SISTER WIVES Meri Brown catfish Sam update: more voicemails, second book, interview for potential movie…
TLC’s popular polygamy reality series Sister Wives has returned, and so far the major focus this season has been the fallout after Meri Brown’s emotional affair with an alleged catfish named Samuel “Sam” Cooper, aka Jacquelyn “Jackie” Overton. And while Meri and the rest of the Brown family share their struggles on screen, the hardest working man/woman in catfishness continues to hustle for all the attention he/she can garner from the relationship!
In case you missed it, Meri’s catfish Sam (whom we will call a “he” in this post, just for a fun change of pace) outed Meri on his blog NotBatmanYet.com. Sam posted lots of photos sent to him by Meri, as well as audio recordings of voicemail messages left by Meri in which she often expresses her love for him.
Over the past year, Sam has continued to diligently update his blog, and in January he published a book about his affair with Meri titled Almost Meri’ed. (Click here for excerpts.) Not one to rest on his laurels, Sam followed up Almost Meri’ed with a second book in April documenting the fallout after his affair with Meri became public titled Almost Defame’ed.
In addition to cranking out two books in a matter of months, Sam continues to handle the duties that go along with being the CEO of six different companies as well as the responsibilities that accompany becoming a parent for the first time. (He says he is in the process of adopting twins from a cousin.)
He also continues to write blog entries, including a recent post in which he offers his take on the whole Meri affair and the continuing insistence that he isn’t really who he says he is:
In my opinion, I have posted proof that we met, had an affair, had a consensual sexual relationship, we went on a vacation together, we fell madly in love and we carried on as if she wasn’t still married, because technically she wasn’t. We had an affair. We both admit to that. We also had plans for a future together. We wanted to get married and we wanted children together. Then we broke up. I did not talk to her after the break up. I did not continue to even try to contact her. I gave up, I walked away and I left her the hell alone. Because I knew she made her choice. She was going to stay and no matter her real, honest reasons for that, I lost her when I walked away. She tried. She tried really hard to hold on to me. I wasn’t listening and I wouldn’t talk to her. And finally she also gave up.
…
After we broke up I lost it. I truly lost my heart. She meant the world to me and I didn’t know what to do without her. I left her alone. I really did. I moved back to Chicago, I began working 18 hour days just to keep busy. I didn’t go out. I didn’t talk to many people. I was depressed. I loved Meri with all of my heart. I truly believed she was going to leave him for me. Not the family, she was never, ever going to leave the family. She wanted out of her marriage because she was so unhappy with him and how he treated her.
I loved her.
Now that it’s been over for months, if I was just a stepping stone to her, to get his attention back or maybe to get herself together and stronger within the family, okay. I can accept that. I’m happy for all our great memories. Meri and I would laugh all day long. Or we would be sweet to each other, everyday. Any disagreement we had, we always worked it out. There was never any type of personal attacks. There were never any threats, my god Meri. Never. When it was over, I walked away. I stayed away. And I have continued to stay out of her life. She is fine. She doesn’t miss me, she doesn’t think about me. She just doesn’t care about me anymore. I accept that.
I wish her all of my best. I am open to talking to her again someday. I really do believe in this lifetime she will tell the truth and admit that I am real, I am a man, and I did not catfish her. I know she is a good person, she has a big heart. I know she will do right by me. I know it. It may take her years. Years is all I’ve got left to give her. So I will wait for it to come and I will immediately forget it and accept the apology. I have forgiven her already because I really do understand the one thing no one else sees.
Meri is so scared to tell him and her family that she fell completely head over heels in love with me. That we had sex, that she really was going to leave Kody. She is so scared she is controlling her words instead of just opening up with the truth and saying Yes, I fell in love with Samuel. She is so scared to lose everything for me. I know this because when I fell in love with Meri all those months ago, that’s the exact place I was at with myself. If I fall for this spiritually married woman, am I really ready to lose it all if we get caught someday? Can I face God, my Church, my family, friends, and all the people in the world that will know who I am? I was there where she’s at. I know how hard it can be. So I forgive her for telling the entire world that I catfished her.
I did not catfish Meri Brown.
Sam has posted lots more voicemails from Meri, as well as a video interview he conducted with 5 screenwriters. (For Almost Meri’ed the movie I assume.) Before you get too excited, these “video” interviews are audio only. When asked why he wouldn’t just upload the videos to finally prove that he is who he says he is, Sam explained:
Because I love my privacy and they are using the video portion of it. I agreed to not have control over that. Believe it or not there are many photos of me around. There are photos of her and I together. Not only the Skype ones. The truth defends itself. I said my truth and it’s none of my business if anyone believes me. Many people do believe me. You are welcome to your opinion.
