Brad Pitt has reacted to the viral story of a 53-year-old French woman who was swindled out of $850,000 by someone pretending to be the actor.
The story broke on Sunday on the TF1 show “Sept à huit,” which aired the testimony of Anne, a French interior decorator who described how she had been scammed by a fake Brad Pitt, with whom she thought she was having a long-distance romance for a year.
The hoax started when Anne, who was then married with a wealthy man (described in French media as a millionaire), was vacationing with her children in Tignes, in the French Alps, and downloaded Instagram to post pics of her ski trip. The scammer first pretended to be Pitt’s mother and told her “that her son needed someone like me,” Anne said in the TF1 show. Eventually, Anne began receiving AI-generated photos and passionate messages from the fake Brad Pitt whom she said “knew how to talk to women.”
The person pretending to be the actor ultimately claimed he needed $1 million for a kidney treatment because he was unable to access his bank accounts due to his divorce with Angelina Jolie. Anne, who by that time was divorcing her husband, had received funds from the settlement and gave it all to the scammer, who was flooding her with AI pics of Pitt in a hospital bed.
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The hoax ended shortly after Pitt officialized his relationship with Ines de Ramon at the Venice Film Festival.
In response to the viral piece, Pitt’s spokesperson said in a statement obtained by Variety that, “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities. This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”
Since the airing of the show, Anne, who has struggled with mental health issues, has been mocked and bullied on social media, to the extent that the broadcaster TF1 pulled the segment from all its platforms on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
She also reacted to the backlash, claiming the segment wrongly presented her as a cheater, whereas she felt that she was acting out of empathy for someone in need.
In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper on Wednesday, Jan. 15, she regretted that the “only thing we’re going to remember is that ‘Anne fell in love with a fake Brad Pitt.” “Now, to begin with, I’ve never cheated on my husband in my life because I’m a caring woman, I’m not crazy or corny, as some people say or write on social networks.”
“I just wanted to help someone… and yes, I’ve been scammed. That’s why I came forward, because I’m not the only one in this situation,” Anne said.
It’s indeed not the first fake Brad Pitt scam happening in Europe. Last year in Spain, five people were accused of swindling two women out of 325,000 euros.