16-year-old photoshops a picture of her 6-year-old brother with Daniel Radcliffe, finally tells him the picture was fake after 14 years: 'His memory of the fake meeting felt so real to him that it became one of his proudest stories'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Dec 8, 2024 1:00 PM EST

It's unbelievable how easy it is to have a false memory. My family and I were recently discussing two disparate memories regarding my little sister, taxi cabs, and Broadway musicals. Everyone else remembers her saying, "Where's my taxi?" after we saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway when she was four. I remember her telling the cab driver, "Take us to Wicked," around that time. The thing is, though, I don't actually remember the latter incident, but I remember my mom retelling the story of "Take us to Wicked" to others. Nearly 20 years later, my mom doesn't remember that at all, but she does remember, "Where's my taxi?". While it is possible that my sister had two hilarious interactions related to taxi cabs and Broadway musicals around the same time, it does seem much more likely that I have a false memory. The 20-year-old in this story has a much more devastating false memory than I do, and it's hard not to feel bad for him.

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    Cheezburger Image 10433993728
    via Polina Kuzovkova (Unsplash+)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    AITA for ruining my brother's childhood memory by admitting I photoshopped it 14 years ago?
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 03
    When my younger brother (20 now) was 6, he went through a huge Harry Potter phase. He loved the wizarding world and believed he might meet 'Harry Potter' (Daniel Radcliffe) or the other characters on a family trip to Scotland since Hogwarts was 'there.' No one promised him this, but he convinced himself it could happen. Sadly, the trip was canceled after our grandpa passed away, and my brother was devastated for both reasons.
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 04
    To cheer him up, I decided to craft a 'souvenir'. I was 16 and had just discovered photoshop, so I edited a picture of my brother with Daniel Radcliffe to make it look like they'd met. I printed it, framed it, and gave it to him without telling him it was fake. He loved it and fully believed he'd met Daniel. Soon, he had an entire story about the meeting; what they talked about, how Daniel hugged him, etc. It was so sweet, and none of us (my family and I) had the heart to tell him the truth.
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 05
    Fast forward 14 years, and my brother still didn't know that the old, low quality picture of him meeting Daniel Radcliffe is fake. I never told him because his memory of the fake meeting felt so real to him that it became one of his proudest stories. Over time the memory became less important and the framed picture had been packed away in some box, and my brother has long outgrown his Harry Potter obsession. Yesterday, however, we were at our parents' home and we were bringing up old memories, y
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 06
    Daniel Radcliffe came up, and thinking it was harmless, I told him the truth. I thought he'd laugh but instead he got visibly upset. He didn't want to believe me at first, thinking I was messing with him. I told him the real story of how and why I did it. He told me that it feels like I robbed him of a real childhood memory that he really cherished, and he feels embarrassed thinking about all the times he's told people about meeting Daniel Radcliffe in person, even recently. We ended our
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 07
    conversation on a semi-good note, though. I apologised for not telling him sooner, because I do feel bad that it meant so much to him even now. But I don't regret it. Back then, it made him so happy during a rough time, and I don't regret giving him that joy. I just didn't realize how much it still meant to him. So I'm just wondering, am (or was) I the a-he?
    via u/FunFace3389
  • 08
    NTA. It's like Santa. You did it with good intentions and he never met him. He was 6, now he is 20. Maybe disappointing, but he's 20 years old.... It would be worse to continue the fantasy for an adult. I am sure no one ever thought at the time this would be the result 14 years later, sounds like he just never got the memo it wasn't real... much worse things that can happen as an adult.
    via u/Miss_Judge_and_Jury
  • 09
    SwordfishPast8963 • 14h ago • ^ this comment nailed it. while it's a bummer he feels embarrassed, you had nothing but the sweetest intentions and definitely thought this would be a few year long phase- not something he held onto for life. don't sweat it. soon he'll have better small talk to make with the people he told about meeting daniel, when he's able to laugh about this.
    via u/SwordfishPast8963
  • 10
    0biterdicta I don't think either brother is the a h le here. 14 years ago, the OP was a teenager trying to do something nice for his little brother. And now, I'm sure it's hard for the brother to learn the truth and embarrassing to think he might have to tell other people he inadvertently lied too. Really the parents should have intervened once they realized the 6 year old believed he met Daniel Radcliffe.
    via u/0biterdicta
  • 11
    mufasamufasamufasa I'm still stuck on the fact a 6 year old saw this picture and just suddenly thought he met Daniel Radcliffe and forgot? I was 6 one time, and my brain never did anything like that
    via u/mufasamufasamufasa
  • 12
    Tanyec How do you know? :) fake memories are a thing and most of us have concocted some. It's freaky to think about but very much true. ETA: this is why child witnesses are especially tricky at trials. It's really really easy to suggest false memories to kids and they'll be 100% convinced those things happened.
    via u/Tanyec
  • 13
    Barbed NTA. It's like Santa. I think there is a big difference here. There is zero harm in a 20 year old going through the rest of his life thinking he met Daniel Radcliffe when he was a kid. It's an entirely feasible story that doesn't matter, and is fading into insignificance. Lots of people have false memories, the brain is weird. It's not like a 40 year old is going to start at a new job and excitedly tell everyone in the office about the day he met santa because his older brother never told
