTeesa turned her storytime about assembly, courting, and divorcing a person she known as a “pathological liar” into TikTok’s latest hit actuality collection. It’s known as “Who TF Did I Marry,” and although it basically includes the Atlanta-based girl recounting her experiences together with her ex-husband in 10-minute increments whereas ending her hair or driving to work, TikTok customers have already declared the collection a traditional — and demanded a Hollywood therapy. (Reesa didn’t reply to Rolling Stone’s request for remark.) It’s averaged at the very least 1 million views per video because the first video went up on Feb. 14, a feat made all of the extra spectacular while you be taught that Reesa tells the story in 50 components. However as private tales proceed to dominate on-line conversations, the story additionally brings up a bigger downside. As soon as a narrative is on the market, who decides the way it continues?
Even with eight hours of content material about this story already out for the world to devour, viewers have been clamoring for extra particulars. Her story begins in 2020, within the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when she met a person she calls Legion on Fb’s courting app. (Reesa didn’t embrace her ex-husband’s authorized title or different figuring out particulars to guard his identification, however did notice that she selected the pseudonym Legion to reference the biblical story of a person possessed by a swarm of demons.) In accordance with Reesa, Legion informed her he had just lately moved from California to Atlanta following a divorce, and was working as a vice chairman of an unnamed condiment firm. The 2 started courting and shortly moved in collectively, with Legion paying the vast majority of the payments. He would go away for work at common occasions, and spend a number of hours on the telephone daily speaking to folks he claimed have been household or staff.
Reesa describes her preliminary relationship with Legion pretty much as good, however notes that pink flags started to appear when the 2 tried to buy a house collectively. Their first try fell by fully, and on their second strive, the sellers pulled out of the deal as a result of Legion was unable to point out proof of his monetary accounts. In July 2020, Legion was always touring for work and was unable to be there for Reesa throughout troublesome occasions, together with a miscarriage. Even with their troubles, the couple was married in 2021.
Nevertheless it was Reesa’s software for a brand new job that threw her religion in Legion fully into turmoil. Throughout a routine background verify of herself and her husband, Reesa found that the social safety quantity he gave her didn’t match the one listed on their marriage license. Additional digging revealed the reality: Every thing, Reesa found, was a lie. Legion didn’t reside in California. He had been married greater than as soon as. His household didn’t communicate to him, and his job was as a short lived forklift driver, not a VP of a condiment company. In reality, he had included her within the lie, telling those who she had carried their little one to time period and so they now shared a son collectively. Lower than 5 months into their marriage, Reesa and Legion have been divorced. “There’s a stage of cruelty to my ex-husband that I’ve by no means skilled earlier than,” Reesa stated in Half 50 of the story. “And God is aware of I pray I by no means expertise that once more.”
Whereas having tens of millions of TikTok customers watch near eight hours of movies one after the opposite appears unusual, the phenomenon isn’t distinctive. The 2015 viral Twitter thread a couple of former Hooters waitress’ wild two-day journey to Florida was a narrative informed in 147 components — and gained a cult following, an A24 adaption, and made its opening line — “Y’all wanna hear a narrative about why me & this bitch right here fell out????????” — right into a meme. And particular storytimes haven’t simply gone viral, they’ve created whole followings. In August 2023, influencer Morgan Bailey gained near 1 million followers in two weeks after she started making movies in regards to the man who left her 30 days after her daughter was born. She referred to him as “the random man from Atlanta” and grew her follower depend to 1.3 million folks merely from telling tales about their interactions. In more moderen information, TikToker Madi Hart went viral for telling the story in regards to the time her father allegedly left their household to turn into a break dancer. The story, which was considered greater than 5.4 million occasions on TikTok, bought so large that the dad responded with a self-own, revealing that he’s a “yuge fan” of Elon Musk and Bitcoin-dedicated break dancer. (Musk himself responded to the video, saying “You might be superior.”)
However as private storytimes get extra common and much more wild, an issue emerges. When do audiences go from viewers to lively members? And is that one thing anybody even needs? Whereas Reesa thanked folks for watching her movies, most of her follow-up Lives have revolved across the scores of individuals desperately making an attempt to show Legion’s actual title and public data, which Reesa has actively discouraged. She gave the web her story. Now folks really feel prefer it’s their job to maintain it going.
“When you’re curious as to who he’s, I get it,” Reesa stated in a follow-up put up. “However please don’t have interaction as a result of the engagement can flip antagonizing, and this individual is just not nicely. So simply don’t.”
