Something Was Wrong - S21 E15: (3/4) [Annie + Lauren + Rachael] I Know About The Deepfakes

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

*Content Warning: alcohol use disorder, interpersonal violence, child sex-abuse material, deepfakes, ai-perpetuated abuse, sexual assault, verbal abuse, violence, suicidal ideation, mature themes, sibling sexual abuse, incest, rape. For a list of related free and confidential resources, please visit: http://www.somethingwaswrong.com/resources Follow Something Was Wrong:Website: somethingwaswrong.com IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcastTikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast Follow Tiffany Reese:Website: tiffanyreese.me IG: instagram.com/lookieboo [e-mail] The SWW theme Song is U Think U, by Glad Rags. The S21 cover art is by the Amazing Sara Stewart.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The podcast and any linked materials should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. Thank you so much for listening. You don't know me. You don't know me. You don't know anybody until you talk to someone. Would this have been your guys' first wedding together? Yes, this was the first time I was meeting all his friends from Michigan. Was he like really excited for you to meet them?

No, I don't think so. This was something he did all the time, but it was like I picked out my outfit, I grabbed a little black dress, and he said, you're wearing black to a wedding. I said, it's a little black dress. That's what you're wearing black to a wedding. I said, it's a little black dress. That's what everybody does. You can't wear that to this wedding. You're going to embarrass me. Okay, well, what do you want me to wear? You have to wear derby attire. I said, I don't have derby attire. Oh, because it was like a themed wedding, essentially?

It wasn't. No, that's just what he said. He just wanted to make me feel self-conscious and bad about myself in these little ways. In hindsight, what do you think he was trying to achieve through that? I think a lot of it had to do with his own insecurities. A big part of that too is that he did not want me feeling comfortable around his friends in Michigan, and he didn't want me talking to them. That was something I definitely noticed. His friends were coming up to us at the wedding. He was introducing me and they all seemed surprised that he brought a date that he had somebody he was referring to as his girlfriend.

They asked how long we had been together when I think at the time it was two and a half years and they looked at me kind of strange when they asked him where he was living, which I thought was odd because these were his best friends. Why wouldn't they know where you're living? He said, well, I have a place in Chicago. I'm keeping my bachelor pad, but we're in the suburbs. He had to tell everybody that. And I got frustrated with him. During the wedding, I was like, why do you have to mention to everyone that you have a bachelor pad? That's really embarrassing to me because we've been together two and a half years and you won't give up this apartment.

That was something we were always arguing about. So for him to bring that up over and over and over again at the wedding was very frustrating to me. He wanted to look cool, which is a big thing for Josh. He was very worried about how he appeared to other people. They probably all assumed that he was also helping me and he wasn't. He got very drunk at the wedding. They were playing flip cup. They were like, Oh, come play. And at first I was like, no, no, you guys go ahead. And they're like, no, no, we made a spot for

you. Come play. So I go over and I'm playing with them. We play the first round and it's a huge table. Like there had to be 30 people or more on one side playing flip cup. So it's a long game, a long round. And after the first round, I had to go to the bathroom and Josh was across the table and a few people down. So I couldn't talk to him very easily. I headed towards the bathroom and you had to go down the hill because this wedding was outside. I got to the bathroom and I picked up my phone and you had to go down the hill because this wedding was outside. I got to the bathroom and I picked up my phone and I had a missed call from Josh. So I call him back and I said, what's up? I'm just in the bathroom. He's like, I was

screaming your name. It's very loud here. They had music playing. There was a ton of people there. It was outside. I said, I didn't hear you. He's like, you're lying. I said, no, I'm not lying. I'm in the bathroom. I'll be right back. So I come back and they've already started the second round of flip cup. So I grab a drink and I'm standing at like a cocktail table and there's other people doing the same thing. I'm watching them play and he sees me. And after that round, he like motions to me that he wants to have a cigarette and I need to walk with him. I walk up to him, we walk over and he goes, what are you doing? I said, nothing,

watching you play. He's like, you're being so weird. I said, how am I being weird? He's like, you're not talking to anybody, which wasn't true. I had been talking to people all night. I had multiple conversations with people, talked about kids and work and all kinds of stuff. I said, Josh, I am. He's like, no, you're being weird. It's weird that you wouldn't come over and cheer me on while I'm playing flip cup. And I said, Josh, I'm not doing anything wrong. And he's like, you know what, I'm putting you in Uber and you're going home. And at this point, I like stomped my foot and I said, no, I'm not going home. And home would be his parents' house by myself.

