Samantha Cookes

Background and early life Cookes was born in Gloucestershire in 1988. She dropped out of a degree course at the University of York. Later that year she won the Bodley Head/FT Essay Prize, a competition open to writers under the age of 35 sponsored by Bodley Head and the Financial Times. She received £1,000 for her winning entry, an essay about her diagnosis with Huntington’s disease. She said the piece had been written using speech-to-text software because she could no longer type, and it was published in FT Weekend. The essay received praise from public figures, including Hilary Knight, the Tate's director of digital strategy, who described it as "an incredibly moving read and a reminder we shouldn't need about designing for inclusion".

Media depictions

Carrie Jade Does Not Exist In 2023, Audio Always produced a six-part podcast series hosted by television presenter Sue Perkins and journalist Katherine Denkinson. The series retold the story that Katherine had written for Vice World News the year before, in which Cookes' claims of terminal illness, interactions with families, and other concerning behaviour was exposed and explored at length. After Cookes re-emerged in 2024, the series was extended to cover the events of her arrest and trial.

Swindled - "The Vacation Rental" A 2023 bonus episode of Swindled, entitled "The Vacation Rental", examines Cookes claims of a terminal illness, and her attempts to defraud Airbnb renters.

The Real Carrie Jade In 2024, The RTÉ Radio Player produced a 8-episode podcast series, narrated by Justine Stafford about its interactions with and investigations of Cookes. Cookes had contacted RTÉ through its documentary department and Liveline. Eventually, RTÉ producer Ronan Kelly met with Cookes ("Carrie Jade") in Caherciveen, in County Kerry, and recorded her claims of being a disability advocate, as a self-professed sufferer of Huntington's disease. The series investigates these and other claims made by Cookes, and the money she fraudulently received from donors.

Featured in the series are several of Cookes’ victims, including a North Yorkshire couple she deceived while posing as a surrogate mother, and a family in County Offaly who unknowingly employed her as a nanny. In another instance, Cookes pretended to be a therapist for children with additional needs and collected money for a fake Lapland trip before disappearing.

The documentary aired on RTÉ One and BBC One Northern Ireland in May 2025, with streaming available on RTÉ Player and BBC iPlayer. The documentary was aired on BBC One in the rest of the UK in July 2025.

Conviction Cookes was arrested in Tralee in 2024 and later convicted in March 2025 on multiple charges, including theft and welfare fraud. She received a four-year prison sentence with the final year suspended.