REDDING, Calif. — Keith Papini, the ex-husband of a California woman who faked her own kidnapping in 2016, spoke about his experience ahead of Hulu's new series "Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini."
Keith Papini said in an exclusive interview with ABC his family lived in fear after his ex-wife's kidnapping.
"She made us all believe that her story was true. Every single day she committed to the lie," Keith Papini said.
Papini was gone for 22 days but her disappearance impacted her family, the community and more for years.
Papini was found with bindings on her body, a swollen nose, a blurred “brand” on her right shoulder, bruises and rashes across her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. All of her injuries were self-inflicted and designed to back up her story she had been abducted at gunpoint by two Hispanic women while she was out for a run.
"I wanted to get the truth out there and really wanted to let everybody know how convincing Sherri was all those years and how I believed everything that she was telling me," Keith Papini said.
Keith Papini shared about the moment he saw Sherri after she returned home.
"When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her and saw the look in her eyes, I felt in that moment that she was lying and it wasn't until I really got close and I could see the amount of injuries — bruises, burns to her body and it was a shock to me and I remember thinking 'how horrible of me to even think that she could've done this to herself,'" Keith Papini said.
It didn't just impact him.
"The amount of fear that our family lived in that was fake is excruciating, I mean the security at our house, new doors, new locks, new lights, new cameras," Keith Papini said.
When asked if Sherri ever apologized to him or the children, Keith said this: "No. Never. She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen."
He said he doesn't talk to Sherri at all.
"I think she wanted me to be her knight in shining armor and run to her and I think that she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping but in her version, I was supposed to find her here," he said.
Keith Papini and Sherri Papini were divorced in 2023 and he has sole custody of their two children.
"I think it's always going to be there. We do want to move past it. I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it will always be there," Keith Papini said.
Sherri Papini has a new boyfriend, according to ABC.
CASE HISTORY
Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Sept. 2022 after pleading guilty in April.
In a court filing, Papini’s defense attorney said the married mother ran away to an ex-boyfriend in Southern California about 600 miles south of her home in Redding. He later dropped her off on Interstate 5 about 150 miles from her home.
Passersby found her with bindings on her body, a swollen nose, a blurred “brand” on her right shoulder, bruises and rashes across her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. All of the injuries were self-inflicted and were designed to substantiate her story that she had been abducted at gunpoint by two Hispanic women while she was out for a run.
The kidnapping hoax led to a three-week multi-state search back in late 2016.
She received an 18-month sentence due to a plea deal with prosecutors, down from the maximum 25 years she could’ve received for the two charges. She never said why she did what she did.
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WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Sherri Papini Interrogation by Shasta Co. Sheriff's detectives | Raw video