So I leave for a wedding with him, and then I come back home without him to his parents' house. Like, no, I'm not doing that, Josh. After I stomped my foot, he said, you're getting violent. And he grabbed me by the arm, and he dragged me down this hill. Well, I'm saying, Josh, stop, stop, stop. And he's very drunk. We get to the bottom of the hill where like people

are getting picked up by Ubers and he's on his phone. I said, Josh, let's just go back. Let's cool off, go back. Nobody will know. It's all fine. No, I'm done with you here. You're not staying here. I said, I'm not going back to your parents' house.

That's not happening. And I start walking to get distance from him. And he's chasing after me. He's like, you're walking in the street, which wasn't true. I keep going and a car pulls up and they're like, Joshua. And I said, no, he doesn't need an Uber. And the guy drove away and he got so mad at me. He started screaming that I was ruining the wedding. I was ruining his time. He was effing done with me. He said, now we're going to walk home. We're walking home.

I'm done with you. You've ruined the wedding. You've ruined it for everybody. I don't get to see his friend's son at this wedding now because of you. I kept thinking, can nobody hear this? But there was nobody. Everybody was back at the wedding,

and it was very loud. And it was the middle of the night. It was like in a Michigan suburb. There was nobody out. He screamed at me the whole way back to his parents' house. It was like in a Michigan suburb. There was nobody out. He screamed at me the whole way back to his parents' house. He was, I'm done with you. I'm going to leave you here in Michigan. You're going to have to find your own way home. I cried the whole walk home. It was like over a mile. I'm crying because I've also been drinking. I'm exhausted. I now think I'm being left in Michigan. I don't know how I'm gonna get

home. We have to go back to his parents' house. So I have to look them in the eye. And when we walked in the door, his mom was up. And all of a sudden, his face changes and he starts having a normal conversation with his mom. He's like, oh, we just decided to walk home. It was nice outside. So we just wanted to get some air. She's like, okay, well, that sounds nice. I'm gonna go to bed now that I know you're home safe. So we just wanted to get some air." She's like, okay, well, that sounds nice. I'm going to go to bed now that I know you're home safe. So she goes up to bed and then his face changes again and he's back to being mad at me. We go upstairs and I'm crying again because I wasn't trying to cry in front of his mom. And I'm like, Josh, please don't do this. Please. He's like, no, I've had enough of you.

I don't want to see you ever again. I'm going back to my apartment. You're never gonna see me again." And then he falls asleep. I'm up all night texting my mom, like, I'm like, mom, he got really drunk. He says he's gonna leave me here. I don't know what to do. She's like, does he normally get this angry when he's drunk? I said, he's never really this drunk.

This is the first time I've seen him this drunk. She's like, maybe in the morning he'll snap out of it. Some people don't handle their alcohol really well. In the morning he was still mad. I just kept apologizing. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be weird. I didn't mean to do this to you. He said, it's fine. We'll go to brunch. They were all texting me asking why you were causing a scene, which I don't think we did cause a scene. Nobody seemed to notice. And if they did hear, why wasn't anybody intervening at that time? Because it was just him screaming at me. I don't think he ever acted this way in front of other people. I think he felt comfortable doing

