Kirat was in a 10-year online relationship with 'Bobby'. But his real identity was sinister.

Sweet Bobby the podcast has taken the world by storm and there's a good reason why.

It's based on the real-life story of Kirat Assi, a 42-year-old British radio presenter who fell in love with a cardiologist named Bobby.

But after 10 years in a romantic relationship, which was all based online, Kirat discovered that Bobby wasn't who he said he was, shattering her world.

In September 2009, then 30-year-old Kirat received an out-of-the-blue Facebook message.

It was from JJ, her female cousin Simran's ex-boyfriend. JJ was asking for Kirat's advice on how he should try and win Simran over. Just like many avid Facebook users, Kirat wasn't keen on responding to messages from strangers, but since they had a mutual friend in her cousin, Kirat felt comfortable to reply to JJ.

Watch: Casey Donovan on being catfished. Post continues below.

They spoke on and off for a few months until unexpectedly JJ died in August 2010, apparently from an allergic reaction. 

It was a shock for Kirat, who then reached out to her cousin Simran in order to pass on her condolences to JJ's brother: Bobby.

Bobby and Kirat then began chatting over email and soon via Facebook, a friendship blossoming. 

She could see Bobby had been to some of the same Sikh community events that she had been to via his Facebook events page. Also on his page were pictures of him in hospital scrubs, reiterating the fact he told Kirat he was a cardiologist. It was someone she instinctively trusted.

Initially, Kirat says there was nothing flirtatious about their conversations, as Bobby said he was married with a child.

"He started talking to me more regularly, and things were going wrong in his life: he was confiding in me. His marriage was crumbling," Kirat said on the Sweet Bobby podcast. 

"He'd just lost his brother as well, I didn't have any reason to question his pain: we have mutual friends, and I knew he was from a respectable family. I was being a shoulder to cry on."

Kirat then started to open up about her own life to Bobby.

Image: Twitter/ @JustKirat.

By 2011, the pair were regularly communicating online. 

In the same year, Kirat had an encounter with Bobby in a Brighton nightclub. She was there for a hens night, and was not expecting him to be here but recognised Bobby from his Facebook picture. 

"I went up and introduced myself. He seemed really vague," Kirat said. "I thought he might have had a few drinks. The music was quite loud: maybe he couldn't really hear me. It was weird."

After the brief, and confusing, encounter, Kirat stayed in contact online with Bobby. Years later, in November 2013 while Kirat was at work on her radio show, she received a Facebook message saying Bobby had been shot while in Kenya and was in a coma, suffering memory loss. And then in January 2014, she learned he had died from his injuries.

Here is when things get even more bizarre.

Bobby came back to life.

Simran, Kirat's cousin notified Kirat to let her know Bobby was in fact alive and had faked his death as he was now in a witness protection program. Kirat was added to a Facebook group with 39 other people who were also informed of Bobby's news. Kirat recognised some of the names of those in the group, many distant relatives or cousins of Bobby's.

"It's ridiculous," she acknowledges. "But at every step, these mad happenings were being backed up by other people."

Tortoise Media's six-part podcast, Sweet Bobby, is available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Image: Twitter/ @JustKirat.