Part 1
Stop 1: The Hook — A Baby That Doesn't Exist
First, look at this: a woman named Kiara sits across from Nev Schulman and Max Joseph and says, without a flicker of doubt, that she doesn't know what her own baby looks like. Not the gender. Not the name. Not a single photo. Because Courtney — her girlfriend of two years — told her the camera was broken. That's the tell. Not the surrogate. Not the money. The broken camera. If you've watched even one episode of Catfish, you know that a broken camera is never just a broken camera. It's the oldest excuse in the book, and Kiara bought it.
Welcome to Catfish Season 7, the MTV series where Nev and Max chase down online romances that smell like a fish market. This episode, which aired in 2018, is a masterclass in how a lie can grow legs and walk. Kiara contacted the show because she needed help finding Courtney, her online girlfriend, and their newborn son — a child supposedly born via surrogate. Two people who had never met in person somehow had a baby together. Nev and Max are visibly baffled from the first frame, and honestly, same.
The surrogate story goes like this: Courtney told Kiara she didn't want to take time off work to be pregnant, and Kiara didn't want to carry the child either. So they decided to use a surrogate. Kiara sent money from every paycheck to cover expenses. Courtney handled everything else — the appointments, the birth, the whole nine yards — all by herself. Kiara was kept completely in the dark until two weeks after the baby was born. Her line lands like a brick: 'I just found out about the baby two weeks after he was born.' She says it like it's normal. It is not normal.
Think about the logistics for a second. A surrogate pregnancy involves legal contracts, medical screenings, and thousands of dollars. Yet Courtney supposedly arranged all of it alone, with no input from Kiara, and then — after the birth — refused to send a single picture. Why? Because her camera was broken. Kiara had only heard the baby in the background during phone calls. She had never seen a photo, never video-chatted, never even glimpsed a blurry sonogram. This is a classic Catfish red flag parade: no video chat, a conveniently broken camera, and a baby that exists only as a sound effect.
Nev and Max's skepticism is immediate and brutal. Nev, who has been doing this since the 2010 documentary Catfish (2010, directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, runtime 94 minutes), has seen every trick in the book. But even he seems stunned by the audacity of this one. 'I never thought I would have to convince someone that they're not responsible for an imaginary baby,' he says, half-laughing, half-horrified. Max tries a different angle: 'You weren't included. In fact, you were excluded in a very deceitful, mean way. I think therefore you weren't — like, you are off the hook.' Kiara pushes back: 'I disagree. She makes me feel included even though I haven't seen it yet.' She's already put in time, money, love, and affection. She's not ready to let go.
So how did Kiara get so invested? How does someone send paycheck after paycheck for a baby they've never seen, to a woman they've never met? The answer starts with a Facebook page that Courtney swore didn't exist. Kiara told Nev and Max that Courtney claimed to have no Facebook. But when the hosts start digging, they find a profile with 1,800 friends, active posts, and a photo from December 3rd showing Courtney pregnant. The camera wasn't broken. The baby was real — just not in the way Kiara thought. That discovery is our next stop, and it's where the whole story starts to unravel.
Stop 2: The Facebook Trail — Courtney Is Real, But Not Who Kiara Thinks
Kiara told Nev and Max that Courtney didn’t have a Facebook. So imagine their surprise when they typed her name into the search bar and a profile popped up almost instantly. Not a ghost account. Not a shell. A living, breathing, 1,800-friend-strong Facebook page with tagged photos, check-ins, and friends posting from Norfolk, Virginia, just seven hours earlier. One friend wrote, “Aden is feeling better, I’ll see you next week.” That’s not a catfish. That’s a real person with a real life. So why would Courtney lie about something so basic? The answer is the first crack in a story that’s about to shatter.
The page wasn’t just active — it was current. Friends were tagging Courtney in posts, commenting on her photos, sharing memes. This wasn’t a dormant profile someone forgot to delete. This was a woman who existed, and she wasn’t hiding. But if Courtney was real, why did she tell Kiara she didn’t have Facebook? Why keep your entire social circle a secret from the person you claim to love? That’s not a red flag. That’s a parade of red flags.
Then Nev and Max scrolled down to December 3rd. A photo. Courtney, visibly pregnant. Smiling. Hand on her belly. The caption: “Can’t wait to meet you.” For anyone following the surrogate story, this is the moment the floor drops out. If Courtney was pregnant, there was no surrogate. She carried that baby herself. So why tell Kiara a stranger gave birth to their child? Why refuse to FaceTime? Why hide the one thing that would make everything make sense?
