A woman tricked her boyfriend and her own family into believing she was pregnant and even held a gender reveal party to celebrate, it has been claimed.
Kira Cousins is then said to have pretended to have given birth to ‘Bonnie-Leigh’ earlier this month – but days later told the ‘baby’s dad’, Jamie Gardner, she had died when, in reality, there was no child.
The 23-year-old has now been spoken to by Police Scotland amid concerns over her wellbeing after she was hit by an avalanche of online abuse over the alleged hoax.
It is claimed that she bought a ‘pregnant tummy’ prop, had a baby shower and marked the pending birth with the gender reveal party in Caldercruix, near Airdrie, Lanarkshire.
She initially posted photos of her ‘daughter’ after the birth, but after refusing to allow anyone near her, suspicions grew, and she deleted any mention of the ‘baby’ from social media.
She eventually claimed the baby had died.
It is understood it was her own mother who discovered the lifelike doll in her bedroom.
Her friends believe she’d paid a ‘fortune’ for the doll with one claiming Ms Cousins ‘stole’ pictures of her daughter and used them to deceive her family.
A source who knows the family well said: ‘It’s the talk of Scotland. She took the doll in to show her workmates and wouldn’t let them touch the baby.
‘Everybody thought she was pregnant up until the weekend, not the weekend just past but the weekend before.’
They added: ‘There’s a lot of people that I think if they got hold of Kira Cousins they would lynch her.
‘She was the youngest, innocent wee lassie – she used to go to church.
‘Her mum bought a pram for her, £1,000, her gran bought car seats and everything, one of her cousins from Wales supposedly sent her £500. She’s getting all this money.
‘I don’t know where she is now, but apparently some people say she’s still floating about other people say she’s left the country.
‘I honestly don’t think the family knew. The very first post she put up, Bonnie-Leigh born such and such and all the rest of it had people commenting.’
Neave Mcrobert, who took to TikTok to vent her anger at the situation said: ‘You were not there, you don’t know how she was acting, we just thought she was being an overprotective mum. And for those who are saying she needs help. No she doesn’t. She needs jail.’
She added: ‘I wonder where she is now and where that doll is. I feel like such a fool for not realising but a real-life doll – she must have paid closer to £1,000 for it. ‘
At Ms Cousin’s home, a woman answered the door and said: ‘I’m not interested, go away.’
It is not believed any complaint has been made to the police.
Ms Cousin has since gone on social media to confirm her mother found the doll, insisting her family did not know about what she had done.
She then added: ‘While I’m not condoning any behaviour led by myself I’d like to clear some things up for the people who were involved.
‘Maybe in time I will come out and address the sadness once the right help etc has been sought.’
She concluded ‘no one should be hating towards wither families, especially Jamie’s’.
