Imagine your best friend telling you she is facing the battle of a lifetime: incurable cancer. Then, after you’ve supported her in every way you could — even shaving your head in solidarity — you discover that the cancer diagnosis was a lie.
That’s what happened to Chelsey. When the 25-year-old learned that her dear friend Meaghan had terminal cancer, she banded together with other friends in support. In addition to shaving their heads, the women got matching tattoos and raised thousands of dollars to help with Meaghan’s medical bills. After 14 months of comforting their friend, Meaghan confessed that it was all a lie — she didn’t have cancer, and she wasn’t going to die. Hear why Meaghan says she faked cancer.
Now, for the first time since the truth was revealed, Meaghan comes face to face with Chelsey in the video above.
Meaghan apologizes to Chelsey for taking months to face her and says, “I want you to know that the reason I haven’t reached out is not because I don’t care or because I’m not sorry, because that’s not true. I think that I wanted to figure out as much as I could why I got to this point … I betrayed you. I betrayed your trust. I’ve done it before, and it wasn’t fair.”
Dr. Phil asks Meaghan, “Are you sorry for what you’ve done to her?”
“I am very, very, very sorry,” she says. “I am sorry to [Chelsey], to all of the girls, to my family.”
Chelsey addresses Meaghan. “I don’t want you to think that I hate you, because I don’t. I don’t wish any harm on you,” she says. “My first and still reaction has always just been heartbreak, knowing what kind of a broken place that must come from to do something like that and to feel so unlovable that you thought that’s something that you had to do. The amount of shame and guilt that you must feel is probably far worse than any punishment that could be inflicted on you.”
Chelsey says she and their other friends didn’t deserve what Meaghan put them through, but as awful as the situation has been, it’s better than Meaghan dying of cancer. “I wish that you could have stopped it before it went on as long as it did,” says Chelsey. “I think you can move on from this; I don’t think this has to define you.”
Watch more from this episode here.
Need Dr. Phil's help in your life? Share your story here.
Like Dr. Phil | 
Follow Dr. Phil | Be on the Show | 
Ask Dr. Phil