Reddit Stories - Former PARTNER'S recent love interest covertly ORGANIZED a FRAUDULENT family portrait session with

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #relationships #fraud #familyportrait #deception #betrayalSummary: Former partner's recent love interest covertly organized a fraudulent family portrait session with them, causing confusion and betrayal in the family dynamic.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, relationships, fraud, familyportrait, deception, betrayal, loveinterest, covert, organized, recent, formerpartner, familydynamic, confusion, portrait, session, fraudulentBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Former partner's recent love interest covertly organized a fraudulent family portrait session with my daughter, then informed the photographer that she was her offspring and shared it on the internet. Apologies for the extended explanation. My ex-boyfriend is James. James and I dated for three years between spring 2014 and the end of winter 2017. Since my daughter is obviously older than three, it's clear that she is not biologically

James. Her father was not someone who wanted to be involved with her, and signed away all rights when she was born, so he is not involved in the picture. James and I were originally friends, which grew into a relationship when my daughter was around the age of one. As my daughter grew a little bit older, she saw James as a de facto parent, a role that he happily stepped up to. She knows that he isn't daddy, but had the strongest bond with him of anyone outside of the biological family. Our relationship finished owing to a difference in personal timelines. James wanted to buy a house together, we had lived together in the last year, but we each still had our own places, and moved to another city for work, while I was happy where I was located.

It became a self-imposed ultimatum, and while James didn't actually move, it was clear that our relationship was over. We stayed friends, and he changed from de facto dad to fun Uncle James to my daughter. We have both made sure that she was stable about the situation, something that she clearly seems to be. As I do with other friends, my daughter, and I will occasionally visit James, who sometimes has my daughter without me there for a couple of hours at a time if I have to run errands or something similar. I have no reason at all to worry about James with my daughter, who is always all smiles and five more minutes. When I get back. About six months ago James started dating Tracy. She is someone that he works with who I actually first met while we were dating.

Their relationship itself isn't the issue, however there have been instances that have caused concern in the past few months. The first was when James invited my and my daughter around for a play date with James' nephew, who he was babysitting. Tracy was there too, which I expected, however when we arrived and James greeted my daughter with a hug she commented on how she looked like her daddy, meaning James. Both James and I said that my daughter wasn't James child, which is something James later said had come up in conversation between them before.

She only remarked that she meant they had a strong father-daughter bond, which I thought odd, but ignored. There have been a couple of other times when I have seen Tracy either out and about or at planned events when she has said that my daughter really likes spending time with James, which I obviously know, though I just took it as awkward ex's chat. The reason I am posting is about what happened a couple of days ago. Again, James was babysitting his nephew, and had invited myself and my daughter to the park for an afternoon. We get there and everything is fine until my phone rings and I'm told that there's

an emergency in the office that I have to sort out because X, Y, and Z aren't picking up their phone. I mentioned this, and James and Tracy offered to look after my daughter and stay in the park while I rush over to the office, only a five-minute drive, to sort out the problem. I'm gone for about half an hour overall, the issue wasn't really an issue, as it never is, and when I get back everyone is where I left them and all happy. We start getting ready to go home when Tracy mentions to me that someone that she knew, an amateur photographer, happened to be in the park taking pictures of the landscape and had taken a couple of shots of the group, my daughter included, and that she'd send them over because they were apparently really sweet. I was a bit perturbed by

someone apparently just coming over and photographing my child, but thought glass half full and decided it was only a nice gesture. A couple of hours later Tracy sends me over the solo pictures of my daughter. She says that she didn't give her friend permission to use any of the solo pictures of my daughter on her professional page, but the ones of the scenery and of James' nephew were on there, and if I wanted to give consent, then my daughters could be on there too. They were actually very cute, and I looked on the photographer's page to see the rest from the day. There were some sweet candids of the nephew, and some nice couple shots of James and Tracy, but the last picture on there was a family-style portrait of everyone, my daughter included.

