Sherri Papini Breaks Silence in First Interview 9 Years After Infamous Kidnapping Hoax

• Sherri Papini is speaking out publicly for the first time since her faked “abduction” turned her into a media sensation.
• Papini went “missing” for three weeks in 2016, later claiming she was abducted — but she was actually with her ex-boyfriend, who helped her create fake injuries to create the appearance of a kidnapping.
• Papini, who served time in federal prison, admits she “kept some secrets” about but still maintains she was “tortured” and “branded.”

Sherri Papini, the California mom who claimed that she’d been kidnapped while out jogging before admitting her claim was a hoax and spending time in federal prison, is speaking out.

“Haven’t you ever lied? And then, has the lie been blown up?” Papini says in a trailer for the new docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie. “I went missing in 2016, was gone for 22 days. I was tortured; I was branded; I was chained to a wall. All that is true. I did keep some secrets from you, though.”

The four-part docuseries premieres on ID Monday, May 26 at 9/8c and features “exclusive access to Sherri Papini herself” and “retraces Papini’s case from the days leading up to her disappearance into her alleged abduction, her shocking return to her family, and the subsequent aftermath that led to her 2022 arrest by federal authorities,” per a press release.

“For the first time, Papini will share her account of events as she recalls them, offering rare insights into her mindset during her disappearance and the subsequent investigation into her abduction claims upon her return home,” the release continues.

The docuseries will also focus on her life after prison and her struggle to get joint custody of her two kids with ex-husband Keith Papini.

Papini’s story started on Nov. 2, 2016, the day she claimed she’d gone out for a jog in her Redding neighborhood and was kidnapped by two armed, masked Hispanic women, whom she alleged had tortured her, branded her and kept her chained in a bedroom.

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She was found walking in a parking lot 22 days later — on Thanksgiving Day. Her family and the community of Redding, which had spent days searching for her, largely rallied around her.

But after investigating her purported kidnapping, local and federal authorities discovered that Papini had fabricated the incident and had been hiding out with an ex-boyfriend in Southern California.

When confronted by authorities, the ex-boyfriend allegedly admitted that he had helped Papini “run away” because she had told him that her husband was abusive.

He also told authorities that he and Papini communicated over prepaid phones and concocted a scheme to pick her up in Redding and drive her back to his two-bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa.

During her stay, Papini was “purposefully trying to lose weight,” chopped off her own hair and “created the injuries while staying with him, including hitting herself to create bruises and burning herself on her arms,” per a federal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.

“Ex-Boyfriend said he helped her create some of the injuries, although he never laid his hands directly on her; for example, she told him, ‘bank a puck off my leg,’ so [he] shot a puck off her leg, lightly,” according to the complaint.

Papini pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and was released early in 2023. She was also ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to multiple law enforcement associations.

Papini estranged husband Keith, who is now raising the couple’s two young children together, told PEOPLE in 2024 that he had never questioned whether his wife was honest with her — but now sees red flags in much of her life story.

“When we first got together and she told me things, I believed her. I wouldn’t know why I wouldn’t,” said Keith, noting her potential fibs about selling used cars and performing ballet in Orange County.

“I wasn’t going to go calling her around to verify that those were real,” he continued. “But there were definitely some things where I’m like, ‘Hey, the timeline doesn’t match up.'”