The Kira Cousins fake baby scandal's NEW dark twist: After doll outrage she vanished. Now we expose the shameless story of what happened next as victim breaks silence to say: 'I feel sick'
The new ‘baby’ is due some time next year, delivery date to be confirmed. No gender reveal party this time, but there will surely be a launch party, possibly with balloons.
What will everyone (well not everyone, but we’ll get to that) be celebrating? It will be the birth of a new documentary which will tell so many people what they want to hear: the truth about a fake baby called Bonnie-Leigh who broke the internet.
Staff at the Glasgow TV production company which beat international opposition to tell the story are thrilled to have pulled off a global coup.
In a way, it’s just a shame little Bonnie-Leigh Joyce herself – star of the show – isn’t around to enjoy the attention. But she’s probably in a cardboard box, at the back of a wardrobe somewhere.
The fact you may know who Bonnie-Leigh is – even though she never existed – says everything about this astonishing saga, one that caused so much outrage and misery at the time, and even more now that it’s been suggested money may be involved.
To recap: Bonnie-Leigh Joyce was the name given to the unborn child of 22-year-old proud new ‘mother’, Kira Cousins.
Earlier this year Kira, a supermarket worker from Airdrie in North Lanarkshire, shared every detail of her apparently normal pregnancy with not only her close friends and family in Scotland, but with her wider network on social media.
She posted pictures from the gender reveal party and updated her followers with pictures of her growing bump and, eventually, her baby girl.
Her happiness turned into something far more complicated, though, when it was revealed Kira had never been pregnant.
The 'baby bump' Kira Cousins had been parading around was in fact a prosthetic
Kira's deception was elaborate, as she even held a gender reveal party for the 'baby'
The bump she had been parading was, in fact, a prosthetic one.
Baby Bonnie-Leigh was actually a plastic doll, albeit a convincing ‘Reborn’ one, moulded and painted to look eerily human.
Her colleagues had been duped, only discovering late in the day that they’d been cooing over a doll in a pram. The most astonishing aspect was that her family had been taken in, too. Even her partner, the child’s ‘father’, had been deceived.
How and why? We still don’t know, because when this story broke in October – and Kira had also confessed on social media – it caused a sensation, with all parties involved retreating, presumably in shock.
TikTok went into meltdown with ‘fake baby’ theories. Dozens of fake accounts, some purporting to come from Kira, sprang up, confusing the already baffling ‘truth’.
Kira herself made an emotional confession. ‘I’m so sorry. I wasn’t pregnant,’ she told her social media followers. ‘There was no baby. I made it up and kept it going way too far. I faked scans, messages, a whole birth story and acted like a doll was a real baby. I know how bad it is. I just didn’t know how to stop once I started.’ There was some sympathy for Kira, merged with horror, as we learned what she had done.
This was, surely, a disturbed young woman who needed help, not censure? Yet the questions kept coming, the new ‘reality’ becoming darker and darker.
In late October, the Daily Mail revealed this was not the first time Kira had faked a pregnancy. A Facebook friend, whom we called Laura to protect her family, confided to us that back in 2023 Kira had ‘stolen’ images of her own daughter and passed them off as that of ‘her’ child. Kira called this baby girl Aurora Rae.
Again, social media was the setting for this scandal. The two women, who attended the same primary school, had barely known each other, but because they were Facebook friends, Kira had unfettered access to Laura’s joyful images of her (real) baby girl.
Cousins charted her 'pregnancy' on social media, deceiving her partner and colleagues
Baby Bonnie-Leigh is actually a doll. Despite her dishonesty, Cousins will get to tell her story on TV
Without Laura’s knowledge, Kira then passed off the images as those of her own (fake) child, sending them to another friend, asking her to be godmother. Updated images followed. In all, Laura believes 15 or 20 pictures were sent, showing the baby’s growth over four or five months.
‘I was horrified. I felt sick,’ Laura told me in an emotional interview. ‘This was my child.’
That deception only emerged this year, amid the Bonnie-Leigh speculation, as ‘friends’ tried to work out what was real and what wasn’t about Kira’s life – a complicated life that Laura was suddenly, without choice, part of.
‘I’ve had nothing but anxiety about my child’s safety since this has come out, knowing Kira lives so close,’ she told me. ‘I don’t know what this girl is capable of.’
She might have hoped for answers – an apology even – but none has been forthcoming.
Imagine Laura’s horror, then, when she discovered TV stardom now beckons for Kira, who has agreed to tell her story, not to Laura or to the police (which would have been Laura’s preferred option, although we must stress that the stealing of images is only a crime if malicious intent can be proved) but to a TV production company.
This contradicts Kira’s assertions that she was not going to do that. Just a few days after taking to social media to say ‘I will not be doing a documentary. I’ve been offered crazy money but I will not be doing it, 100 per cent not,’ Kira appeared to backtrack.
Images of her at a TV production company followed, and it has since been confirmed that the film will be made by Soho Studios Entertainment and Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media, although it’s not clear if, or how much, she will be paid. The company, which has won awards in the past, declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
However, in a general statement, managing director Alan Clements – husband of former Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark – said he regards signing Kira as a win. ‘We are delighted that, with the huge international interest around this story, Kira chose us,’ he said in a statement.
‘Both Two Rivers and Soho Studios pride ourselves on bringing remarkable human experiences, told by the people who were at the centre of the action, to the screen. We look forward to treating those involved, the issues and this story with the sensitivity they deserve.’ Not all those involved have agreed to take part, however.
Laura confirmed this week that she was approached, but refused on principle. ‘I want nothing to do with the documentary. I think it’s ridiculous that she’s going to gain from all this.
‘I think she [Kira] is getting all the wrong type of attention from it and I don’t believe the story she is going to tell is going to be completely honest.’
Laura has gone as far as to beg the film-makers not to involve her child. ‘I messaged the girl [from the TV company] who had approached me on Instagram about it, asking her not to involve any of my daughter’s photographs or screenshots from social media involving my name.
‘I had no response back from that, so I don’t even know if they are going to respect my wishes.
‘I definitely don’t think she should be profiting from any of this. I don’t think the documentary should be made at all.’
Has Kira been in touch to apologise or explain? ‘No. She’s not contacted me to apologise, and I don’t see her doing so as I don’t think she will see the wrong in what she’s done. She will just be thriving from the attention. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s all the wrong type of attention.’
Is there a ‘wrong’ type of attention these days, in an age of the high-profile confessional?
The reality is that, whatever Kira has to say, there will be many who can’t wait to hear it.
