Hulu’s ‘Tell Me Lies‘ never really had the vibe of a typical love story, where we see Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco constantly pull each other in. Initially, it feels thrilling, then it slowly turns poisonous.
Viewers can’t stop watching because the romance looks disturbingly familiar, and once you know the truth behind it, it makes things even more unsettling.
A Fictional Couple Built On Real Feelings In ‘Tell Me Lies’
The “too real” feeling isn’t just an accident. The hit Hulu series is based on Carola Lovering’s 2018 bestselling novel, and the author has shared that she didn’t dream up Stephen out of nowhere. Her book is based on her own lived experience, and a real person inspired the toxic romance that viewers can’t stop talking about.
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Carola Lovering opened up about it in an April 2019 essay for The Cut, where she admitted she spent a long time avoiding the question people kept asking her: Was Stephen based on someone real? She said she would smile and give a rehearsed answer, mainly because she didn’t want to “publicly rehash something that had been such a toxic situation” in her life.
She also shared that readers kept telling her they had dated someone exactly like Stephen, which only made the question harder to escape. Eventually, she decided it was better to be honest than keep brushing it off. Lovering clarified that Stephen isn’t a direct copy of a real person, but yes, someone in her life inspired him. “I’ve been so hesitant and scared to talk about the ‘real’ Stephen,” she wrote, adding that the man who inspired Stephen “isn’t actually the character.”
“Real Stephen” Was Messy, Charming And Hard To Quit
Lovering never named the man, but she described the situation clearly. At 23, while living at home in Westchester, New York, she used to take the train into New York City to see him, even though he was living with a girlfriend. She knew the situation wasn’t right, but she still kept going back. He told her his girlfriend wasn’t “the one,” and he made it sound like she was the person he truly wanted.
Lovering admitted she got pulled in anyway, describing the attraction as “a magnet, an inexplicable compulsion, as vital as oxygen.” She even wrote that being with him felt like obeying “the urge to breathe.” Their connection started back in college, and later “morphed into his unabashed, almost manic pursuit” of her. Lovering said she became obsessed with the feeling of being wanted. And even after she found out there were other women, she still convinced herself it meant something deeper.
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Just like Lucy and Stephen’s relationship on the show, Lovering said she kept falling into the same pattern. She would leave, tell herself she was done, and then return again when he showed up. “The draw was simple,” she wrote. According to her, she had never met anyone else who made her feel as alive as he did.
Lovering called it a “vicious cycle,” and the ending didn’t happen because she finally walked away. He walked away first. She felt completely crushed, but she also admitted a small part of her saw it as a strange gift. “That tiny piece of myself is the person I fought my way back toward,” she said.
How ‘Tell Me Lies’ Became A Salvation
Writing ‘Tell Me Lies‘ became part of how she healed. Peace came through “this commitment to introspection,” and she described sitting in front of a blank Word document. She referenced Joan Didion’s famous line, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.” Lovering explained she had to create a fictional person on paper to finally understand him.
Eventually, he turned into Stephen “the fickle, alluring charmer with a spine-melting touch, who always says the right thing, even if it’s a lie.” Lovering also pointed out that this kind of relationship isn’t just her story. A lot of people have had their own version of a Stephen, even if they hate admitting it. “In full transparency, I did have a Stephen, and he was horrible,” she wrote. “But it’s okay. It got me here.”
In a way, Lovering turned her own experience into a story that many people recognise instantly. And maybe that is exactly what makes the show so addictive, so uncomfortable, and so hard to forget.
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