Everything We Know About the Catfish Behind Netflix’s ‘Sweet Bobby’ Documentary

Warning: Major spoilers for Netflix’s Sweet Bobby documentary ahead. If you don’t know who Simran Bhogal is, come back here after you’ve seen the doc.

It’s the catfishing story that everyone is talking about. The true story behind the new Netflix documentary Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is a tough one to take in, especially when we learn the role of Sweet Bobby‘s Simran Bhogal in all of it. But we’ll get to that.

The story starts with a friendship between Kirat Assi and Bobby after they connected on Facebook through mutual friends. Eventually, it developed into a romance, and the couple became engaged as Kirat supporting Bobby through illness and various other dramatic life milestones—all without ever having met him in person.

But after nine years of contact, it was revealed that “Bobby” was not who he said he was.

It turns out that—spoiler—Simran Bhogal is the one behind Kirat’s catfishing. She’s also Kirat’s cousin.

Kirat thought Simran was the friend in common between her and Bobby. Simran had facilitated contact between the two and even supported her cousin during dark times. Under the surface, though, she was creating up to 60 different profiles masquerading as Bobby’s friends to support her elaborate web of lies. Worst of all, she was the one communicating as Bobby—even when she was with Kirat.

The Sweet Bobby story is not just one of catfishing, but the coercive control that came with that, with Kirat opening up to Glamour UK in an interview about the “debilitating” impact of this abuse.

“I don’t think I’ve stopped living it since it happened, to be honest,” she said. “Every step of the way has been an absolute nightmare, that I don’t think I’ve ever stopped reliving it.”

Here, we go through everything we know about Sweet Bobby‘s Simran Bhogal, including her role in it all and where she is now.

Who is Simran Bhogal?

She was found to be the catfisher pretending to be Bobby throughout Kirat’s relationship with him. This was discovered after Kirat hired a private investigator to find Bobby, only to find that the real Bobby had no recollection or knowledge of their relationship. The next day, Simran revealed that she’d been pretending to be Bobby the whole time.

Where is Simran Bhogal now?

She was contacted by the Tortoise Media team, who created the original Sweet Bobby podcast that the documentary is based on, but is not available through any social media platforms. In October 2021, MailOnline reported that Simran lives in North West London with her parents and keeps a relatively low profile.

Was Simran Bhogal involved in the Sweet Bobby documentary?

Simran did not participate in the documentary itself, having declined to be interviewed, with her role in the story being played by an actor. In a statement to Netflix, Simran said that the story Sweet Bobby tells “involves events that began when she was a schoolgirl.”