A 22-year-old from Airdrie, Scotland, staged a pregnancy and baby birth using a realistic doll, deceiving relatives, friends, and the alleged father for months.
A family in Airdrie, Scotland, has been left horrified after discovering that a woman who held a baby shower, shared hospital updates, and posted photos of her “newborn” had in fact been caring for a doll.
The woman, Kira Cousins, 22, is accused of staging an elaborate deception by pretending to be pregnant, wearing a prosthetic baby bump, and later announcing the “birth” of her daughter, whom she named Bonnie-Leigh Joyce.
Kira reportedly hosted a gender reveal party, shared baby scans, and posted clips appearing to show her belly “kicking.” She told followers her daughter weighed 5lbs 4oz and even spoke about supposed medical complications, claiming doctors had detected a heart defect during prenatal tests.
Friends and relatives showered her with gifts, including a £1,000 ($1300), pram and car seat, believing she had genuinely given birth. But the truth emerged when her mother found a Reborn doll — a hyper-realistic baby doll — in her bedroom.
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According to screenshots shared online, Kira later messaged the man she claimed was the baby’s father, falsely telling him that their child had died. Neither he nor his family had known about the deception.
When approached by journalists, Kira declined to comment directly but later issued a statement on TikTok, saying, “In my own words, let’s set this straight. I was in bed when my mother came into my room and found it to be a doll… Don’t for one minute think they let me away with this — they haven’t. And none of them knew. Neither did the dad and his family.”
Her friend Neave McRobert said suspicions grew when loved ones noticed the “baby” never cried and that Kira refused to let anyone hold it. “She even went to the extreme of texting the dad saying, ‘Bonnie-Leigh died,’” Neave said in a video posted on Thursday October 16, 2025. “Everybody believed her. She had a gender reveal, posted scan photos, and said the baby had a hole in its heart.”
McRobert described her longtime friend as a “serial liar,” claiming she had worn a fake bump with visible straps. “When she posted the baby’s photo, I knew it looked like a doll,” she added. “But no one wanted to believe it.”
The bizarre case has stunned social media users across the UK, sparking conversations about online deception, mental health, and the pressures of social validation in the digital age.
Africa Daily News, New York
