Lena The Plug is denying reports of a divorce from her husband, podcaster Adam22, saying a stalker stole her identity and submitted fraudulent court paperwork without her knowledge or consent.
In a video posted to Instagram, Lena, whose legal name is Lena Nersesian, said she discovered last month that someone had attempted to file for divorce on her behalf after receiving rejected courthouse paperwork at her home.
“I’m here to address the chaos,” she said. “Last month, I went to check my mailbox, and I had all of this rejected paperwork from a courthouse. Somebody has been trying to file for divorce on my behalf.”
The paperwork included her name, home address, her daughter’s name and date of birth, and a check for $435. Nersesian said she recognized the name printed on the check as matching a name police had given her during two separate wellness checks at her residence, during which officers said a caller had reported she was being abused by her husband.
“I look at the name on the check, and I start to freak out a little bit because I remember the name,” she said. “The name on the check matches the name that the police gave me when they arrived at my house two different times doing a wellness check, claiming that somebody called and said that I was being abused by my husband.”
Nersesian said she allowed officers inside during those visits and denied making the calls herself.
“I let the cops come in. I reassured them that I did not make the call, but I remembered the name. It was a name that was hard to forget,” she said. “And so when I got this paperwork from the courthouse that was rejected, I was like, that’s scary. Like, who is this person? What are they doing? Have they actually filed anything under my name?”
Nersesian said she contacted both the courthouse and police. The courthouse initially told her no filing existed under her name, but said it could not flag her account.
“There’s nothing under your name. They were not able to make the filing. We can’t mark anything on your account though, because there’s nothing under your name, so just keep calling back,” she recalled courthouse officials telling her.
Police advised her the situation involved identity forgery and directed her to file a report.
“This person is forging your signature, claiming that they’re you. I would just file it under identity theft,” she said officers told her. On May 6, she filed a police report for identity theft.
“I thought, okay, hopefully this is over,” she said.
She said she believed the matter was resolved until her husband informed her TMZ had published a report about their divorce. A follow-up call to the courthouse confirmed a case number had been opened in her name.
“Adam tells me TMZ is reporting on our divorce. I’m like, oh no, it’s happened,” she said. “I call the courthouse, and they’re like, yeah, there’s a case number, and you filed for divorce. I’m like, but it wasn’t me. What do I do? They’re like, we don’t know. We’ve never been in this situation before. Technically, you have filed for divorce.”
Nersesian said she is now retaining an attorney to reverse the filing. She theorized the person responsible, whom she referred to only as “John,” may be in contact with someone catfishing him online while impersonating her, and that the catfish may have solicited money from him by falsely claiming Adam22 was abusive.
“My theory is that this person, John, is being spoken to by a catfish who’s pretending to be me online, and this person is trying to get money out of John. They’re claiming that Adam abuses me. They’re claiming everything that is basically in the TMZ report, all of which is not true,” she said.
She disputed the substance of the TMZ report directly.
“Adam is not in charge of all my finances. I make more than three thousand dollars a month. I’m not filing for custody. I’m not divorcing at all,” she said. “I love my husband. We’ve been together for ten years, and I know that all of you are plotting on our downfall, but it’s not happening. That day has not come.”
Nersesian said the experience was jarring in its timeline.
“I found out that I was getting divorced when you guys found out that I was getting divorced. This is such a weird situation. Honestly, if it didn’t happen to me, I wouldn’t believe it,” she said.
Nersesian and Adam22, whose legal name is Adam Grandmaison, have been together for a decade. The two are co-parents to a daughter.
Nersesian closed the video by noting one unintended consequence of the media coverage: increased viewership for a Taylor Swift-inspired music video her husband made for her birthday.
“The Taylor Swift music video that Adam made for me for my birthday is getting more views,” she said. “It’s such a masterpiece that I’m so glad more people are seeing it. So that’s the silver lining here. I’m gonna have to figure out how I’m gonna undo all of this.”