it at the wedding because, A, he was drunk and it was so loud that I don't think anybody noticed. I don't think his friends did text him. But he made me apologize to everybody at the brunch for leaving so early because I drank too much. And they're like, Oh, it's fine. I don't think anybody noticed we were gone. Probably a couple people. It was almost midnight. It wasn't weird to go home. I think he wanted to make me feel like they noticed and that they thought I was weird. And it was weird that we left early. He wanted to point that out. We came home the next day. We never took long trips. He wouldn't take off work. We would go for a weekend thing and that was it. The ride home, I remember

crying and he's like, we don't have to talk about it. It's fine. I forgive you. It's fine. I said I forgive you. And I remember thinking like, I don't know. I forgive you. It's fine. I said I forgive you." And I remember thinking, I don't know if I forgive you. I felt horrible. And even if I had done something wrong, the things he said and the way he screamed at me was not justified. And I knew that. That point in our relationship is when I saw this anger in him that was different, and I started walking on eggshells even more than I already had been. Here's Rachel. My cousin Al went to a wedding, and a lot of these guys have been friends for a very long time. I was there with her husband and she texted me and said, you'll never believe it, but

Josh is here and he brought the witch. Josh had told us that she was a literal witch. We talked about it the next time I saw her and she told me she was so much fun to hang out with. I talked to her for quite a while and Josh had been very mean to her a few times during the wedding. Al even said at a certain point that she felt really bad for Annie because Annie seemed really nervous and overwhelmed with everything that was going on,

which I totally get it. If you show up to a friend's wedding, it's like your boyfriend of two years, his high school friend's wedding, and no one even knows who you are, that's going to feel extremely awkward and confusing. I completely trusted Al's perspective on it and was kind of like, I'll see what she's actually like

if I end up meeting her again at some point. Josh was still completely gone, not talking to me. I was somewhat angry too, because you ghost me, you never respond to my offer to hang out with me and my mom. When I'm trying to be a good friend and be there for you, when you're saying you've been extremely depressed. And then he just fell off of the face of the earth for another six months. And then this girlfriend who he told me was a like one month fling is back in the picture and

then I started to wonder did she ever leave or did he reconnect with her I wasn't sure I didn't reach out to him I figured that I will see him eventually and I will confront him about it but I don't have the time and energy to pour more into this. I just thought he ended up being one of those people who gets into a serious relationship and goes into a black hole and you never really see or hear from them again. I think it has to do with like self-worth, self-esteem. They feel like they really need that person in their life to feel worthy and whole.

And I oftentimes think there's attachment issues that developed in childhood that are at play there. ["The Last Supper"] Here's Annie. After that trip, that's when things started escalating in how he would argue with me and the way he would talk to me. He was pushing the boundaries to see what I would accept. The Michigan wedding really showed him what I would tolerate and he knew he could push me more and more.

So he would start arguments and rip his shirt off like the Incredible Hulk. He would pull it at the collar and rip the whole thing down the middle. And it would be like, this is what you made me do. I can't control myself when I'm around you because you are so frustrating to me. Before, when we were in lockdown,

I wasn't telling anybody the way he was behaving. I also felt like it wasn't real in a way. I wasn't seeing other people and I was just seeing him and then he would change the narrative. Like that's not what happened. You are crazy. I'm going to record you because you don't know what you're talking about. That's not how I said that. You're too sensitive. And I had nobody around so it was like maybe that didn't happen. Maybe I am remembering it wrong. When I started seeing other people again, I think they noticed that he was odd and it would get brought up to me

or I had more people to vent to at this point. I don't think I told anybody other than my mom about what happened at the wedding though, because I was so embarrassed. And I was also embarrassed that I was still with him. If my friend had come to me and said, my boyfriend did this to me, I would say, okay, well, when are you dumping him?

