Is Glen Powell’s cannibal story about his sister's friend real?

Everyone's talking about how great Glen Powell is in Richard Linklater's Hit Man, but now another story told by Powell is on our minds, after he shared a disturbing tale about his sister's friend. But is it true?

If you're not sure what we're talking about, Powell appeared on Jake Shane's podcast Therapuss in late May, and around twenty minutes in shared a "crazy story" his sister told him.

Powell's sister, "was friends with a girl who went on a date with a guy," who then seemingly used "black market lotion" on this girl.

“He starts massaging her shoulders [...] Everything just feels odd. She’s like, ‘I gotta get out of here.’ He gets a little weird 'like, no, please don't leave, sorry', she leaves."

Powell continues, "Her skin starts itching like crazy the next day. She goes to the doctor […] It turns out it’s a black market lotion that breaks down skin for human consumption." This was the point where everyone's jaws dropped.

"This man was rubbing lotion on her body to eat her. The doctor is like 'you have to give me this person’s address and you should call the police.' They go to this guy’s house, and he had several bodies in the house.”

Many people were rightly freaked out.

"[She] is so lucky she [was] listening to those instincts and felt the vibes were off cos it literally saved her life," one user wrote.

Another user said they had the same reaction as host, Jake Shane:

"Who knows how many lives she saved because of her good instincts. Incredible," a comment read.

But now people are questioning whether the story is real, withSnopes reporting that the story is a variant of an urban legend.

It's unlikely Powell knew this, and was just regurgitating something he was told.

According to Snopes, the story can be traced back to 2001, having been shared in various forms mainly via email. Sometimes the story talks about a woman having sex with a necrophiliac and giving her an infection, "that can [only] happen if she or her partner is having sex with dead people" the fact-checking site notes.

Eventually, over the years, the story evolved into a sexual, or near-sexual encounter, with a cannibal.

Frankly, we're relieved it's just another myth.

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