Man discovers his online girlfriend of eight months is actually his housemate

A man who thought he had found love was actually being deceived by his housemate.

Mario, an American man who works as a PE teacher and moved to live in London, thought he had fallen in love with Hannah, who he had been speaking to for eight months after meeting online.

The pair had matched on a dating app and sent each other messages every day - but ‘Hannah’ refused to speak on the phone whenever Mario suggested it, causing him to become suspicious.

So, Mario called MTV’s Catfish UK team in an effort to get to the bottom of it once and for all and hosts Oobah Butler and Julie Adenuga soon found out all was not as it seemed.

By reverse searching ‘Hannah’ the pair found that the image she had been using to portray herself actually belonged to a woman living in New Zealand who had no idea she was being used by a catfish.

“I feel foolish, do they not have better things to do with their time than waste mine?” Mario said.

Mario, along with the two hosts, even attempted to call Hannah but the efforts were unsuccessful.

Not only did the girl hang up, but she also sent a text to Mario asking: “Catfish have just been in touch, if I meet you, do you promise I won’t lose you?”

After finally arranging a meeting between the two virtual love birds in a park, it was finally revealed that ‘Hannah’ was in fact Courtney, Mario’s housemate, business partner and former friend-with-benefits.

“I didn’t expect to see you today,” Mario tells her. “Out of everyone in the world I didn’t expect you.”

Trying to plead her case, Courtney revealed that Mario had been her best friend. She said: “We’ve known each other for almost five years now.

“I wanted to see what it would be like to be his girlfriend, because I am desperately in love with him.”

Mario stayed at a friend’s house following the revelation, and when Courtney told him she wanted a relationship, he admitted he would never be able to trust her and her hopes were dashed.

Catfish then featured a surprising update where Mario and Courtney were seen two months later living back together and still friends.

Scandalous stuff.