'Perfect Wife' is based on the true story of a woman who faked her kidnapping. Here's what happened to Sherri Papini.

• "Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini" tells the story of a kidnapping hoax.

• Sherri Papini faked her own kidnapping in 2016 and went missing for three weeks.

• The truth about her supposed ordeal came to light when she was arrested in 2020.

"Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini" tells the story of a woman who went missing on November 2, 2016, after she staged her own kidnapping.

The Hulu true crime docuseries details how Sherri Papini was found 22 days later in Yolo County, California, near Interstate 5, some 150 miles away from her home in Redding, California. Kidnappers appeared to have beaten and branded her, and broken her nose.

It later emerged she inflicted these injuries on herself while she was staying with her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, in Costa Mesa — another Californian town connected to Interstate 5.

"Perfect Wife" is the second docuseries released in 2024 that bears a striking similarity to "Gone Girl," the movie that follows a writer as he tries to uncover why his wife faked being kidnapped.

Netflix's "American Nightmare" focused on Denise Huskins, who was falsely accused of staging a hoax kidnapping in 2015. Her abductor, Matthew Muller, was arrested in June 2015.

If the success of "American Nightmare," which was watched 21.4 million times on Netflix, is anything to go by, "Perfect Wife" has the potential to be equally huge for Hulu because of its similar tale.

Unlike Huskins, Papini maintained the lie after she returned home and kept it up for six years, claiming that two Hispanic women kidnapped her while she was out on a run.

Papini was arrested in March 2022 when the FBI found Reyes' DNA on her clothes. Her husband, Keith Papini, filed for divorce in April 2022 citing irreconcilable differences.

She signed a plea deal admitting that she had lied to the authorities and that the kidnapping never happened. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison in September 2022.

Papini was released from prison in 2023

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Papini was officially released from prison on September 29, 2023. She moved into a halfway house in Sacramento, California, but left the facility in October 2023, CBS News reported. She remains on supervised release until 2026.

According to local newspaper, Redding Record Searchlight, Papini currently lives in northern California and is writing a book.

In an interview with USA Today on June 20, Papini's ex-husband said that she has never directly apologized to him for the incident, or for continuing to lie for six years until she was charged.

"I feel there's absolutely zero remorse for what she has done," Keith Papini said. "I don't even think she understands how big of a lie — and I've used the term ripple effect — that she has caused throughout so many lives. I don't think she cares, personally."

People reported that he has custody of their two children Violet, 9, and Tyler, 11. The siblings see their mother for monthly supervised visits.

Keith Papini also told the outlet how the ordeal has affected his outlook on life.

"A lot of their childhood was, in my opinion, stolen from them," he said. "So my biggest goal is giving them a happy and healthy life and surrounding them with loving people."

He continued: "I ask more questions, and I'm probably more cautious, but I'm still finding people to be truthful. That's how I've lived my life and what I teach my kids."

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