The caption said something like the James surname, Tracy's surname S know how to have fun. I immediately messaged the page asking for the picture to be taken down as it had my daughter in it without my permission. They replied apologizing for the issue, saying that Tracy had said that the little girl was James and he gave his consent. I then messaged James asking him to not give consent for anything involving my daughter, and to remind Tracy yet again that he is not my daughter's father. He replied saying he never gave his consent for any group pictures to be on there, and he resented the accusation. I messaged Tracy later on making it clear that I didn't want my daughter to be used in any kind of situation where the facts

weren't clear, and no, James was not her father. I didn't get a reply. I don't know where to go from here. I don't want to be that ex-girlfriend who tries to get her ex to sneak around behind his girlfriend's back for him to see my daughter, but at the same time he's done nothing to stop Tracy from acting out this charade of my daughter being James and therefore hers. If I just cut them both out, then my daughter will be confused, though I know she'll bounce back. I know that James will be hurt too, but I need to put mine and my daughter's feelings before that. It's just getting to me that we were able to be fine and stable through our whole breakup, yet a completely unavoidable situation is what will finish this off. Should I just move on without James and Tracy and my and my daughter's

lives? Am I simply overreacting and becoming that X regardless? Update. So I got a lot more interest in my posts than I expected. While some were either end of the spectrum, the majority seemed to suggest that James was too involved in my daughter's life. I had a long think about why I had pursued this route, to clarify to some, I did not force James into this position. He was happy to maintain a relationship with my daughter given that he had been in her life for several years. The comments concerning where my daughter would be as and when James settled down and got married and had kids of his own also made me think. This situation was definitely one of convenience, especially given the fact that our relationship ended since James wanted to move away and I did not.

I definitely had no plans to challenge any of James' life choices, nor did I ever expect him to prioritize myself and my daughter over anything else. Something I seemed not to convey clearly in my original post was that James really is just a friend and has been for the past year to me, and so because of that I don't use him for anything that a parent would do. On the he's not a babysitter or daycare posts especially, he sees her maybe once every six weeks, and since our relationship and did he's been alone with her three times at the most, so this is not me using our former relationship as a tool for free child care. He asks to see my daughter, I don't make him make time for her.

As a final clarifying point, this has never been a I want him so you can't have him situation, our time together will always be cherished, but I do not want to pursue a romantic relationship with James again, and he doesn't with me. On to the update. After reading the comments to my post and thinking over the issues, I decided to send both James and Tracy messages apologizing for my reaction and my heat of the

moment accusations the day after I made the post. James responded saying that it was water under the bridge and he would have been annoyed too in the situation. Tracy's response was different. All she sent was a message saying I know he is, daughter's father. I assured her that James was not my child's dad and even went as far as to apologize if I had seemed off with her or if my current relationship with James was an issue. She asked if we could meet up and talk, which I agreed we met for coffee, and she said that she had been off with me, but not because of my relationship with James. She said that last year she had found out that she was infertile, and while James knew and was supportive, seeing him with my little girl who she knew he helped

raise for several years got to her, which resulted in comments about him as daddy. She then said that the whole photographer situation was set up. She had asked her friend who lived near to the park to come and take some pictures of her, James and the children as soon as it was clear that I was going to have to leave. She told James the same thing she told me about the friend happening to be in the park and wanting some portfolio shots, but told the friend out of James earshot that I was totally fine with the pictures happening, and that James was my daughter's father so she has an on-site parent regardless. She was the one who suggested the family portrait shot. She told the friend to stick that one online but that the individual ones of my daughter

needed to go through me first. She didn't think that I would be interested in looking at the other photos, and thought I wouldn't see it. She said that having a picture of her, her partner, a little boy and a little girl was enough to keep her going since her medical news was hitting her heart. Tracy ended by saying that since James is the only father that my daughter has ever known, she is therefore the closest thing that she will ever have to a child with him. I didn't quite know how to respond. After reading many comments on my post saying that I would was a jealous harpy and that Tracy was an innocent bystander, or even calmer versions of that mindset, I was surprised that my actual suspicions were actually correct somewhat. This was not

the reasoning I ever thought was behind this, though. I thanked her for her honesty and asked if she was talking to anyone else about this. She said she wasn't, but she knew she should be. She also said that James knew nothing of the extent to which she was feeling, other than sometimes she was a little blue. We spent a while searching online for local mental health specialists, and left it with her promising to make an appointment and to talk to James. After getting home, I contacted James to say that I believe that there needed to be some distance established between him and my daughter to benefit everyone involved in the situation. He said he agreed, and that he would always be there for my daughter if she needed him. I asked my daughter that

evening, more out of curiosity, as to how she views James, and all she said was James' nephew's uncle, so I'm taking that to mean that she is by no means dependent on him at the very least. I don't know if this is the end of this, and I'm sure I will get some criticism for not cutting out James altogether, or for even limiting the existing contact, but I believe this will benefit everyone, including Tracy, in the long run. Thank you again for everyone's advice. Next story, sister lied to her husband about having a twin brother who died at birth, and when he brought it up at my son's celebration dinner, I told him it wasn't true. Usually a lurker, but something happened tonight that has me incredibly confused.

