Sherri Papini made national news again when she appeared in an interview, broadcast on Good Morning America on Friday, June 20.
“I think everyone involved in this case has culpability here, not just me,” Papini told ABC News reporter Juju Chang in the interview.
Chang’s report recounted information about Papini’s 2016 faked kidnapping by two non-existent Hispanic women, and continuing fallout from her conviction of fraud and lying to the FBI.
Papini now claims it was her ex-boyfriend James Reyes who abducted her. “There was one thing that I lied about. Everything else was accurate and true. I lied about the identity of my captor,” she told Chang in the interview.
Papini told Chang she initially lied because she was afraid of Reyes and of her ex-husband, Keith Papini, who she said was emotionally abusive. “Prison was far safer than the consequences that I would suffer if my ex-husband found out I was having an emotional affair,” she said in the interview.
Both Keith Papini and Reyes denied Sherri Papini’s claims, Chang reported, and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News Reyes passed a polygraph test while making statements about his part in the kidnapping story.
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Sherri Papini also discussed with Chang her new self-published book titled “Sherri Papini Doesn’t Exist.” The book is her version of the story, she said, and “it’s backed by loads and loads of evidence.”
The full interview with Papini will be broadcast on Nightline, said Chang, who co-anchors the late night show.
The mother of two is fighting her ex-husband in court for the right to get unsupervised visits with their two children. “You have to love your children more than you hate your ex,” she said through tears in response to Chang’s question regarding what she wants to impart to Keith Papini.
The Shasta County woman’s story reemerged when she made news several times in 2025: In spring with the launch of a docuseries about the incident in which she claimed she was abducted and abused by Reyes, and again in June when she appeared in court to fight eviction from a Shingletown home owned by a former boyfriend.
Sherri Papini appeared to go missing in November 2016 while jogging near her home north of Redding. She turned up in Yolo County 22 days later with bruises and other injuries. At the time, she told law enforcement two Hispanic women kidnapped and physically abused her.
The FBI arrested Papini in March 2022, and she eventually confessed to faking the incident and inflicting the injuries to herself after spending the time in Costa Mesa with Reyes.
She pleaded guilty to mail fraud and lying to the FBI, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was also ordered to repay approximately $309,000 to state, federal and local government for expenses related to her case.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Sherri Papini on Good Morning America says she lied about ‘one thing’
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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