He used to take my phone, jokingly open Snapchat and Snapchat my friends. And he would say things like, we just had sex and like show his face and send that to my friends. I got mad at him. Like, don't do that. Don't touch my phone. Don't send that to people. Like, it's just a joke. Why are you so sensitive? And my friends actually ended up texting me like, are you okay? Who is this guy? And why is he doing this? I felt like I had to defend him at that point because I was embarrassed, but it was also like, well, he's just joking. We had another wedding in Texas. We got all the way to Arkansas and he said to me, my card's not working. I don't know what we're going to do. And I was like, you're going to have to put on my credit card. He's like,

oh, I'll pay you back as soon as that money comes through. So now I'm paying for all the gas for this trip. He says to me, my mom got us the hotel. I said, you didn't even book the room where we're heading. He said, no. I said, Josh, what would you have done if we would have gotten there? Because it's Comfort Texas. There's nothing else around outside of this little getaway where they're having the wedding. What would you have done? Oh, I don't know. It was odd. Do you feel like there was some enabling going on there? A hundred percent. That was her baby. That was her firstborn. One time when I was visiting his mom, she asked me something about his apartment. She said, oh, we got him that rug for the apartment.

You know the rug in his apartment. I said, I haven't been there in a long time. He hasn't been there in a long time either, but he won't get rid of it. And I was kind of making light of it. And she goes, well, it's a good idea that he keeps that apartment, Annie, because he doesn't know what's going to happen between you two. And we had already been together for two years. So it was like, okay, so you're encouraging him to keep this apartment. One Christmas when we were out there, she was like, do you think you and Josh are going to get married? And I said, well, that's the goal, right? She said, well, I just want you to know in this family, we don't believe in divorce. I told him she said that too afterwards. I was like, you know,

your mom said to me, he's like, what do you mean? We don't believe in divorce. And I was like, I don't know. That's what she told me. And he's like, she's crazy. In October of 2022, I was financially struggling. I'm one person. I work one job. I had senior dogs, which are expensive. I had a rabbit, I had a bearded dragon, and things were adding up. And now I'm taking care of a manchild in my house. I said to him, you need to get rid of the apartment and start helping me here or you need to go live there because I can't afford to keep paying for you. And

he said to me, I'll call the landlord tomorrow and tell him that I'm not going to be renewing my lease. The next day, I said, did you talk to your landlord? He said, yeah, I told him that I would pay until he found a new tenant. I said, why would you tell him that? He said, well, because he's a good guy. We're buddies. So I wanted to do that favor for him. But it's like, you are the perfect tenant, right? Like if you're not there, you're not taking up a parking spot, you're not making noise, you're paying your rent on time. Why would he bother looking for a new tenant? He's going to take his time then, Josh. Why would you do that? He said that's his buddy. He's doing him a favor.

The ultimatum about the apartment happened in October of 2022, and he said he was on the lease till January. So January's up, he's not renewing the lease. By mid-March, I said to him, you have not heard from the landlord and we're in March now. It's not that hard to find a tenant in Chicago. People are always looking for apartments. My friend messaged me and she said, what's going on with his apartment? I said, I need to ask him about that. She said, before you ask him, have you seen the listing? And I said, no. She said, do you remember his address? And I said, I have not been there since March 2020. No, I don't remember the address. We paid for white pages. We looked up his name because I didn't want to ask Josh about this

because I knew how he reacted to things. Found the address, looked it up, found the landlord's name or what we thought was the landlord. I was at work and I messaged Josh and I said, have you heard anything about the apartment? He said, what do you mean? I said, did you ever see if your landlord actually posted a listing? It's weird that we're halfway through March and you haven't heard anything. An hour goes by, he doesn't respond. And I said, are you alive? It's another five minutes and he doesn't respond.

I sent question mark. And he said, what? Who texts like that? I said, huh? He said, are texts like that? I said, huh? He said are you a crazy person? Are you insane? Is there something I should know? I said no I asked you a question and then you ignored me. He said yes, I've seen the listing I can call him tomorrow Yes, I'm alive. I said I couldn't find the listing online He said you sent the first message while I was driving. I wasn't trying to ignore you. Are you looking to rent? I said, maybe, LOL. I didn't think he actually listed it because

