The ex-husband of kidnapping hoaxer Sherri Papini has revealed more details about their relationship and how he thought her lie made no sense.
Sherri Papini disappeared while out for a run about a mile from her home on Nov. 2, 2016 before resurfacing three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day.
But the 41-year-old mother was jailed in 2022 over the Gone Girl-style plot after it became clear she lied to police and injured herself in an elaborate ruse coinciding with the fake kidnapping.
Now Keith Papini has opened up about his marriage to Sherri and the time he questioned his wife’s claims when she returned after she disappeared.
“There were a lot of things that just didn’t add up, but I wanted to support my wife,” Keith said. Fox News Digital.
Kidnapper Sherri Papini’s ex-husband has revealed more details about their relationship and how he thought her lie made no sense.
‘If you can’t trust your wife, who can you trust?’ I kept telling myself, “I’m going to do everything for my wife.”
‘I was made to believe that she was happy with us and that she didn’t want another life with anyone else.
‘I just wanted to support her every time we were together. That being said… I will never know the whole truth.’
“I never felt unloved by her,” he admitted of their time together before the cheating. “She told me how happy she was in our marriage and that she would never divorce us.”
Keith insisted that he and Sherri were in love and had enjoyed a happy marriage until her disappearance.
Sherri Papini disappeared while out for a run about a mile from her home on Nov. 2, 2016 before resurfacing three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day.
But the 41-year-old mother was jailed in 2022 over the Gone Girl-style plot after it became clear she lied to police and injured herself in an elaborate ruse coinciding with the fake kidnapping.
“She wrote songs, she wrote me notes constantly,” he said. ‘She told me how happy she was in our marriage and that we would never divorce.
“She was so in love with me that I repeated those things to her.”
He added: “There was no part of me that ever thought she would fake injuries and do all this deception to the extent that she did.”
‘I couldn’t foresee that. But I did think we had a happy life. We have wonderful children. They took me by surprise.’
Sherri’s plan captivated the nation and has been the focus of true crime podcasts and documentaries.
She was reported missing in November 2016 when she suddenly disappeared after going for a run.
Sherri, who was 34 at the time, turned up “dazed, battered and bruised” three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, about 145 miles from where she had last been seen.
Now Keith Papini has opened up about his marriage to Sherri and claimed he never saw her commit this elaborate hoax.
Sherri’s story fell apart when officers found her ex-boyfriend’s DNA on her clothes in 2020 and discovered that she had been hiding with him the entire time she had been pretending to be missing.
Keith continues to look back and wonder why his ex-wife faked her own kidnapping.
“I think the fundamental thing would be attention,” he said. ‘I think she likes it when people feel for her and look at her as a victim… at anyone else’s expense.
‘To be honest, I don’t think she’s capable of seeing what she did and the lives it affected, the ripple effect, how much pain it caused to so many people.
‘I always think about all the people (who tried to help) during those 22 days (she was missing).
“All the kids who probably weren’t allowed to ride bikes anymore, all the women who probably weren’t allowed to go running anymore… I don’t think she understands how damaging it was.”
She tried to protect her children from the possibility of Sherri’s kidnappers coming back for them.
“We lived in fear that someone would come after us,” Keith added.
‘If the children were outside playing and saw someone, it was almost as if they had been taught to run inside.
“There’s a part of me that knows Sherri almost stole those six years of their childhood.”
He filed for divorce from her in April 2022 and sought to maintain custody of their two children following his release from prison.
“This wasn’t just a lie that she told that ended when she was arrested,” Keith said.
Sherri’s ex-husband Keith, with whom she shares children Tyler, 11, and Violet, 9, filed for divorce in April 2022 and sought to maintain sole custody after his release in August 2023.
‘This was a lie she told every day, every minute… Maybe being a housewife didn’t fulfill her… She has never apologized to me or the kids… She acts like I never existed.’
Sherri claimed in a new Hulu docuseries titled Perfect Wife that Keith had been an abusive and controlling husband, which he strongly denies.
He said: ‘She was saying he was hitting her and the police wouldn’t do anything.
‘(When it came to) our mutual friends… it was a totally different story… It was painful to hear those things right now because I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating.
‘I am fighting for my wife’s life. And to know that she was saying these… false things, it’s painful… But you can see a pattern here.’
Officers discovered Sherri with a chain around her waist, multiple wounds and a mark on her shoulder.
Over the next few weeks, she devised an elaborate ruse: She told agents that she had been kidnapped by two Hispanic women who had beaten and marked her.
But her story fell apart when agents found her ex-boyfriend’s DNA on her clothes in 2020 and discovered that she had been hiding with him the entire time she had pretended to be missing.
It turned out that all of his wounds were self-inflicted to support the kidnapping story.
Keith spent the time she was missing desperately searching for her and at the same time was treated as a suspect in her disappearance.
After his trial and imprisonment, he was given full custody of the children.
Currently, Sherri is fighting for more access to her children Tyler and Violet, while Keith wants her to undergo a psychological evaluation and be banned from seeing them unsupervised.
He also demands that he hand over a number of items from the marital home in Redding, including “grandpa’s truck, an inflatable water slide, a leaf blower and a smart TV.”
An expense statement obtained by DailyMail.com shows the petite blonde claims an income of just $1,000 a month, half of which she says she pays in rent.
A loved-up Sherri Papini was seen sharing a passionate kiss with her new boyfriend Shawn Hibdon outside a local Starbucks in Orland, California, on Monday.
Sherri reportedly began dating the recently widowed businessman before his 10-month prison stint in Victorville, California, which ended last August.
She previously received just $10,000 in her divorce and was ordered to pay half of a $3,000 debt she racked up on a BestBuy credit card after being arrested in April 2022.
Last week, exclusive photos from DailyMail.com showed Sherri cuddling with her boyfriend, car dealer Shawn Hibdon, 49, after a love affair in the back seat of his white Jeep SUV in the parking lot of a Starbucks in Orlando, California, on Monday.
After an hour in the car with Hibdon, who arrived separately in a gray Hyundai with distinctive dealer plates, she emerged laughing and dressed in a pink tank top and bright tie-dyed leggings.
The pair then enjoyed a kiss, having first checked the car park to make sure no one was watching, before heading off in separate cars.
Hibdon has been single since unexpectedly losing his wife Brittany at the age of 36 in September 2021 and is a single father to his two children Houston, 16, and Westley, 14.
A source told DailyMail.com that the relationship began before their 10-month stint at FCI Victorville, when the couple met in Chico, a town located an hour south of Sherri’s former home in Redding.
She briefly lived in the area after her ex kicked her out following her arrest. Her sister Sheila also resides in the town.
