Author of the super-viral 'Cat Person' story talks about the IRL events that inspired it

It was the short story that many of us devoured with a fury that only accompanies a piece of writing that's profoundly relatable. But, what is the true story that inspired Cat Person, the goose-bump-inducing short story that had many of us nodding our heads as we muttered "same" to ourselves?

In her first ever face-to-face interview, Cat Person author Kristen Roupenian told British journalist Dolly Alderton about the real-life event that became the basis for the super-viral story.

Roupenian told Alderton that the idea for Cat Person came after a "nasty" experience with a man she met through a dating app a year ago.

"I went on the date, it went poorly and we got in a fight. And that’s all right, but I thought, 'I'm 35, how did I make this mistake? How did I misread someone so completely?'"

Roupenian, who's now 36, hadn't been single since she was in her twenties, but when she reentered the dating scene after being engaged to a man for several years, she found that dating hadn't really changed that much.

"When I was 26 and dating, I was such a mess and everything was terrible. I thought now I would be a mature adult and wouldn’t screw up and would understand when people are garbage right away," she told the Sunday Times. "But instead I felt just as smacked by it and just as confused."

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Roupenian is now in a relationship with a woman she met during a writing fellowship programme several months prior to Cat Person's publication. Roupenian says her current relationship status has rendered it "strange to suddenly be the spokesperson for terrible straight sex."

Asked about the criticism that Margot—the story's protagonist—"should have been more honest when it came to sex," Roupenian says that to do that would have erased the "deeply entrenched culture that leaves many women feeling they have to lie" during sex. "I think that young women in particular feel they have to manage and control and soothe and charm and weave this magic around men," says Roupenian.

"When you’re dating, you show up and there’s somebody across the table from you and they’re not who you want, but you want to make it work, so you think: I need to act differently," she adds. "That’s not at all who you are when you are friends with someone."

Roupenian talked about her current relationship and the realisation that relationships are not "perfect in a way that is unrealistic."

"I understood her as a person. I think if you go into dating with that mindset, the truth is that most of the time within five minutes you’d be, like, ‘No, you’re not the right person. Sorry, bye,’" she says.

"The truth is, most people are not the right person for you, and the person who is the right person for you will still not be a perfect human being," Roupenian continued.

Once again, Roupenian tells it exactly like it is.