The entire, inglorious timeline of the 'three-breasted woman' scandal

The internet, or at least some small corners of it, has been left utterly dumbstruck by the story of a woman who purportedly paid $20,000 to have a third breast attached.

"Why did she get it done? Is it real? Is it a hoax?" These are all questions that many people have been striving to answer.

In the beginning

There were two. Two breasts that is. But then there were three. Jasmine Tridevil (not her real name), appeared in a YouTube video showing off her spare 'boob' behind a specially-adapted bikini bra and made frequent posts on her Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Those videos prompted an interview on a local radio show, in Orlando, Florida last Tuesday - 16th September.

She told the Real Radio station that she spent $20,000 ("every penny I have") to get the surgery done so she could both appear "less attractive to men" and on a reality TV show.

Tridevil said she had asked about 50 doctors to perform the surgery and none of them would agree as it would be a breach of ethics. However, one surgeon eventually relented, on the condition that she sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Going viral

Her story was soon picked up on social media and the views racked up on her YouTube channel. Various articles appeared on Sunday with titles along the lines of "Woman with THREE breasts", "Woman, 21, claims to have paid $20,000.." etc etc. She also did interviews with The Sun and German tabloid Bild.

The inquisition

But then the questions began. Jezebel ran with "Three-Breasted Woman's 3rd Boob Looks Fake as Hell in Video Interview", BuzzFeed went with "It’s looking increasingly like this is indeed a hoax" and the Telegraph published "5 reasons why ‘woman with three breasts’ is probably a hoax".

The crux of the issue was that the only pictures of Tridevil were apparently taken by Tridevil herself and the supernumerary bosom-in-question was always covered by clothing.

Then seasoned debunkers Snopes pointed out several reasons why they concluded it was almost certainly a hoax.

They cite strange skin tone of said breast, and they claim the domain name jasminetridevil.com was owned by a certain Alisha Hessler, a woman who, as BuzzFeed put it, has quite the internet footprint.

She looks like the woman on this modelling page, this YouTube channel and the one who was also at the centre of this headline last year. And then there's this questionable website...

Then there's also the fact that medical professionals would have to carry out a psychological assessment of someone before carrying out such a surgery.

What happened next

Although Jasmine was emphatic in her interview with The Sun, telling the paper: "This is not a fake." and even claimed that she may get her two pre-existing breasts reduced to fall in line with the middle one.

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