The ex-husband of kidnapping faker Sherri Papini broke his silence to reveal how he was also fooled by his wife’s elaborate hoax.
Sherri, 41, was jailed in 2022 over a Gone Girl-style plot in which she faked her own kidnapping and disappeared for three weeks in 2016, lying to police and inflicting injuries on herself that matched her story.
The plan captivated the nation and was the focus of true crime documentaries and podcasts.
Now, seven years later, her ex-husband Keith has broken his silence. to Good Morning America: “I think she wanted me to be her knight in shining armor and run to her side.”
The couple is now embroiled in a lengthy custody battle over their two children Tyler, 14, and Violet, 12.
Sherri Papini’s ex-husband Keith Papini has broken his silence to reveal how he was duped by her fake kidnapping plot
Sherri was reported missing in November 2016 and reappeared three weeks later on Thanksgiving, 140 miles from where she was last seen.
Officers found her with a chain around her waist, multiple injuries and a mark on her shoulder.
Over the next few weeks, she pulled off an elaborate ruse, telling officers she had been kidnapped by two Spanish women who beat and branded her.
But her story unraveled when officers found her ex-boyfriend’s DNA on her clothes in 2020 and discovered she had been tracked to him the whole time.
Supporting the kidnapping story, it turned out that her injuries were all self-inflicted.
Keith spent the time she was missing desperately searching for her, while also being treated as a suspect in her disappearance. After her trial and imprisonment, he was given full custody of the children.
Breaking his silence seven years later, he told Good Morning America that she has never apologized to him for what she put their family through: “She has no regrets that I have ever seen or seen.”
Even when police accused her of lying, Sherri insisted she was telling the truth. Keith said: “She made us believe her story was true. Every day she committed herself to the lie. ‘
He said he wants everyone to know “how convincing” Sherri was “all these years” and how he believed everything she said.
He said: ‘I think she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping, but in her version I had to find her.’
He said all he wants now is to be able to “move past it,” even though the events “will always be there.”
Sherri was reported missing in November 2016 and reappeared three weeks later on Thanksgiving, 140 miles from where she was last seen.
Keith spent the time she missed desperately looking for her. After her trial and imprisonment, he was given full custody of the children
He said: ‘I want to give my children a great childhood, but I think it will always be there.’
Sherri is currently fighting for more access to Tyler and Violet, while Keith wants her to undergo a psychological evaluation and be barred from seeing them unsupervised.
She also demands that he hand over an array of items from the marital home in Redding, including the grandfather’s truck, an inflatable water slide, a leaf blower and a smart TV’.
An expense report obtained by DailyMail.com shows that the petite blonde claims to have an income of just $1,000 a month, of which she says she pays half in rent.
She was previously awarded just $10,000 in her divorce and ordered to pay half of a $3,000 debt she took out on a BestBuy credit card after being arrested in April 2022.