woman deceivce's boyfriend and town with fake pregnancy for 34 weeks

A Canadian woman
managed to convince her boyfriend and
her town that she was pregnant with
quintuplets for 34 weeks.
It was only when Barbara Bienvenue, 37,
went to the hospital to deliver the babies
this month that doctors pulled her
boyfriend aside to tell him she wasn’t
pregnant and never had been, according
to CTV , a Canadian news station.
“I lost everything, it was my whole life,”
her boyfriend Paul Servat told the Toronto
Sun, adding that Bienvenue told him she
was expecting twins, then triplets, then
quadruplets, then quintuplets. He said her
belly grew, and she experienced morning
sickness and lactation.
Paul Sevat stands in an empty nursery. (Credit:
Camille Laurin-Desjardins /Le Journal De Montral/
Agence QMI)
Marie-Pier Gagnon, a reporter for Le
Canada Français , a local French-language
newspaper that covers Saint-Jean-sur-
Richelieu, Quebec, reported on Jan. 23
that the couple was expecting
quadruplets. They would be named
Alexander, Sebastian, Charles and Rosalie,
and they would be born via Cesarean
section on Feb. 22 at the CHU Sainte-
Justine Hospital in Montreal. Photos of a
colorful room with wall-to-wall cribs
accompanied the article.
Gagnon wrote that the news spurred a
movement on social networks to help the
couple, and donations poured in.
Then, on March 20, Gagnon published
another article, revealing that Bienvenue
was never pregnant.
Local police spokesman Sgt. Luc Tougas
said his department is aware of the
Bienvenue story, but it has not received
any formal fraud complaints from the
people who donated money and baby
things to the couple.
“The spouse, who was also jilted with this
whole story, has been reimbursing some
of the associations,” Tougas told
ABCNews.com. “He was also very
stunned. Right now, this woman is at the
hospital undergoing psychiatric
treatment. We suspect some mental
issues.”
A Facebook page soliciting donations for
the babies has since been taken down.
ABC News sent an email to the account
set up to handle donations, but there was
no response.
Bienvenue experienced a phantom
pregnancy, or pseudocyesis, and she is
receiving psychiatric care, The Sun
reported. Pseudocyesis is a very rare
disorder in which a woman experiences
all the symptoms of pregnancy, but is not
pregnant.