Sherri Papini is reflecting on her infamous kidnapping hoax.
Almost 10 years after Papini, now 42, claimed to have been kidnapped and held captive for 22 days in 2016, she is telling a new side of the story in a new Investigation Discovery docuseries, Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.
“Haven’t you ever lied?” Papini said in a trailer for the series released April 30. “And then has that lie been blown up?”
Indeed, Papini was charged in 2022 and subsequently served 18 months in prison for the crime after lying to authorities about an alleged kidnapping.
And while the California resident—who shares kids Tyler, 12, and Violet, 10, with ex Keith Papini—pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements in the cast, she is now claiming that her falsified story was partially true.
“I went missing in 2016,” she added in the trailer for the series, which premieres May 26. “I was gone for 22 days. I was tortured, I was branded. I was chained to a wall. All of that is true. I did keep some secrets from you, though.”
At the time of Papini’s fake abduction, she was married to her ex husband Keith and abruptly disappeared during a run on Nov. 6, 2016. Although Papini alleged she had been forcefully abducted by two women at gunpoint, per a criminal complaint obtained by E! News, her ex boyfriend James Reyes later told authorities when he was called in for questioning that Papini had willfully run away with him.
In the trailer for the new Investigation Discovery series, Papini alleges that she and a partner—though the trailer does not specify their identity—both “participated in some pretty toxic behaviors.”
But despite her prison sentence officially concluding in October 2023 and having paid $309, 902 in restitution, Papini is dedicated to getting her truth out there.
“It’s a story of betrayal and violence,” Papini says of her kidnapping in the series trailer. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I’m Sherri Papini, I was abducted, I was tortured and the FBI said I made it all up.”
Meanwhile, Papini’s ex husband—who filed for divorce from her in 2022—has previously come forward corroborating Papini’s history of lies, telling People last June that when it came to the truth, Papini, “always had a way of just skirting around it, and I just kind of went along with it.”
Keith had initially supported Papini’s claims, but ultimately stood by the authorities during Papini’s trial.
“Even if she were to come out someday and do a book or magazine, I can assure you that whatever is in there is going to be what she thinks she should say to get whatever goal she's after,” Keith told People, “but it will not be the truth."