Reesa Teesa, a TikTok user from the United States, went viral with her video series titled ‘Who TF Did I Marry?’ through which she shares the story of the events that led to her divorce from her former husband: “This is the true story of how I met, dated, married, and divorced a real pathological liar.”
Reesa Teesa, a TikTok user from the United States, went viral with her video series titled ‘Who TF Did I Marry?’ The series consists of 52 episodes and has reached 122 million views. Through these videos, Teesa shares the story of the events that led to her divorce from her former husband, whom she refers to as ‘Legion.’
In her promotional video for Valentine’s Day, Teesa says, “This is the true story of how I met, dated, married, and divorced a real pathological liar.” She further explains, “I’ll be honest, even if it doesn’t make me look good. I’ll be honest, but I won’t disrespect anyone involved in this story.”
Teesa’s story begins in March 2020, at the onset of pandemic, when she met ‘Legion’ through ‘Facebook Dating.’ At the start of their relationship, they decided to quarantine together. ‘Legion’ closed his house and moved in with Teesa.
Teesa mentions that as the pandemic continued, their relationship became more intense and serious. In January 2021, she married ‘Legion’ and recalls how her life became chaotic due to his continuous ‘chronic’ lies.
As Teesa began investigating, she discovered that ‘Legion’ was not truthful about his social security number, his family, or his job. She found out that despite his claims of being a bank assistant manager, he had never lived in California and had previously worked as a forklift driver. Additionally, his family had stopped communicating with him due to his tendency to lie.
Why did the videos get so much attention?
Teesa, who concluded her 50-episode series “Who TF Did I Marry?” on February 17th, published each episode in four days, each lasting 10 minutes.
Continuing to receive praise for her courage, honesty, and storytelling, Teesa is now a TikTok millionaire. But what’s the reason behind her story attracting so much attention?
According to Kapsül writer Gülşah Görücü, Teesa represents a new era in storytelling:
“Today, choosing to be ‘vulnerable in the online world’ and combining her own story with us in such an ingenious storytelling manner is quite brave and encouraging. Doing this with the professionalism of recording an audiobook is inspiring. Perhaps we are entering a new era in storytelling with Reesa Teesa … Maybe we will even see it as a TV series somewhere soon.”
Kristen Leer from the University of Michigan explains why Reesa Teesa’s hours-long story is so popular:
“People like drama, they like plot twists, they like stories about love and relationships and interesting storytelling—all of which Reesa Teesa’s story has.
So, when you ask, ‘How people can watch hours of TikTok on this?’ I think it’s because of the accessibility and genuine interest in this story. When we think about binge watching, for instance — which has often been talked about in regard to TV— we see it historically as mindless, maladaptive, and/or problematic. But I would argue, and as other scholars have vocalized, that people are choosing particular things to binge watch. And there is something, a draw in the narrative that keeps ’em going, that wants ’em to click to the next episode, or in this case find the next part into Reesa Teesa’s story.”
Sources: Kapsül, NowThis