    via u/Barbed_****
  • 14
    ErikLovemonger This is 100% YTA. Every time this kid has brought the story up for what 20 years the family has basically lied to the kid and pretended it happened. At any point they could have gently told him the truth, but he is rightfully upset. How many pictures have you seen of your childhood that you don't remember? Of course if someone tells you it happened you'll believe it. I don't think OP meant to hurt his brother or was being intentionally cruel but that's the effect it had.
    via u/ErikLovemonger
  • 15
    WelfordNelferd I'm a tad surprised that you could convince a six-year- old they'd met their idol when they hadn't, but you're still NTA. Did he even question it at the time??
    via u/WelfordNelferd
  • 16
    CallistanCallistan False memories are well documented in child psychology. It's very easy to convince someone of a false childhood memory, and they will even accidentally fabricate additional details. There doesn't have to be any malice involved, it's just a weird quirk about the way brains work.
    via u/CallistanCallistan
  • 17
    Uppercreek101 My younger sister remembers doing something that I actually did. I didn't bother to dispute it but it took me aback for a moment
    via u/Uppercreek101
  • 18
    franzo3000 It's actually quite shocking just how common false memories are, and it's not just contained to child psychology either. It's actually kinda scary how easy it is to manipulate the memories of full frown adults, too
    via u/franzo3000
  • 19
    FissureOfLight I have almost no memories from before I was 9 years old, much less 6. My parents could have told me I was in another country until the age of 7 and I'd have believed them.
    via u/FissureOfLight
  • 20
    Ciskakid Just goes to show that false memories really can be planted so firmly they become real. Every time he told the story it was reinforced. Parents really should have said something by age 12 or 13.
    via u/FissureOfLight
  • 21
    SpaceAceCase I don't get why people are comparing this to Santa... this feels so extreme that everyone kept up this lie for so long. Your almost 10 years older then him, why didn't you or anyone else tell him sooner? Your grandfather did, he was a child grieving, this false memory would have been so easy for a young kid to cling onto in the mist of all that. It seems so cruel to do this for years... ESH except your brother.
    via u/FissureOfLight
  • 22
    Zodi445 I think after a few years it seems it became very rarely or not at all brought up in the family. I definitely don't think they were consciously manipulating him and continuing the lie regularly.
    via u/FissureOfLight
  • 23
    whorl- I think ESH for the same reasons but I also think this is exactly like Santa and that's why it's f ed up. Santa is crazy gaslighting! People pretend to eat and drink cookies left for him, leave paw prints and half-eaten carrots on the roof, and tell their children they met Santa at the mall - complete with picture to prove it. A lot of kids only learn Santa isn't real because someone tells them. OP's brother had no one to tell him not to believe and that's an extremely cruel prank to play
    via u/whorl-
  • 24
    inquisitivemind79 YTA for not telling him sooner. This is not like Santa or the Easter bunny or unicorns or anything like that. This is something that could have actually happened and there was no way for him to know it didn't really happen.
    via u/inquisitivemind79
  • 25
    There are better ways to cheer up a kid than lying to them. This is seriously insane that you allowed this to go on for so long. If my family had told me I met someone or had visited a specific country as a kid and had a photo that looked real I would absolutely believe it I don't have much of a memory at that age and anyone who says they actually do probably have false memories like your sibling. This is a horrible and weird thing to do to someone you care about.
    via u/inquisitivemind79
  • 26
    CuriousEmphasis7698 NTA. You were 14 he was 6. You did a cute thing for your kid brother. It's not on you that the adults in the situation never clued him in, and let him persist in thinking this event really happened into adulthood. Really they should have done something, up to an including getting him professional help, when he started developing the fantasy that the meeting had really happened and behaving like it was a real event. That is when the adults should have intervened because that i
    via u/CuriousEmphasis7698
  • 27
    Edit for ages: I mis-read the original post. If OP was 16 when the pic was made then the brother would have been 8 (if he was 6 when OP was 14). That doesn't substantially affect my point here, other than that it is perhaps even more worrying that an 8 year old would develop this fantasy, because at 8 he should have been old enough to recall that they never went on the trip so there was no possibility that he met the actor.
    via u/CuriousEmphasis7698
  • 28
    MorganAndMerlin It's a little harsh to say a (relatively small) child needs therapy because he believed a story that I was told to him as fact. It seems strange to us, as adults, that he could have simply been told something happened, believed it, and then filled out the rest of the story, but realistically, this was a 6 year old child and implanting false memories isn't exactly rocket scientist level sh at that age.
    via u/MorganAndMerlin
  • 29
    And then everytime he thought about and everytime he talked about it, it made it more real, and he never had the real life version of the story to change his memory. So of course he believed it. Maybe it's concerning he believed it until his twenties, but you're being unnecessarily unkind to a literal child for doing child things by suggesting they need professional help for thinking like a child.
    via u/MorganAndMerlin

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teens family drama childhood memory memory Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe teenager kids memories reddit story photoshop little kids family reddit thread Reddit
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