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Woman shares experience on MTV's 'Catfish'


MCCONNELLSBURG - It's been three months since the filming of Candic Palmer's episode of MTV's "Catfish," and she says her marriage to her husband, Jamie, is better than before.

The episode, which aired on Aug. 24, told the story of Palmer, a McConnellsburg woman, who was texting another man named Titus without telling her husband. Palmer told the show's hosts she wanted to find out who Titus really was and tell the truth to her husband. But as it turned out, her husband was Titus.

"I was actually relieved, because it was great to know that my husband and I could connect on that level - something I didn't think we were capable of," Palmer said.

Now in its fourth season, each episode of "Catfish" tells the story of a couple who have an online relationship but have never met in person. Typically, one of them reaches out to the show's hosts, Nev Schulman and Max Joseph, for help finding and meeting the other, who has so far rejected attempts to meet and has given reason to believe they may not be who they say they are. More often than not, that turns out to be the case. That person is the "catfish," or a person who lures another person into a relationship using a fictional online persona.

Palmer said filming the show and sharing something so personal about her life was difficult.

"It was very hard, because I'm kind of a private person," she said. "Even some of my close friends didn't know all of that about me."

She also said the reveal of the man she was texting was hard, too, because she did not know who she was going to meet.

However, Palmer said it was a cool experience to be on the show, and she would do it again if she had the opportunity.

"Everybody was really nice and supportive," she said. "When you go into something like that you don't quite know if it's going to be trepid, or if it's real, really real, and it was cool to experience that side of things and realize that it's not a trepid show. Everybody was so awesome, and their main goal was to help us."

She said when the commercial for her episode aired, she was worried the show would portray her as someone who cheated on her husband, but was relieved to discover the episode made it clear she didn't.

"I was a little bit scared that they were going to twist the story around, but they didn't," she said. "They kept our original statements on there."

Overall, Palmer is happy about the way the show turned out and was grateful to see how far her husband was willing to go for her emotional well-being. Palmer also said being on "Catfish" taught her to keep fighting for her marriage.

"I should have given Jamie the benefit of the doubt and tried to connect with him, emotionally, more," she said. "I just assumed that he was stuck in this rut that he was never going to get out of, and I should have given him that chance."

Palmer said life after the show has been great and has helped her and husband become closer.

"The biggest hurdle that we had was that communication problem, and now that they've helped us with that, things have been awesome - it feels like a big weight lifted off our shoulders and we have nothing standing between us anymore," she said.

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