Sherri Papini's Kidnapping Hoax: Ex-Husband Breaks Silence on ...
The husband of Sherri Papini, the California woman who faked her own kidnapping seven years ago, said this week that he knew she was lying when he first saw her in the hospital.
Keith Papini told Good Morning America that he was speaking out for the first time in seven years in order to get the truth out there, adding that Sherri has never apologized to him for lying.
Sherri's story, which drew national attention, will be told in a new Hulu documentary premiering on June 20, which Keith features in.
"She made us all believe that her story was true," Papini told GMA. "Every single day she committed to the lie."
The mother of two was reported missing in California by Keith on November 2, 2016, when she didn't come home from a run.
She then reappeared 22 days later at the side of a highway, chained and badly injured. Sherri claimed she had been abducted by two Hispanic women, who had branded her.
"When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her, I saw her eyes, I felt in that moment that she was lying," he told GMA of the moment he saw his now ex-wife in hospital after she was found.
He said that when he got closer and saw her bruises and burns, he felt horrible for thinking she could lie.
Keith stood by his wife for some time, with the family living in fear of the alleged abductors returning and adding extra security around their Redding, Calif. home.
Sherri had not been abducted, however, and had instead gone to stay with an ex-boyfriend for those three weeks. While she was there, she injured herself to make it look like she had been attacked.
"I really wanted to let everybody know how convincing Sherri was all of those years and how I believed everything she was telling me," Keith told GMA.
The Hulu docu-series – Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini - includes allegations made by Sherri to her friends that Keith had told her before he disappearance that if she tried to leave, he would kill her.
"Those allegations hurt. They are painful," Keith told GMA as he denied the accusations.
Sherri was convicted over faking the kidnapping in 2022 and spent 10 months in prison. Keith filed for divorce and sole custody of their children shortly after.
While she apologized in court, Keith said his ex-wife has never apologized to him or their children.
"She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen," he said. "I do not talk to Sherri at all."
He believes she wanted him to be her knight in shining armor and find her, but he didn't fulfil that side of her undisclosed plan.
His plan now is to try to move on and to give his children a good childhood.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
