The documentary everyone is talking about: ‘Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare’
An online relationship that turns out to be one big lie happened to Kirat Assi. For ten years, she was the victim of catfishing. In the new Netflix documentary ‘Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare’, from the makers of ‘The Tinder Swindler’, she shares her bizarre story. Her ‘soulmate’ turned out to be her nightmare.
In 2009, Kirat receives a friend request from someone named ’Bobby Jandu’. She doesn’t know him, but sees that they have a number of mutual connections. She decides to accept the request. Kirat and Bobby start chatting, and that contact becomes increasingly intense. The messages turn into phone calls, and the two grow closer and closer. Their online friendship develops into a long-distance relationship; she lives in England and he in Australia.
Kirat wants nothing more than to meet Bobby in real life, but he always has a reason why it can’t happen. And those reasons become increasingly strange. One time he is sick, and another time he claims he has been shot. He increasingly takes control of the relationship and gets angry when she doesn’t want to call him. After years of avoidance and strange excuses, she no longer trusts him and decides to hire a private detective. The detective discovers that Bobby is not who he says he is, and that all those friends in their network do not exist. A huge shock for Kirat, because who has she been in contact with all this time? Or as she puts it herself: ‘All this time, who have I been sleeping on the phone with?’
In the podcast ‘Sweet Bobby’, Kirat previously shared her story. Now she does so again in the documentary. The ‘real Bobby’ also speaks in it. For Kirat, it is important to make people alert and warn them about the dangers of catfishing. She has lost 10 years of her life and wants to prevent anyone else from ever having to experience this. ‘Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare’ will be available on Netflix from October 16. Fortunately, there is already a trailer.
