Some people have The Iliad. Some people prefer The Odyssey. But when it comes to epic stories, it's been a long time since a tale has gripped millions of people quite like that of Reesa Teesa, a TikToker who narrated a 50-part story detailing the fake-out highs and rock-bottom lows of her marriage to someone she describes as "a pathological liar."
You see, Reesa Teesa's series — appropriately titled "Who the Fuck Did I Marry" — has seemingly halted all outside forms of entertainment. People have stopped scrolling their For You Page; they've shut off Netflix; and anything other than Reesa's story has failed to seize people's attention.
Each video in the series is about 10 minutes, which rounds out to 500 minutes of viewing time, or 8.33 hours. Yes, people, including myself, have dedicated the equivalent of a full work day binging every turn of Reesa's Lifetime-movie-worthy story.
Opening up about her experience, which she jokingly calls "The United Nations of Red Flags," Reesa shares how she and her ex-husband met after matching on two dating apps. The two connected over a phone call during which her ex-husband, given the pseudonym Legion, said he was a former arena football player who recently began working as a regional manager at a popular condiment company in Georgia.
Also in his background, Legion purportedly told Reesa he attended college in California; his father was a police officer; his mother was a former teacher; he has two bothers, two sisters, and two half brothers on his father's side.
His arrival in Georgia, he says, was prompted by the benefits of his new job, which offered to help pay for housing and would later "cover the cost" of a BMW as a company car following a Vice President promotion.
All of this, viewers would find out by the end of Reesa's story, was a lie.
The couple's relationship quickly became serious because Reesa says she "thought [I] met the one." They moved in together, and Legion urged that they look for a house. He had a pre-approval upwards of $700,000 from Chase (later found to be doctored), and at one point said he could use money from an offshore account to pay $750,000 cash for a property (also a lie).
He promised Reesa a car, which conveniently fell through, and a vacation to London, which also fell through.
But the range of lies were not all financially based. After a feeling of unease led Reesa to investigate how truthful her partner was being, she uncovered previous marriages (even though he claimed to have only been married once prior on their marriage certificate), his real social security number (which was also seemingly misreported on the marriage certificate), and reoccurring stays in jail.
Some of the most egregious falsities according to Reesa include Legion telling his "aunt" and others that he and Reesa had a newborn son — and he secretly accepted gifts for the nonexistent child, despite Reesa having miscarried in reality.
He also claimed to have a close relationship with his ex-wife's children and said he needed to give them $2,000 toward his ex-wife's daughter's funeral after she died from COVID. However, a quick call to the ex-wife proved her daughter was healthy and well.
And none of this touches on the fact that he brought Reesa to see where his grandparents were buried — but the grave site ended up belonging to a random family with the same last name.
(And there was a whole sex worker/affair debacle, but this article can only be so long.)
By the time Reesa concluded her story, she acknowledged how easy it is to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation — especially as a coping mechanism. "In order to get through it, I have to laugh," she said.
...but, at the same time, Reesa says, "[When] I made the decision to tell this story, my motive was, I just want to help one person. If there's a woman out there who's like, 'I want to be married and I met this guy, but something don't seem right...but maybe it's not that bad.' My advice is, honey just go ahead and do your research."
"Being single sucks, in my opinion. Sometimes it sucks. But, being married to the wrong person is a type of hell no one should have to go through."
And according to the comment section, her series has inspired more than a few women to get and stay out of the wrong relationship. "I'm just sitting here crying," one viewer said. "I'm the one you just saved. I'm on day seven of no contact because something felt off. Now I know I did the right thing. Thank you."
Even more shared stories of their own Legions.
BuzzFeed reached out to Reesa for comment. We'll update you if she responds.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.