Owning Manhattan has been one of this summer’s juiciest reality series on Netflix as we get to sit back, chill out, and watch ambitious people sell incredibly expensive apartments in New York City. Like Selling Sunset and all the fun celeb clients, the show lets us pretend that we live a more fabulous life than we actually do. And it turns out that a cast member might have a truly dramatic dating story…
While Owning Manhattan features drama between agents, nerve-wracking deal negotiations, and some of the nicest homes we’ve ever seen, we also get some glimpses of what these cast members are really like. But, of course, we also want to learn as much as we can about them IRL and there’s only so much that can be included in an episode. Is it true that a star of Owning Manhattan had a real-life experience that could be an episode of MTV’s Catfish?
Was this Owning Manhattan star’s mom really a catfish?
The answer is yes… but it’s a hilarious and heartwarming story. Owning Manhattan star and real estate agent Chloe Tucker Caines posted a TikTok that got over 2 million views and wrote “Your Jewish mother catfished your British husband on Hinge three years ago.” Of course, with a caption like that, we all need to know more…
In an interview with the New York Post, Chloe explained that her mom Barbra Night is the one responsible for her sweet happily ever after. She and her husband Leon had their first date in May of 2018, and once they had gotten the chance to chat a bit, she let him know that her mother had talked to him on Hinge and texted with him. While it sounds super awkward to admit, we know that Chloe is bold from her Owning Manhattan scenes, so we’re not surprised that she was honest with Leon.
Thankfully, Leon didn’t run away when Chloe confessed what her mom did (phew). She shared a hilarious anecdote from the date and said, “And he was like, ‘To be honest, now that I know you, you don’t seem like the type to say ‘al fresco’ in a sentence.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t even know what that means.'”
Dating can be one of the most difficult and irritating parts of life, and we totally understand the reason why Chloe’s mom Barbra essentially catfished Chloe’s now-husband. Chloe explained to The New York Post that she was tired of using dating apps because she had gone through some heartache, and her mom decided to step in.
Chloe’s mom was an equal opportunity swiper, and used The League, Bumble, Hinge, JSwipe, and Raya. But Hinge ended up being the winner. Things worked out so well that Chloe and Leon are not only still married, but they are parents to their little one, Charley, who was born in March 2024.
While some people would be upset that their mom got so involved in their love life, others would honestly welcome the chance to still look for love while not having to use these dreadful apps themselves. Chloe said TikTokers wondered if her mom could be their own personal dating assistant, and if we’re single, we like that idea a lot.
The best part of this story? When Chloe let Barbra know that she and Leon were going to meet, Chloe told her mom, “Your boyfriend called me. He asked me out to dinner.” We can just tell Chloe and Barbra have an amazing mother/daughter bond, and we’re here for it. Babra had great instincts thinking that her daughter would get along with Leon, who has a finance job and showed that he’s intelligent and cultured in his profile.
While we might not want to say that our moms are always right… in this case, one mom definitely was.