Country legend Brad Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, were conned into sending sympathy, friendship and song to a woman who said her little girl was dying in a hospital of cancer — all as a way of getting close to the couple.
A woman who called herself “Carrie” sent the celebrity couple a letter in September, telling a heart-breaker of a story about her daughter dying of cancer and pleading with her mother — as a supposed dying wish — to contact the stars, The New York Post reported.
“Carrie” even sent what she said was a photo of the girl, along with journal writings and song recordings her daughter has reportedly created just for the Paisleys, ABC reported.
The Paisleys, of course, were taken over with compassion, and they reached out to the woman with sympathy — even singing “Amazing Grace” for the girl over the phone. But “Carrie’s” story unraveled when the Paisleys asked for the address to send flowers — and the woman stumbled to answer.
“I had a physical reaction,” said Mrs. Williams-Paisley, The Post reported. “Every red flag went up that I couldn’t ask a simple question.”
And when they later learned the truth — especially the part about the woman using a photograph of an actual sick child — they were incensed.
“You’re singing to someone’s dying kid. And in the middle of it, there’s no way that’s not real,” Mr. Paisley said, The Post reported. “How can that not be real? … That’s the sickest part about this to me. … That is the part that when I start to talk about that, that’s when I get really mad. That there were real kids, that there were real photos involved.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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