A woman has opened up about her experience dating a man she believes to be a “pathological liar”.
In a series of videos on TikTok which have since gone viral, Sophia Kim, from Sydney, said she hoped by sharing her story, other women would learn for it – and know what to look out for.
“So much time has passed now … why not let everyone know and learn from my experience?” the 31-year-old began.
She recalled meeting the 41-year-old man, who she gave the alias Brad, on the dating app Bumble, saying they “messaged a lot”, bonding over Japanese ceramics.
“(After) a few days, we get on a phone call. And the phone call was actually great,” Sophia said.
“I could tell he was very quick with his mind, he was a very quick speaker, a quick thinker … The phone calls were great. They were fun, they were funny, and then we decided to meet for dinner.”
When Brad picked Sophia up, she immediately noticed his “luxurious car, and I liked how he was dressed”.
“He was very muscular and built. However, he looked very different from his photos. I was kind of disappointed by his face – it didn’t match his photos,” she said.
His behaviour, she added, was also “very theatrical”, recalling he was immediately over-protective.
“When we would walk along the street and there was a crowd of people, he would really go into bodyguard mode. Which is fine, I appreciate him trying to make me feel like I was protected, but … it wasn’t normal,” Sophia said.
Brad also “caused a lot of attention, caused a scene” at the restaurant when Sophia removed her jacket.
Despite his “over-the-top” behaviour, however, she agreed to another date.
From there, things became increasingly strange. Brad “always smelled artificial”, Sophia said, due to what she presumed were fake tanning products – though he denied ever using such a thing.
She also recalled asking him during their first date if he had an “Asian fetish”, which he denied, but she later accused him of “lying about”.
After six dates – in which Sophia became increasingly suspicious of Brad’s actions – she “sat him down and was like, ‘Look, I’ve noticed these little things that you lie about’.
“I just, like, I can’t date a liar. That is the one non-negotiable for me,” she added.
Brad responded by telling Sophia he’d answered dishonestly because her questions “weren’t specific” enough.
They continued to see each other, but Sophia became increasingly distrustful – and ultimately ended things, concluding that she’d “dodged a bullet”.