Here are the links for the interviews (they are not embeddable) with the questions asked listed below each:
MERI BROWN CATFISH SAM INTERVIEW PART 1
1. Why did you finally agree to talk?
What is your real name?
You are obviously male. How does it feel when people have accused you of not being a man?
Your id says Samuel Cooper in Chicago, Illinois. Why do you think people still don’t believe you are who you say you are?
Why don’t you show your driver’s license and prove it?
Okay, so how did you meet Meri Brown?
Who started talking to who on Twitter?
Did she know it was you, someone who she had already interacted with before?
What were your thoughts the first night you talked to her?
What was your reaction the next morning when you saw she added you and she sent you a message?
Why did you continue to respond?
Not much is known about Meri’s personal life. How much was she revealing to you early on?
When did she really start opening up to you and talking to you about the problems in her life?
What did you think about all of the things she was telling you?
You say you had sex with her the first night before the Disney meet up. What happened?
What did you think about all of the things she was telling you?
You say you had sex with her the first night before the Disney meet up. What happened?
What happened after?
No I mean after you two had sex and she had just cheated on her spiritual husband, did she express any guilt or regret?
So you get to Disney, what happened?
How many days was this after you started talking to her?
A week after you started talking on Twitter she said I love you for the first time?
We see the text messages between you. What she said was “Thank you for making the sacrifice to fly so far. I wish we were alone today for you to pull me into your embrace, and to kiss my neck and run your fingers through my hair as you wrap your arms lovingly and passionately around me. I do love you Sam. This is so crazy. I love you. And I miss you. I need to touch you.”
Then you say “Meri, You love me? Oh Meri.” She said, I love you Sam. I love you. And you reply with “I love you.” Did you really love her at this point?
And then she says “I don’t like feeling love that I can’t act on.” You reply, “We can. In anyway you find acceptable. I want your lips.”And she replies “I know you do and I want yours but we can’t babe. Not after last night.” What is your thinking when Meri Brown, a spiritually married woman on a reality tv show is saying something like that to you?
Prior to the screenwriter interview, Sam answered 40 questions from fans. Here are some excerpts:
Why did you post all of these private voice mails? Don’t you feel bad about that?
Because her friends were harassing me online and calling me a liar. They said we never met, never had sex, and never were together. I posted it all to prove that I am not a liar. It worked.
Are you still in love with Meri?
No. She moved on within a week going back to him. She is fine. I moved on a few months later. It took me a really long time to figure out how I feel about her. I will always love her. I guess a part of me will always hope that when she leaves him, and she will leave him, that she will come find me. But I know that’s just a dream. She is happy where she is. I am happy where I am. It’s over.
What do you do for a living?
CEO of 6 businesses. We do construction, commercial investment and commercial real estate investments. All of my businesses are run by the VP of each company. I sit in my offices and make decisions, answer calls, reply to emails and go to meetings. I’m just the figure-head of the whole thing. And it’s my money so I get a say in what we do with it. I used to be more involved with each company but over the years we sort of just figured it all out. None of my VP’s have left. They have stayed with me from the beginning and we are now transitioning them all into becoming Presidents so they can take over each company without my input. I will still stay on as Owner and Chairman but I’m getting to the point where I trust all of them to run things exactly as I would. They get paid very, very, very well. That’s why no one has left. I’m very blessed. This situation never happens. I guess I hired the right people who believed in my vision.
Why are you so arrogant? It’s a huge turn off.
It’s actually a huge turn on. I have earned being arrogant. I do a lot of good for other people I’m successful enough to employee people who have families and I know I’m doing my best to honor God everyday of my life. I am arrogant, but I’m not too conceited.
You said in the book that you and Meri were both abuse survivors. What abuse did you and her survive?
Yes. I was sexually abused by a female babysitter when I was younger. I was so young I didn’t really know what she was doing or that it was wrong. I was also verbally, mentally and physically abused from my dad as a kid. I left my house at 16 and moved in with my aunt and uncle to finish out high school. It was that bad. Meri was also abused in her younger years. That’s for her to talk about. It’s something that really brought us together sharing our stories. She helped me out a lot with my feelings about that stuff. I hope I helped her too. It was not easy to talk about.
You can catch more of Meri’s side of the story with new episodes of Sister Wives airing Sunday nights at 8/7c on TLC.
UPDATE – TLC has announced they will be airing a one-hour special titled “Catching The Catfisher” featuring Meri as well as Nev Schulman on May 22! Click the link for all the details and a preview clip.