I couldn't find it anywhere. He said, why were you looking for it? I said, because you haven't heard from him. It's weird that it hasn't been rented by now. He said, you know that I haven't heard from him? I said, well, why wouldn't you have said something? If you did, I'm confused. He said, I'm confused by this entire conversation. I said, why? He said, and honestly, I'm a little annoyed. I said, annoyed? He said, yes, annoyed. I said, okay, then I'm annoyed too. He said, what are you annoyed about? I said, because you're using Darvo on me. And he said, what? Never mind, I just Googled it. I think I'll go stay at my apartment tonight if that's okay. I said, because you're using Darvo on me. And he said, what? Nevermind, I just Googled it. I think I'll go stay at my apartment tonight

if that's okay. I said, no, I would like to have a conversation. He said, about what? I said, why you're acting like this, because I asked you a question. He said, I answered your question and you came back telling me I was lying for some reason. I said, no.

I said, the landlord might be, not that you are. I never said you were. I'm so confused. He said, I told you that I saw the ad and that I would call him tomorrow and your response was what? He sent me a screenshot of what I had said. He said, maybe I'm the one that's crazy.

I said, sorry, I'm working right now. I'm not trying to start anything. I was just concerned, but I never said you were lying. He said, you don't think this whole conversation is weird? I said, no, I think it's weird that you're getting mad. He said, not mad, annoyed. I said, well, annoyed enough to say you're leaving. And he said, I'm very tired.

I'm sorry for saying that. I said, okay, I'm leaving work. When I got home, I walked in the door and he walked up to me and he hugged me and he kissed me. He said, I'm sorry for getting mad. I just thought you were accusing me of lying. I'll talk to the landlord tomorrow and I'll get it figured out. The next day, I walked in the door and he was laying on the couch, playing on his phone. He didn't even look at me. I said, so did you talk to your landlord? And without even looking up from his phone, he goes, oh, yeah, he said he found a tenant. So I won't have to pay next month.

I said, OK, well, we got to get your things out then. And again, he's not looking at me, still looking at me. Yeah, we'll do it. And I start talking about his furniture. Do you think we'll keep this? I can't remember what your couch looked like. Do you have a picture of your couch?" He says, I do, but I'm not going to pull it up right now. I'm playing a game. And then he changed the subject and that was the end of that conversation.

What eats away at me is the minute I dug just a little bit, I found everything. And had I done that even a year earlier, I would have saved myself so much time and pain. It didn't take long to find out everything he lied about. I thought Josh had his issues, but I trusted him. So he tells me that he has a picture of the couch, but he'll show it to me later. My brain won't stop worrying now at this point because we've got to get his stuff out in less than a month because the landlord wants him out by April and we're already into March. I have my birthday coming up, I have my friend's birthday party coming up, there's things that are happening. We need to get that apartment cleared out. I'm stressing about it. And I'm also worried like what furniture does he want to bring into my house? What can we use? I wanted to

know what his couch looked like. We had been together for three years. I had never picked up his phone before. That night he was sleeping and I picked up his phone. I just went to pictures because I was like, I'm gonna find a picture of this couch. I opened photos and it was hundreds of pictures of the same naked girl. There were multiple naked girls but there was one girl specifically that there were a lot of and I could tell they were from Snapchat. So I open up Snapchat and there's a message that he hasn't even opened yet from someone named Chloe and he did not know anyone named Chloe that I knew of. I opened it and she's calling him her Amor and they're talking about touching themselves together.

He says that she's his girlfriend. My heart starts racing. I'm like, who the heck is this person? He doesn't leave the house. How does he have another girlfriend? He's sleeping. It's maybe 2 a.m. He's going to be waking up for work soon.

I elbow him and I said, who the F is Chloe? And he goes, what? And I said, who the F is Chloe? And he goes, what? And I said, who is Chloe? And he screams into my face, just ah! I'm like taken aback because it's very loud and like right in my face and an odd reaction. I like look back, I shake my head and I'm like, who is Chloe?