Apologies in advance for the length. Backstory, I'm the eldest of four sisters. We're stair-stepped, two years apart. I'm Meg, 38, Joe is 36, Beth is 34, and Amy is Our parents used to joke about how they kept trying for a boy but finally gave up after girl number four. Not gonna lie, it hurt our feelings a little, especially Amy, but they stopped that and assured us they wouldn't change anything.

Every one of us has at least one daughter. I am the only sister that has a son. At 17, he's the eldest grandchild and I'm fairly certain he's my dad's favorite person in the world. They are best friends. It's adorable. Okay, now that you have the backstory slash fam history, let's talk about tonight. My son, who is very intelligent and absolutely crushed high school,

recently received his acceptance letter to a pretty prestigious university. Full ride. We are incredibly proud. My folks wanted to throw him a little congratulatory party, and tonight worked for all of our schedules, which is no small feat, for different families with 11 kids between them. So we all headed to the folks' house for pizza and cake. At one point, Amy brought up that it is Sibling Appreciation Day, and Mom said she wanted all of her girls to say what we appreciate about our sisters, and we go youngest to eldest,

with most of the compliments going to me, as I was kind of a second mom to them. I told each of my sisters how much I love them, among other things, and then finished my speech off saying something like and I really appreciate that we didn't have any gross boys stinking up our house. All of us but Beth and her husband laugh. Beth's eyes got really big in her husband, Chase, looked at me like I was something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe. Suddenly, he says that's pretty effed up, I said something like I'd chase, I've smelled you after your workouts, it's pretty bad. And he got even more mad and said, how could you talk about Tyler like that? And Beth starts losing her mind. Guys, she's grabbing him by the arm,

and begging him to hush, saying they need to go home now, etc. So naturally I'm like, um, who is Tyler? Well, friends. Apparently Tyler is Beth's twin that died during childbirth. And it made our folks and me so depressed that nobody is allowed to speak of him or reference him. Ever. Beth forbade him from ever mentioning to any family member. After Chase told us this, nobody said a word. It was so damn tense. Finally, I just kind of bluntly said, Hi, I'm no, I'm not sure why, but Beth lied to you about this. I think you guys should talk about it, but I don't want to hear anything else about this tonight, as we're here to celebrate, my son. After that, Beth burst into tears and ran into her old bedroom, with Chase,

mom, and Joe following her. The party never fully recovered and they took off pretty shortly after that. I stayed behind to help clean, and so my dad and son could hang some more. While I'm doing the dishes, my mom scolded me pretty harshly about calling Beth a liar. If the baby's shoe fits, mother. My dad said I wasn't wrong, but I embarrassed Beth. What the hell was I supposed to do? I was getting chastised over a lie. Absolutely not.

Beth also texted me that I effed her over, and a text from Chase's phone told me I was the actual liar sister and everyone knows that. Amy is on my side, but she and Beth always butted heads. Joe claims she's neutral, but she also told me I didn't have to call her out like that. What the hell else was I supposed to do? Just take the lashing. And why is everyone acting like me calling out? What I consider to be a pretty heavy lie is worse than the lie itself. How do we resolve this situation? I love my sister's so damn much. They are my best friends, but this is so weird and so wrong to put on me. Comments where OP has replied, commenter one, I can't imagine any other response.

I really can't. Were you seriously expected to lie along with her? I think that is shocking. Oop, I have no idea what she was expecting. I have lied for her before. But saying she's at my house while she's really getting boudoir photos done for him is not the same as lying about a whole person who never existed? It's beyond bizarre.

Commenter too, I'm kind of impressed that after all of that she managed to convince her husband that you were the liar. Of course, if he still believes her he's dumb as a brick. I'd think there is proof enough on her birth certificate as it will state she was a single birth. Oop, I will say, Chase is not a dummy, and he's typically not malicious. And although nobody really backed me up about this being a lie, at least not in front of me, I think it's pretty obvious that I was telling the truth, as everyone

else was obviously confused and dead silent in the moment. I have not responded to the texts, as I'm not looking to burn bridges. I've made many mistakes, and my sisters have graciously forgiven me. I'm just, flummoxed, and a little hurt. Update, April 12, 2025. Okay, I think we have some answers, the events that occurred last night. I do want to tell everyone who took time to give advice or kind words, thank you. I honestly couldn't read everything, I was, and am, exhausted. But I did get an idea of how I wanted to approach everything, thanks to the advice given. I'll get to the update in a few.

