Her boyfriend was distraught after learning a 37-year-old Canadian woman faked being pregnant with quintuplets.
Paul Servat said his girlfriend, Barbara Bienvenue, told him at first she was expecting twins. That later became the expectation of triplets, then quadruplets, then quintuplets. As Bienvenue experienced morning sickness and her belly grew, Servat and many others believed she was pregnant with multiple babies according to ABC News.
Canadian media reports about the couple led a friend to start a social media campaign to collect donations to help care for their soon-to-be big family.
Then came the truth. Barbara Bienvenue was never pregnant.
Servat got that news when Bienvenue, who he thought was 34 weeks pregnant, went to the hospital to deliver the babies in March 2014.
Bienvenue had pseudocyesis, or phantom pregnancy. Women with the rare condition have symptoms of pregnancy but are not, in fact, pregnant.
Bienvenue was receiving psychiatric care according to the Toronto Sun, which reported this was not her first phantom pregnancy and that she had also previously posed as a cancer patient.
The Facebook page seeking donations for the couple had been taken down. No criminal complaint had been filed as of Friday, March 21. Servat was reportedly reimbursing donors and returning donated items.