He's like, how do you know that name? I said, I looked at your phone, Josh. She's calling you her boyfriend. Who is she? Because I'm getting mad. He's like, she's a girl from an app. What do you mean she's a girl from an app? He's like, I downloaded an app and I met this girl. I've never met her in person. She lives in a different country. She doesn't speak good English. And I've just been chatting with her because I've been very lonely, Annie. You've been neglecting me. And I felt alone, which is the first time I've heard this. Most of the time he tells me I'm annoying and that I'm around too much.

So I'm getting upset. I'm crying. I'm yelling. You need to go to your apartment until I can work through these feelings. And he goes, Oh my God, I don't have the apartment, Annie. I said, what do you mean you don't have the apartment? It's not going to be empty till April. He goes, no, it was rented a month ago and I was going to surprise you for your birthday. I said, what? Surprise me with the thing we've been fighting about for years now? What about your furniture?

He goes, I sold it all so that we could buy new furniture together. I've just learned that he's got another girlfriend in another country that he's chatting with on his phone. Now I'm finding out he doesn't have this apartment that he that day told me was just rented. My head is spinning. He's like, I gotta go to work.

I was devastated. I remember saying to him, I don't trust you anymore. And trust was all I had with you. You're not supportive. You're not kind. You're not fun to be around anymore, but I could trust you and I can't trust you anymore. I had recorded the conversation with Chloe a little bit of it on my phone. I sent it to my friend and she said, you need to get him out of there. I said, he doesn't have the apartment anymore. And this was the same friend who had pressed me to look into the apartment. And she said, I know, we had pressed me to look into the apartment.

And she said, I know, we all know he doesn't have that apartment. She didn't know they just had a gut feeling that he was lying about it. His mom saw something I had posted on Snapchat. I meant to send it to a friend, I think, but I added it to my story. And it was just something about Josh cheating on me. And she saw it right away because she was always viewing my stories right away. And she said, What? I said, I don't know what to do. I kind of explained to her and she was like, let me look up this tramp and she was calling her names. And she said, Here's what you need to do. You need to tell him he can't do this to you. And then you need to take those screenshots, everything you have from the conversations and put them in a folder on your computer and never look

at them again. I was a mess. I was crying and texting him. I asked him, are you paying her? He said, no, no, I met her on an app where men chat with women. I said, what app? And he said to me, it's called the Woohoo app. I said, where did you even find this? He's like, oh, it came up for an ad when I was playing a golf game. And I downloaded it because it looked like fun

and I just started talking to these girls. And you know, you go into these chat rooms and these guys are asking them to show their boobs and they're being very sexual with these girls. And I just went in and I was very polite and just asked how they were. And they wanted to continue talking to me. I went into Chloe's room and I talked to her and I was just really nice. And she said, I want to add you on Snapchat so we can keep talking. I knew he was paying her, but he would not tell me. I started texting the girl. I had her Snapchat

name. I was messaging her and she said to me, oh my gosh, Joshua is married? And I said, no, we're not married. And I could tell she just wasn't understanding. I said, he lives here with me. We've been together for years. How long has he been talking to you? And she said to me, oh, a long time. We talk every day. She said to me, Annie, I am going to be very honest with you. Me, like all the girls are working, like anyone who does live and we don't know anyone's personal life. He and I got closer and I never imagined that he would have a girlfriend because regardless of anything, I am human. I don't do to anyone what I didn't want them to do to me. I didn't want to be ending your relationship as I don't want to create this whole situation.

I am woman too. I also have a family. I work. I study. I know how difficult it is to go through this situation, but I cannot assume things and mistakes that are not mine. I hope you are well and that everything is resolved. You have my snap. You can talk to me whenever you want. Sorry about my English. it is hard to express." And I said to her, how much was he paying you? She said, I have no way of knowing that. I cannot calculate it. My whole world is upside down. Like, I don't know what's... I can't make sense of any of it. Emotionally, I'm a wreck. All I'm doing is crying. He's telling me he's got nowhere to go, so he's still at the house. I'm beyond mad at him.

