When Knoxville man Spencer Morrill reached out to Catfish about being in a six-year online relationship with pop star Katy Perry, the show’s hosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph knew they would be in for an interesting ride.
The latest episode of the MTV series on Wednesday night detailed Morrill’s journey from Knoxville to England to find out if he was really talking to the famous singer.
The show helps people who have been “catfished” defined as being lured into a relationship with a fake online persona find the catfisher.
After reaching out to Schulman and Joseph, Morrill told them about his relationship, saying that he was convinced it was Perry.
He communicated with the woman through email, text messaging apps and one phone call but had never seen her face to face.
When Morrill wanted to take their relationship to the next level, the woman stopped communicating with him, and he sought help from Catfish to meet her.
“It was an immediate connection. A million ‘I love yous’ back and forth. It was pretty cool,” said Morrill as he described his relationship to the Catfish hosts. “I would like to meet face to face and see if there’s a future here,” he added.
The show’s hosts agreed to help, but they were skeptical about Morrill’s claims.
“Spencer, nothing would make me happier than bringing you to meet Katy Perry, but I mean it’s a real stretch,” said Schulman.
“Would you like to find out with me?” asked Morrill.
Schulman, Joseph and the Catfish crew traveled to Knoxville and said the city was beautiful. The episode featured clips of them driving down Gay Street and Henley Street and walking through McGhee Tyson Airport.
They met with Morrill at his home. He revealed he made a ring for Perry, combining his great-grandmother’s emerald with a diamond band and spending around 25 percent of his savings on it.
While in Knoxville, Schulman and Joseph did research and found a woman named Harriet who lives in England and was connected to the email address and phone number Morrill had been communicating with.
After traveling to Gloucester, England, where Harriet lives, Morrill still believed he was talking to Perry until he, Schulman and Joseph found her and arranged a time where they could meet up.
The meeting was tense.
“(Do you have) anything to say to me?” asked Spencer, after Harriet revealed she had pretended to be Perry.
“No. I’m sorry I guess,” said Harriet, who is a lesbian and a huge Perry fan. She wanted to be like the pop star and created a false online identity.
Harriet explained that she started a fake account where she acted like Perry, kept up with where the pop singer was and used that information to lead Morrill astray.
Morrill backtracked and didn’t want to believe it. He said he wasn’t completely convinced he was talking to Harriet for six years and told Schulman and Joseph they had found the wrong person. Then the Catfish hosts had to act with some tough love.
“We’ve found the person you’ve been talking to beyond really any shred of doubt, and you still want to believe the thing that makes you happier,” said Schulman. “You need to know that you’re not talking to Katy Perry.
“And you (Harriet) need to start thinking about the fact that this is the actual human being. As weird and crazy as he might be, (he) has a heart and was giving it to you 100 percent for six years of his life. For both of you, there’s some self reflection that needs to happen.”
A day later, Morrill and Harriet met up again to talk and cleared the air about their online relationship.
“For me it was enjoyable … but there’s also that kind of realization that I’ve lost myself in that … I just got to a point to where I couldn’t imagine like not talking to you … I’ve been through some tough times throughout the time we’ve been talking the past six years. Like my dad died two years ago,” said Harriet.
“I’m like genuinely sorry,” she added. “I can’t change what I did, but I understand that it was really wrong.”
Morrill was understanding toward Harriet and realized he needed to deal with his own issues.
“I came into this situation with an open heart, so that’s something I have to learn … to protect that myself.”
While there was no romantic future for Morrill and Harriet, they parted on good terms. “I’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ll be fine. The bad’s in the past. What’s ahead will be good.”
