A 22-year-old woman from Airdrie, Scotland, has admitted she faked a full pregnancy and birth, wearing a prosthetic bump, posting fake scan pictures and even presenting a lifelike “reborn” doll as her newborn.

For months, Kira Cousins appeared to be expecting a baby girl named Bonnie-Leigh, sharing ultrasound posts, announcing a gender reveal, showing decorations and accepting gifts from friends and family. The lie went uncovered until her mum and “Bonnie-Leigh’s” father reportedly walked into her room and discovered the baby was actually a realistic reborn doll, estimated by reports to cost around £200.

Kira addressed the saga in a TikTok video, saying:

“In my own words, let’s set this straight. I was in bed when my mother came into my room and found it to be a doll.”

She added,

“Before this, I had been keeping myself away from literally everyone.”

Her cousin, Neave McRobert, who played a part in exposing the story, said:

“Everybody believed Kira. She had a gender reveal, she posted scan photos, and even said the baby had a hole in its heart. Then she texted me saying the baby was born. We were all so happy.”

Kira reportedly hosted a gender reveal party with pink smoke and cake, shared photos of a bump and scans, then later announced her baby was born weighing five pounds and four ounces on 10 October.

Friends and family bought gifts, clothes and even a pram said to have cost a lot of money, believing the arrival of new life. But the lie began to fall apart when no one was allowed to hold Bonnie-Leigh and the doll never cried or moved.

Neave said:

“She didn’t let anyone touch the baby, not even me, when she was in my house, but we thought she’s just being an over-protective mum.”

Kira admitted in her statement that no one in either her family or her partner’s family knew the baby was fake. She wrote on her Instagram:

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She also revealed a painful back-story.

“Yes I lied, but when I lost a baby with miscarriage, I didn’t know what to do. My head wasn’t thinking straight. I did this because I was hurting and wanted to be a mum so badly.”

The aftermath has been emotional. Neave posted that she felt;

"Totally used, drained, mentally I’m messed up, I feel I can’t trust anyone or believe anyone. Everyone got conned by her” after realising how deep the lie went.

For the family of Jamie, the man named as the baby’s father, it hit hard too. Jamie’s mother was reportedly the first to notice the baby did not move or cry, which raised suspicions that finally exposed the truth.

The story has raised two big issues. First, how far someone can go online to make people believe a lie, and second, the mental-health warning signs behind pretending to be someone you are not. News outlets in the UK have said the story has drawn national attention and sparked conversations about mental health and online deception.

Now Kira says she is trying to get help and take accountability. She wrote:

“I know this is going to stick with me for a long time and that I’ve probably lost friends I’ll never get back. I’m trying to figure myself out and get help because this version of me isn’t someone I want to be.”

And the internet is completely hooked. Some are calling this story something straight out of a Netflix documentary. The level of detail, from the prosthetic bump to fake scans, a gender reveal, gifts and a doll for a baby, made it all seem real until it wasn’t.

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Whether it was a cry for help, a moment of confusion or something much deeper, one thing is certain. The trust around Kira has been broken, her family has been dragged into the drama and the online world is still trying to figure out how it all happened.