I want to break up, but he's crying. Oh, I love you. Please don't do this. It was just one girl. I never even met her. I was just chatting with her. I didn't mean anything. When I told him, I talked to her. He said, well, I wasn't paying her that much. I just gave her a couple bucks, like $5. I said, and she gave you her private Snapchat for $5? He said, yes. I said, that doesn't make sense, Josh. Even I know that's a bad deal.

He just continued to lie about it. First, he wasn't paying her at all. Then he was only paying her a little bit. I was still in this emotional rollercoaster where he's begging me to forgive him and I love him. I just can't believe that this is happening and I want it to not be real. I want to believe everything he's saying because it's so much easier. That was the 13th that I found Chloe out. My birthday was the 23rd, and I was having a bunch of people over. During my birthday party, he was taking pictures of me and my friends, and he handed me his phone to go through the pictures,

and then he wandered off. I was going through the pictures, and I wanted to make sure that he had deleted the pictures of Chloe. I found his Google photos, and I started to scroll through it and I found several different girls, naked pictures. One girl specifically, you could tell he talked to for well over a year. There were lots and lots of naked pictures of her and she's what stuck out to me. I found him outside and no one was out there with him.

He was just smoking by himself. And I said, when everybody leaves, I want you out to me. I found him outside and no one was out there with him. He was just smoking by himself. And I said, when everybody leaves, I want you out of here. He's like, why? Why? I said, who's Natasha? This was the other girl. I don't know. What do you mean?

And I threw his phone at him and I said, who is Natasha? And he said, oh, I had the app on my phone one other time. I said, okay, how long did you talk to her? I don't know, which I knew was a lie because I could see he had saved most of their conversations. Tons of pictures and it had gone back for months. I didn't see exactly when it ended because I was just fuming. The party kind of ended and everybody left. I could tell I was upset, but nobody knew why.

We continued to argue all night because he just wouldn't give me a straight answer. He was lying to me, told me I just needed to trust him. He's like, I wanna work on this. We're gonna go to couples therapy. And I said, I can't trust you because you keep lying to me and you've been talking to other women. And you told me during Chloe, it was just this one time

and you were lonely and it was my fault. And then I find out you've been doing this for well over a year. I mean, I find out ultimately that it was the entire time we were together and we were together for three years. I knew that he wasn't telling me everything, but I wanted an answer. I felt like I was owed that.

We both fell asleep arguing. And in the morning, we started arguing more. He ended up falling asleep during the day while we were arguing and he left his phone out. He actually put his phone in the morning, we started arguing more. He ended up falling asleep during the day while we were arguing and he left his phone out. He actually put his phone in the bedside drawer and I call it the squeaky drawer. I very quietly and carefully opened the drawer. I was like sweating trying to get this drawer open without making noise. I got his phone out and I started scrolling and I'm recording it on my

phone. I find thousands of dollars in transactions that he sent to weird names like Ruby Games. I know this isn't a game. He's sending money to random women's names. He's got all kinds of naked pictures, screenshots of conversations, pictures where he's got filters on his face, videos where he's singing and dancing for these girls. He told these girls that he was a real estate agent, which was the job of one of his other friends. So I think he just stole bits and pieces of his guy friends. That's when I saw that he had been talking to this Natasha girl for well over a year. There were

several other girls in between. They all looked very young. He had screenshots from the app where he showed how many gifts he had sent these girls and how many minutes they had talked. He was saving it like he was proud of it. There were screenshots of different bank accounts. He had like accounts I didn't know about. There was a lot going on that I didn't know about. He was also getting weird amounts of money sent to him, which was odd because he didn't go anywhere or do anything. Who's sending you this money? And then I get further down and I find deep fakes of almost every single one of his female friends that I had met or knew of. And you can see the porn clip.

You can see how he cropped his friends' faces from pictures from Instagram. It's all saved to his phone. He had deep fakes of Rachel. He had deep fakes of Rachel's cousin, several friends of his. Like if you were at the beach and you took a picture with your boyfriend at the beach, he screenshotted that and he would crop out the guy and just have his friend in a bikini saved in the same spot with the deep fakes on his phone. There were deep fakes of his sister.

