MTV’s Catfish star, Nev Schulman, has been accused of punching a woman in the face when he was a student at Sarah Lawrence University in the US.

The incident happened in 2006 and Nev recalls it in his book In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age. In the book, Nev describes how he hit the person in self-defence during an LGBT event where he was taking photos: “While I was photographing, an individual who didn’t like that I was taking pictures attempted to tackle me and smash my camera on the ground … In an effort to free myself, I punched the person and ran off; when I returned minutes later, I discovered that the short, stocky, crew-cut style individual I’d fought with was a woman – a fact I hadn’t been aware of in the heat of the moment. The next thing I knew, I’d been arrested.”

Nev was later expelled from the college.

However, according to the woman involved in the altercation with Nev, this is not how things went down – at all, as she told New York Magazine: “To be quite clear, Schulman’s account of the events of that night is as suspect as all his other endeavours … I confronted him, and asked him to stop taking pictures. I didn’t tackle him and I certainly didn’t choke him with his camera strap. I tapped his shoulder and he turned around at hit me out of nowhere, I went down and he held me in a head lock and repeatedly punched me while I tried to get free.”

The incident has come to light following NFL player Ray Rice punching his wife in an elevator, about which Nev tweeted: "Cowards make me sick. Real men show strength through patience and honour. This elevator is abuse free." The tweet has since been removed.