Woman fakes pregnancy for 9 months, 'gives birth' to daughter. Family discovers it was a plastic doll

The incident has since generated widespread reaction online, with many expressing shock at the scale of the deception.

A 22-year-old woman from Airdrie, Scotland, has admitted to faking an entire pregnancy and creating the illusion of motherhood using a realistic reborn doll, after months of deceiving her friends, family, and partner.

Kira Cousins had for nearly nine months documented her supposed pregnancy on social media, posting scan images, videos of her “baby bump,” and clips she claimed showed her unborn child kicking. She also hosted a pink-themed gender reveal party for her “daughter,” named Bonnie-Leigh Joyce, according to a report in the Mirror.

According to those close to her, Cousins even accepted gifts, including a £1,000 pram, and told followers that she had given birth alone to a baby weighing approximately 2 kilograms, who she said was born with a heart condition.

However, suspicions arose when relatives and friends noticed that the “baby” never cried and that Cousins refused to let anyone hold her, claiming instead that Bonnie-Leigh had recently undergone hospital checks.

Cousins addressed the matter publicly in a now-deleted Instagram story, writing: “I wasn’t pregnant. There was no baby. I made it up and kept it going way too far. I faked scans, messages, a whole birth story, and acted like a doll was a real baby. I know how bad it is, I f**d up. I just didn’t know how to stop once I started," the Mirror reported.

She continued, “I don’t have a proper excuse. I wasn’t in a good headspace, but that doesn’t make what I did okay. I know this is gonna 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.”

The 22-year-old said she recognised that her actions had caused pain and broken trust among those closest to her. “I know I’ve ruined a lot of trust and that ‘sorry’ won’t fix everything, but it’s all I can say right now. I’m so sorry. You were there for me through it all. You cried happy tears, picked me up, brought me places, believed everything I said. You didn’t deserve to be lied to like that. None of you did.”

Cousins apologised to everyone who had been involved in her fabricated story, adding: “Everyone who came to the gender reveal, all the people who gave me gifts or support — I f**d up and I hurt a lot of people. And to everyone I made look bad along the way — the dad and his family especially — I’m sorry. I made you out to be horrible people when really, I was the one in the wrong. Completely.”

She went on to explain that the doll appeared so lifelike that many people were misled. “In everyone else’s defence, the doll could move. You could change the facial features, arms and legs. You could feed the doll making it ‘pee or poo’. So when no one is close to the doll, it does look real. No one was looking at my ‘baby’ expecting it to be a doll.”

Before her confession, Cousins had claimed to have given birth to her “daughter” on October 10, sharing pictures of newborn clothes, nursery items, and hospital updates online. She had also stated that doctors had detected a heart defect during her pregnancy.

It later emerged that the deception came to light when her mother discovered the doll at home and the man she claimed was the baby’s father learned the truth. Screenshots circulating online appeared to show messages allegedly sent by Cousins to the man, in which she falsely claimed the baby had died.

Friend and former supporter, Neave McRobert, described how she came to realise the truth. In a video statement, McRobert said: “I noticed Kira had deleted every picture and video of Bonnie-Leigh from our chats. I asked her why, and she ignored me. I then asked the baby’s dad, ‘Is this a doll?’ and he said, ‘Yes, it’s a doll.’ She even went to the extreme of texting him saying, ‘Bonnie-Leigh died.’”

McRobert said she and others had believed every part of the story. “Everybody believed her. 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.”

She added that she had even accompanied Cousins and the doll on outings, believing it to be a real child. “I feel worse because I’m one of the few people to meet this ‘baby’. I feel totally used and drained. Everyone got conned by her.”

Reborn dolls, similar to the one Cousins used, are highly realistic replicas of newborn infants. They can range in price from £30 to £2,000, with some designed to mimic real baby movements, including crying or producing wet nappies.

A friend of Cousins’s family, who did not wish to be named, said she was not surprised by the revelation. “I have known her for 10 years and she has lied about all sorts. She came into my house twice before this doll appeared, and me and my daughter noticed straight away that her bump wasn’t real. It was all lumpy. She was wearing very thin pyjamas, and you could see the straps on her back holding it on.”

The friend added, “When she posted the picture of her supposed baby, it looked like a doll. But I would have been slaughtered if I had spoken out about all this and said I didn’t think any of it was real. People would have thought I was crazy.”

According to Yahoo News, Cousins declined to comment when first contacted by The Record but later posted an apology acknowledging her actions and confirming the pregnancy was fabricated. She said she planned to address her followers further during an Instagram live session.

The incident has since generated widespread reaction online, with many expressing shock at the scale of the deception and others urging compassion as Cousins sought mental health support following the exposure of the hoax.