A woman who hired the cast and crew of MTV's Catfish to investigate a man she met on Instagram has said her experience on the show gave her the "tools she needs" to find her "happy ending" in the future.
Angela Morone, 42, was first contacted by a stranger named Gary Natsu on Instagram in June 2022, shortly after she had ended a 20-year marriage.
The pair seemed to hit it off immediately and eventually arranged to meet up for a date in July 2022. However, when Gary - who claimed he was 35 - failed to turn up, Angela began to get suspicious and decided to reach out to MTV Catfish.
She said: "He would say 'good morning' every day. He thought I was attractive. I thought he was very interested in me. We were going to pursue something intimate. When he didn't turn up, I messaged, and he said: 'I was there. Where were you?'
"I emailed MTV Catfish right away. I wanted to make this was real and I was safe."
Producers of the show - which investigates online relationships to discover whether the people behind the accounts are really who they say they are - responded to Angela just a few weeks later and began to investigate her Instagram lover.
And it didn't take long before they discovered Gary Natsu is actually the name of a character from Pokemon, and the real man behind the Instagram account was a 33-year-old named Justin.
In October 2022 they filmed Angela's story, breaking down her concerns, giving her advice on online dating and finally letting her come face to face with 'Gary'. She said they filmed four days of footage which was edited together for the 40-minute show.
She added: "I found out he was only 33 - and had been through a divorce - something he hadn't told me. He looks at me and thinks I'm a beautiful actress. But I have low self-esteem too.
"He held back his hobbies. He was a keyboard warrior. He seemed outgoing but really he was shy."
Angela, an actress from New Jersey, US, even recalled feeling "bad" for Justin when they met because of how nervous he was, as she said the man didn't lie about his appearance, but wasn't genuine about his personality.
"I didn't get catfished on appearance, I got catfished on personality," she explained, "He was shaking with fear when he met me. I thought he was attractive and cute. We hugged. I felt bad for him. It was brave of him to show up.
"I'm happy I did the show. It's made me comfortable about speaking to people online."
And now, the mum-of-three wants to use the tools she learnt during her time on MTV's Catfish to "help other people" navigate the world of online dating safely.
She said: "I want to help other people. There are plenty of divorced people who are starting a second life. They are not familiar with the different apps and ways people can contact you - it's overwhelming. There are lots of dishonest people out there. It's very scary.
"But [Catfish] showed me to be more direct. They gave me different ways to look people up - just like Googling someone's name. If I'd put Gary's name in, I would have seen it was a character. I was afraid to do that at the time. I didn't want to find out it was fake."
Angela is currently still single, but hopes to "settle down" in the future and find her "happy ending".
"The show is very real. Half of the stuff we talk about they edit out to make the TV programme - but it's all factual," she detailed, "[Thanks to] the show I have all the tools I need. I want to fall in love and want a happy ending."
Speaking on MTV Catfish when he met Angela, Justin said: "Going through ending a previous relationship has put me in a certain spot where I'm just figuring my next step in life. I try not to expect too much out of people to avoid being hurt so I'm in a middle ground where I find someone to talk to, we talk and it just becomes something where I'm just not looking for anything.
"I've always been like this - even with my close friends I don't always go through with decisions. Not that lied about anything. That is genuinely me but right now I just don't know what I think. I don't have any concrete idea of where I am going.
"I value our chatting and our friendship."
Justin declined to comment.
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