‘HISTORY OF EXAGGERATING’

Keith Papini Breaks Silence on Ex-Wife Sherri’s Kidnapping Hoax

Sherri Papini lied for years to her husband that she had been kidnapped for 22 days in 2016.

Keith Papini says his ex-wife, Sherri, had a history of telling tall tales even before her 2016 kidnapping hoax in an interview with People magazine. Keith told People that he came from a “lovely” household and that he “was never around a dishonest person.” He added there were some parts of Sherri’s story that didn’t match up when they first met, but he “wasn't going to go calling her around to verify” if the things she told him about her background were true. Keith said his naïveté and her manipulation ultimately made him susceptible to her kidnapping hoax. “If something wasn’t adding up, she would be quick to move it to where, ‘Well, it's because of this and my childhood, and you didn’t experience that you had loving parents.’ And she would almost twist it in a way,” he explained to the magazine. Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2022 on felony changes of making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud in relation to the kidnapping hoax, but served a reduced sentence. The couple’s story has been immortalized in the Hulu series Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.