Sherri Papini, the California woman who infamously faked her own kidnapping back in 2016, is once again stirring controversy, this time by claiming she’d rather go to prison than admit the truth to her husband.
In a new sit-down interview with ABC News, Papini insists that her bizarre and headline-grabbing hoax was rooted in fear, shame, and a spiraling emotional affair that she believed could ruin her life.
The 41-year-old, who previously pleaded guilty in 2022 to making false statements and mail fraud, now says her lie wasn’t about the kidnapping itself, just the identity of her alleged captor. “To be clear, there was one thing that I lied about,” she told ABC’s Juju Chang. “Everything else was accurate and true. I lied about the identity of my captor.”
In her new memoir, Sherri Papini Doesn’t Exist, which drops June 26, Papini paints a more “vulnerable” and “evidence-backed” version of the events that captivated the nation. She now claims it wasn’t two Latina women who kidnapped her, as she initially said, but rather her ex-boyfriend James Reyes, who she alleges took and held her against her will.
That story directly contradicts the signed plea deal she made in 2022, where she admitted the entire thing was staged and that she had voluntarily stayed with Reyes for the 22 days she was reported missing. Papini now says that emotional manipulation and fear of her husband, Keith Papini, drove her to maintain the lie.
“Prison was far safer than the consequences that I would suffer if my ex-husband found out I was having an emotional affair,” Papini confessed. “I’d prefer prison over telling Keith Papini that I was having an emotional affair.”
She also referenced a post-nuptial agreement signed during their marriage, which, she claims, would’ve awarded Keith full custody of their two children if she committed infidelity of any kind, physical or emotional.
Papini says her relationship with Reyes had started months before the incident and was emotionally intense. She alleges Reyes ultimately kidnapped her on November 2, 2016, but he has previously denied this and was never charged. According to law enforcement, Reyes was cooperative, passed a polygraph, and presented consistent statements throughout their investigation.
Her story began to unravel when male DNA was found on the underwear she wore when she resurfaced after her 22-day disappearance. That DNA was eventually traced back to Reyes using advanced genetic genealogy techniques in 2020.
Now, Papini is publicly urging Reyes to “tell the truth.” She told ABC, “I’ve done it. I’ve suffered for it. You watched me burn for it, go to prison, lose custody of my children, and ruin my entire life… And it’s time to come forward and tell the truth to everyone. He knows what happened.”
She says this is the first time she’s felt “free” enough to tell her story without fear or shame. “I’m not actually asking anyone to believe anything,” she told ABC. “I just… I’m free now. And I have the capacity to speak for myself without being afraid and without having to lie.”
Since her criminal conviction, Papini has been embroiled in a bitter custody dispute with Keith, who filed for divorce in 2022 following her indictment. Asked what message she has for her ex, she said, “You have to love your children more than you hate your ex. Just love them more than your hate for me.”
With her self-published memoir about to hit the shelves, a docuseries already out, and a fresh wave of interviews reviving public fascination, Sherri Papini isn’t fading quietly into the background. Whether her new version of the story holds up remains to be seen, but she’s certainly not done talking.
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