Sherri Papini to Break Silence After Kidnapping Hoax in ID Documentary

Investigation Discovery will film an exclusive interview with Sherri Papini in response to the Hulu documentary, Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini. The Hulu doc stars her ex-husband, Keith Papini, and investigates her kidnapping hoax from 2016. The ID interview will be part of a multi-part documentary to be released in 2025.

Production has already begun on the so far unnamed docuseries, according to Variety. Per ID, the documentary “will feature exclusive interviews with Papini about her disappearance and the subsequent media firestorm and federal investigation that followed. The docuseries also will feature unprecedented access to archival footage, legal documents, and court filings as well as extensive interviews with those close to Papini and the investigation — offering new insights and potential answers to the questions that still swirl around this case nearly a decade later.”

The docuseries is being made by Asylum Entertainment Group and Lady Moon Entertainment for ID.

“Sherri Papini drew worldwide attention when she went missing and then again, when she returned. While many perspectives have been told, there is one point of view that the world hasn’t heard and that is from Sherri herself. Investigation Discovery will present a new side of Sherri Papini’s case – told by her in her own words,” Jason Sarlanis, President of ID, said in a statement on July 1.

Papini was missing for three weeks in 2016 before she was found on the side of a road bruised and chained. She claimed she was kidnapped but later plead guilty to faking the entire kidnapping. Part of her hoax included self-inflicted wounds such as a branding on her right shoulder. She signed a plea deal in April 2022, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $300,000, and was released in August 2023.

Keith opened up about filming Perfect Wife to TV Insider and said that his relationship with Sherri is “really non-existent” today. Their children speak to her over the phone each month, but Keith said that he doesn’t think he’ll ever get over what Sherri did because of how it will impact their kids’ lives. “I think if it was just me, I could probably move past that,” he said.

Sherri will soon tell her side of the story to the same network that produced the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, and Spacey Unmasked documentaries.