I just wanted to answer some FAQs slash comments real quick. One, this is fake. I wish it was. I really wish my mind worked in a way where I could make things up like this. Alas, my imagination is lacking. 2. Your parents named you after little women? This is probably partially to blame for the fake comments. These are just placeholder names I used, as there are four sisters in that novel.

My parents are hippies, and gave us some pretty noticeable names. If I used our real ones, on the off chance any of our friends read this, they'd know immediately this was our family. 3. Beth is continuing to lie and Chase is believing it and your mom and Joe threw you under the bus too. Rie, Chase, I think he knew I was being truthful. Also, I said the text came from his phone. I was actually thinking Beth sent it, as that's not Chase's vibe. About mom and Joe, they didn't throw me under the bus.

But I'll go into more detail soon. 4. Is it possible my mom had twins and I just forgot or didn't know about the death? Absolutely not. I was at all of my sister's births. I don't remember Joes, but I do remember Beth and Amy's, and there were no multiples, no deaths, no funerals, no depression. Five, the birth certificate will prove it. It sure would, yes. But I'm not about to try to strong arm my sister into showing her husband her birth certificate. Six, your sister is mentally ill, also the golden child, and you're the same. I'm not about to say my sister is sick, but I do think she has some issues, as we all do.

There's no golden child and scapegoat in this family. My parents were and are really good about treating all of us fairly and equally. Seven, you could have slash should have been more tactful slash pulled her aside slash not called her a liar. Had I known that Tyler was my dead brother, I never would have asked who he was. Chase and I tease each other a lot, and I honestly thought he was about to come out with some kind of funny joke, all of these nuts. Rie, my lack of tact. E.I.K. I think it's pretty lacking in tact to make up a whole dead sibling. And really, facts are facts. She lied, and that's that. The night was about my son,

so I squashed the issue and chose to move forward, hoping to end the conversation with as little drama as possible. Okay, so now up to the update. After a night of barely sleeping, and my blood pressure dangerously high, I called my mom this morning fully ready to let out an emotionally charged tirade about how I feel they unfairly threw me under the bus and took Beth's side when she objectively did the worst thing my mom answered the phone apologizing and asked me to just listen. When she and Joe followed Beth and Chase to Beth's room,

mom did tell Chase that Tyler was not real, and this is an issue between her and Chase, and they should probably leave, because she didn't want the evening ruined. She did get on to me, but it was mostly out of sympathy and empathy for Beth, and she recognized it wasn't okay. She apologized for that. She spoke with Chase this morning, and Beth, who is the one who sent me the text from Chase's phone, finally came clean early this morning, after hours of denying the lie. Something I didn't mention,

as I didn't feel it was pertinent to the story, is Beth's eldest daughter, Madison, isn't Chase's biological daughter? He's been around since Madison was two. Also kind of pertinent, that Chase is a first responder. He loves to be a hero. And he's very good in that role. He met Beth doing victims' advocacy. And as such, I believe they both view him as saving Beth. This has a long been speculated, but it's not exactly our place to say anything. And we all love Chase. He is an amazing person. And Beth is no dummy. She picked up on Chase's hero complex immediately. It appears that, in an effort to make herself look more sympathetic, vulnerable, broken, she lied about having a twin brother that died in childbirth.

I guess being in an abusive relationship and having a small child just wasn't enough? She did not have to do that. They've been together ten years now, and not once did she come clean. To me that proves a clear pattern of deceit and manipulation. However, I'm not going to speculate on her mental health problems or reasonings for not coming clean. That is for her and her husband to deal with. Neither one of them have called or texted me to apologize, and I'm honestly unsure if they will. Beth is more of the rug-sweeping type, while I'm a confront issue's head-on type.

I will not be cutting my sister off for this, though. I love her, and at the end of the day I just want her to be happy and healthy. I do hope that this whole issue will cause her to rethink some of her life choices and maybe she can get some therapy. I think we could all use therapy, TBH. That's where we are right now. My mom did not offer any information about how Beth and Chase are doing, and I did not ask. It's not my business. I have not heard from Joe, but Amy and I have been texting all morning and she is being my best good friend right now and providing a lot of support.

Hopefully we can all move forward and grow together in the future. Thanks again for the support you all have sent my way. Thank you.