My mum thinks she’s married to a Hollywood icon – she sent him £79k & sold her house…she won’t believe he’s a catfish
TWO daughters have claimed their mum is delusional and is convinced she’s married to ‘Tyler Perry’ – and has even sent her catfish a whopping $100k (£79.4k).
Kelly and Kourtney say their mum Karla, who worked for Homeland Security for 24 years, claims that she’s in contact via online chats and texting with the film industry legend, and they are married.
However, there’s one major problem; she’s never ever met the man she calls her new husband.
The concerned daughters say that since the relationship has begun, their mum has lost her job and even sold her house – assuming that ‘Tyler Perry’, who is worth an estimated $600m ($476m) according to bankrate.com, was going to have a luxurious lifestyle waiting for her.
They say she’s now on her last savings, having blown through her retirement fund to please her online love.
Despite trying to convince her that this ‘Tyler Perry’ is not real, they say that she just won’t believe that she’s being scammed.
“She believes everything that comes out of his mouth. It’s Tyler Perry and her against the world,” says Kourtney.
Kelly and Kourtney explain how their parents got divorced four years ago and, feeling lonely, their mum turned to a Tyler Perry fan page.
They say she started scrolling through it and liking everything and before long, a person reached out to her claiming to be ‘Tyler Perry’ and alleging they’d known each other since they were children.
Kelly explains: “She’s never spoken with him. She’s never met him. They’ve only communicated through text.
“Anytime he has tried to video chat her, it is a blank screen. It is black.”
To add a further twist to the story, Kourtney claims ‘Tyler Perry’ asked her mother to marry him and says “they have an actual legal document stating that they are married.”
However, she points out that no one has ever seen this legal document.
“The real Tyler Perry has a 2-year-old child and this fake Tyler Perry has convinced my mother that she is the biological mother of the real Tyler Perry’s son,” she says.
“She has not given an explanation as to how that could have possibly happened.”
Karla goes on to say how the situation has gone so far, that he’s even made her mum believe that one of her children, being Karla, is the offspring of Tyler Perry.
“That’s outlandish because I know who my father is,” she says. “It’s just ridiculous.”
Believing that their mother’s life is going downhill fast ever since she fell head over heels for her online love, Kourtney and Kelly turn to Dr Phil for help.
“Ever since this Tyler Perry has come into my mother’s life, he basically has ruined her life completely,” says Kourtney.
“This Tyler Perry asked my mother on multiple occasions to send him money so we can have it for charities.
“She sent him money approximately 50 times.”
Kelly, who says the total amount has been around $100,000, adds: “They would all be through either money gram or Western Union.”
Concerned her mum is being scammed, Kourtney points out that he wanted her to send some money to an African address.
“That just told us something right there, that this guy has to be someone in another foreign country,” she says.
With nowhere else to turn, the daughters asked Dr Phil for help.
“No matter what we do, she would not listen, understand at all that this person is scamming her,” Kourtney tells him.
Dr Phil, who reveals he’s very good friends with Tyler Perry, explains that the fake ‘Tyler Perry’ told Karla that Kelly and her youngest are his biological kids and said his youngest son was from harvested eggs.
“Now, according to research, Karla doesn’t remember the painful process – the egg harvesting takes like 60 hours,” he says.
“I mean, there’s a lot that goes into this. So, the conclusion, I mean, Tyler’s just not Tyler Perry.”
But Karla has a rather different take on the matter and claims Kourtney and Kelly don’t believe she’s in a relationship with Tyler because they’re “mad about the divorce.”
She says: “If it was up to them they would want me to get back with their dad.”
Appearing on the show in a bid to get to the bottom of it once and for all, Dr Phil discusses the texts Karla has received from her so-called husband – and proves they’re the exact same words found on a scam website.
“I understand what you’re saying, aside from that, all of the other texts that have been sent to you that that have other conversations – is that what you’re determining whether or not it was the real Tyler?” she asks.
Dr Phil responds: “No, I’m just saying if this is the man that you’re describing as walking in faith and and being ‘Tyler Perry,’ why is he going to a site where he can pull down quotes that scammers use instead of just talking to you?”
Karla responds: “I mean that right there is probably a very small percentage of the over the hundreds of text messages that I’ve received, but I can’t dispute that.
“If you say that that is the case that you’ve check that out, I can’t dispute that.”