Loose Women star Kelle Bryan has opened up about her own Tinder Swindler experience during a frank chat with her fellow ITV panellists on Thursday.
The 46-year-old said she can relate to the romance fraud victims of the new hit Netflix documentary, as she had her own experience.
The new film tells the jaw-dropping story of a prolific conman who posed as a billionaire playboy on Tinder and the women who set out to bring him down after they handed over thousands of dollars to him.
Kelle said that when she first entered the past relationship in question, they had been on an “equal pegging” with money posing no issue, until her partner lost their job, at which point she said she began to financially support him.
She said: “I gave them a card to be able to use, because I didn't want them to feel emasculated by having to ask me for money.
“Before anybody tweets me, I don’t want to hear it, because until you’ve walked a mile in that person’s shoes you don’t know what their experience is.
“You don’t know what that person’s gone through. I did it for reasons that - I was young and dumb and in what I thought was love.”
Fellow panellist Jane Moore asked how Kelle discovered her partner had amassed debt, and the ITV presenter said she received a call from her bank about a charge to the card.
She said: “At that point I knew what was going on.”
Host Charlene White replied saying: “I don’t want you to say the figure, but we’re not talking about a tiny amount of money here, are we?”
Kelle replied saying it had not been a small amount, explaining that it “escalated” to cars and other “massive” purchases.
She said: “I take responsibility for my decisions, I made them, but was I of my right mind? I don’t believe I was.”
Kelle said she did not pursue the financial loss with her bank or even tell her parents as she felt “embarrassed” by the situation.
Kelle added: “One thing leads to another and before you know it, you’re knee deep in this entrenched relationship where the person controls you from every aspect of your life."
She added: “The kind of control that person has over you in terms of your mental capacity to make good decisions - that goes out of the window completely.”
Denise Welch returned the conversation to the case of the Tinder Swindler, known in the Netflix documentary as “Simon Leviev”, but whose real name is Shimon Hayut.
She said: “ In the case of this guy, he woos them all with these private jets and this amazing lifestyle, so it doesn’t occur to these women that he’s not a billionaire’s son.
“Then of course, you get the phone calls saying, I just can’t access this money.”
Charlene White read a statement from Hayut’s Instagram shared before he deleted his account, which read: “I will share my side of the story in the next few days, but I’ve sorted out the best and most respectful way to tell it both to the involved parties and myself. Until then, please keep an open mind and heart.”