There were pictures cropped the same way of his niece, who's 12 years old at the time. There was pictures of me he took when I didn't know where I'm bending over or he's behind me and he's taking a picture down my shirt. Then I open up his Safari and frequently visited it's like incest sites and rape sites and dating sites. And he had Googled like how to convince somebody you love them. I was recording video of his phone. You can hear me like hyperventilating because I'm like, I don't know this person at all. And he's sleeping in my bed. I don't know what he's going to do. And I need him out of here now. At that point, I got up and I put his phone back in the drawer. I was taking my

dogs and my cat and I was going to put them in my car and then I was going to tell him to get out. I was going to make sure they were safe. And while I'm grabbing the animals, he wakes up and he says, what are you doing? And I just panicked, I said, get out, get out now. Why? I said, I saw everything on your phone. I know about the money, I know about the women, I know about the deep fakes. And he says to me, oh, I didn't make those.

I said, Josh, you literally saved your work. I can see how you created them. Rachel's cousin was one of the girls that was deepfaked and he said it was her husband that did it. Okay, so he's deepfaking his own wife and every single friend you have and your sister and your niece. That doesn't make sense. He gets up and he starts screaming at me that I went through his phone again and how dare

I. Then he screams at me, don't you think if we would have went to therapy this all would have came out? I don't know. And it doesn't really matter. I don't think you would have been honest in therapy. You couldn't be honest right here right now. When I was begging you to, I'm just telling him, get out, get out. I don't want to hear anything he's saying. The dogs are still on the bed and I'm kind of like walking towards him to make him walk out the bedroom door.

So he starts walking down the stairs screaming at me the entire time that he has a problem and I'm not being understanding. There's balloons all over the floor because it was my birthday party the day before. He starts stomping his feet. He tries to stomp on the balloons and he's screaming, I just like when people watch me come. He can see that it's not working on me this time. All the excuses, everything is not working.

His face changes so quickly. He goes from screaming and crying and being worked up to just completely calm. He walks past me into my kitchen and he grabs one of my knives out of the knife block. I was calling my friend. She was in my pocket. I'm screaming, put the knife down Josh so she knows that something is happening. He says to me, you'll get your knife back eventually, and he points it at me, and I'm screaming. And I walk towards him, so he backs up out the back door, and I'm right across the street

from the fire department. I'm screaming, put the knife down, so they hear me, and he realizes it, and he goes, Annie, stop. He puts the knife in his pocket, and he goes, Annie, stop. He puts the knife in his pocket. He goes, give me a hug. I said, no, I'm not going to give you a hug. And he says, I'm not going to stab you. I just want you to know that I really did love you. I said, thank you for telling me you can leave now. He got in his car and he zoomed away and I texted his mother and I told her, I told Josh to leave. He ran off with a knife, I think you should call him. And she said, can't you guys work it out?

And I said, no. He had pictures of all his friends on his phone. There was pictures of his sister. He had cropped out her face like he had done for all the other women, but the deep fakes of her weren't there. But you could see the process of him trying to. And she said, well, I wish you would have given him some time to find some place to go. She was asking me where could he be? I knew that she was in denial about her son. I didn't have ill will towards her.

So I was like, I have no idea where he could be. I was trying to help her. So I was like, I have no idea where he could be. I was trying to help her. Eventually, so I posted everything I knew on Instagram because I was furious. It was also for me a way to hold me accountable because if I knew everyone else knew there was no taking him back. He wasn't going to be able to manipulate me and to change the narrative because now everybody has seen this and knows what he's capable of. hosted by me, Tiffany Reese. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones, leave a positive review, or follow Something Was Wrong on Instagram,

at Something Was Wrong podcast. Our theme song was composed by Gladrags. Check out their album, Wonder Under. Thank you so much. ["Wonder Under"] If you like Something Was Wrong, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.