NOUGHTIES pop icons Tegan and Sara Quin are opening up about their 15-year hell that saw a longtime stalker catfish and take advantage of their fans.
The Canadian twin sisters, 43, shot to fame at the turn of the 21st century and later became icons to the queer community through their songs.
But in the new Hulu/Disney+ documentary, Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, the pair open up about the dark side of their fame after discovering someone had been pretending to be them online to form explicit relationships to their admirers.
In the trailer for the film, fans who were directly affected speak out for the first time, admitting some messages were sexual in nature as their “relationship” with the person they believed to be Tegan progressed.
Starting off as a fake Facebook account, the fake Tegan – referred to now as “Fegan” – would send messages to fans before developing close attachments to them.
The person was able to abuse the fact that Tegan and Sara had developed a close online community with their fans already to make them appear more legitimate.
It wasn’t until one fan, Julie, was sent a password protected shared drive and saw the red flags, telling cameras: “I reached out to her management and got a text saying ‘she has no idea who you are’. And I said, ‘well then Tegan has a big problem’.”
As time passed, both Tegan and Sara, as well as their management team, collaborators and family members, believed they were being hacked as “Fegan” started impersonating the singer more and more.
It became clear that the catfisher had access to the pair’s personal information, as well as information on their unreleased work and demos, their mother’s medical history and email addresses of those that work closely with them.
In the trailer, they admit it introduced the terrifying idea that the catfish was someone within their inner circle.
Soon, multiple people were coming forward with their own claims about messaging Tegan, none of whom actually were, with one saying they sent “explicit, sexual things” while another confirming on camera they thought they were in a relationship with Tegan.
During the time of the hacking, around 2011, users were not as aware of the importance of online safety, with stars legitimately speaking to their fans online.
Talking to Rolling Stone about the terror of having a copycat, Tegan explained: “Back then no one even understood what this was and there was no place to talk about it.
“It was heavy to carry at the time. Now, I feel like I can expel some of the grief and fatigue and frustration and guilt and responsibility because I have context and so does the world on what this is. But back then, I just felt ashamed and just thought, ‘Please let it end.’”
Soon, the pair withdrew from their public outreach to assert a bigger boundary between them and the fans.
Sara told Rolling Stone: “When Fegan happened, I was upset and terrified, but it also confirmed something that I already was feeling, which was a desire to put a bigger boundary around us and our personal lives.
“Sometimes it felt like community. There was something beautiful about it. But it seemed like it was always right on the edge of curdling. Like it would only take one bad actor.”
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara premieres October 18, only on Hulu.
