Sherri Papini Accuses Sister of Having an ‘Inappropriate Relationship’ With Her Ex-Husband Keith

After breaking her silence on her alleged kidnapping, Sherri Papini made new surprising claims about a possible romantic relationship between her sister and her ex-husband.

Papini, 42, was on the Wednesday, June 11, episode of the “Viall Files” podcast to discuss her three-part Investigation Discovery series, Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.

“I actually saw it just like everybody else. I didn’t have creative control on the documentary and wasn’t a part of that so I saw it at the same time everybody else did,” she said. “It was interesting to watch my docuseries and listen to a little bit of inaccuracies as well.”

The conversation subsequently drifted outside of the doc — including where she stands with ex-husband Keith Papini and her sister, Sheila.

“I don’t talk to my sister. I don’t have a very good relationship with my sister,” Sherri revealed. “No, Sheila and I were never close. We were close for a short period of time. When the abduction happened, and started getting on the news with Keith and started getting highly involved with everything. That’s when she suddenly became a part of my life.”

Sherri originally disappeared in November 2016 after going for a jog in her California neighborhood. She resurfaced 22 days later and claimed she had been beaten and branded by captors.

As new details emerged following her return, Sherri was ultimately arrested in 2022 for orchestrating her abduction. She pleaded guilty to a federal judge later that year and was sentenced to 18 months in jail for committing mail fraud and lying to a federal officer about being kidnapped.

Sherri was also ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution for losses incurred by the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She was released from prison in August 2023.

The case became a topic of conversation again when Hulu released Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini in June 2024. Sherri’s now-ex-husband, Keith, and several of her family members and loved ones participated in the docuseries.

Sherri, meanwhile, used Investigation Discovery’s Caught in the Lie special to stand by her claims that her ex-boyfriend James Reyes abducted her. Reyes, for his part, has denied kidnapping Sherri and has not been charged for any involvement in the alleged kidnapping hoax.

While discussing how the dynamics between her loved ones changed after she was arrested, Sherri made a startling claim about her sister and Keith’s current relationship.

“She was very involved with being on camera, just as Keith was. Then she started developing a really inappropriate relationship with Keith. Then they got really close and they still are really close,” Sherri alleged. “They are still close. They still have a highly inappropriate relationship.”

Sherri specifically questioned her sister and Keith getting close romantically.

“I think that there’s a lot of inappropriate things that have happened between Keith and Sheila and a lot of things that I’ve seen,” she added. “I had this really cool home video that I had that I was hoping would end up into the film where you see Keith and Sheila engaging physically, in a way. Then you hear my dad in the background go, ‘Oh God.’”

Keith has not discussed his personal life since his divorce from Sherri. Both Keith and Sheila were interviewed for Hulu’s The Perfect Wife where Keith praised Sherri’s sister for her support amid the controversy.

“I think Sheila, her sister, was a huge, amazing source for me. We’re still close. She almost made it like, ‘You need to really cut her out because she’s going to continue this,’” he told TV Insider in June 2024. “She knows that I love her. I mean, this is my wife. Obviously, I was very dedicated. I didn’t want this. I always wanted to be her husband and have our family.”

Keith added: “I think [Sheila] saw that she would just continue to manipulate me. When I cut Sherri out in the beginning, it was like a weight off my shoulders because everything was like, what is she going to say next? It’s not true, and I always feel like I have to defend myself. It’s just tiresome to do that all the time. So actually, shutting that down has been so much better for me.”

Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Sherri’s tell-all:

What Does Sherri Think of Hulu’s ‘The Perfect Wife’ Doc?

“It’s heartbreaking. It’s extremely difficult to watch your children be exploited in the way mine were,” Sherri claimed about Keith including footage with their kids. “And not being a part of it because that documentary was created while I was in prison. So there’s not a lot of capacity for me to fight for my kids. It’s excruciating to watch both my son and daughter be put in there so much.”

Sherri’s Issues With the Doc

“When you go through the filming process, you’re in the chair and you’re interviewed for hours. It was a year-long process for me. So it was hours and hours and lots of lengthy interviews. While there was a relationship developed with my director, she was still not my friend,” Sherri explained. “She was there to be objective and she was there to investigate and find the truth of everything. So you see little bits and pieces of my personality come out or when I’m nervous or something like that.”

Sherri acknowledged “really awkward” moments left in the final edit, adding, “I’m under a level of scrutiny that most people aren’t. It feels like I’ve been given this life sentence. So it’s difficult to watch those little bits of things that I have no control of being out there that get really humiliated.”

According to Sherri, “there is a quite a lot of audio from James’ very informal interrogation” but not everything made it into the doc.

“There’s a lot of that audio that’s quite shocking,” she noted. “After having listened to that audio and hearing law enforcement officers feed him the questions and him starting to lie in the very beginning. That’s not in there and it’s really valuable and important to the case.”

Does Sherri’s Mother Actually Think She Wasn’t Abducted?

In Investigation Discovery’s doc, Sherri’s mother said in a confessional she believed her daughter wanted out of her marriage but that there was no kidnapping. Sherri, claimed on the “Viall Files” that context was removed from the comment.

“My mother tried to explain something. When you don’t have control over your own audio and it gets cut and clipped, they don’t show where someone has the capacity to rehabilitate. It can be taken wildly out of context,” she claimed. “My mom was stumbling over her words and she was trying to explain what she thought the situation was when she says, ‘It’s not an abduction.’”

Sherri said there was more that was missing, adding, “It doesn’t go into the rehabilitation portion where she comes to say, ‘Then I grew to understand what actually happened.’ But there’s a dramatic effect for everything.”

According to Sherri, her mother did support her version of events.

“My mom definitely knows that I was held captive and that I was kidnapped. That’s definitely the stance that she’s on,” she added. “There’s context to be added there. And while everything was very confusing in the beginning, we have a greater understanding of what actually happened now, and that is not how my mom feels now.”

Who Were the Women Sherri Initially Accused of Kidnapping Her?

When clearing up her side of the story, Sherri maintained that the women she initially accused of kidnapping her are real — they just weren’t the ones to allegedly take her without her consent.

“His mother looks exactly like the sketch,” she said. “When James would leave, he would have me observed by the people. He would have me watched. He had two family members that lived in the same cul-de-sac, one of which had a wife and then we have James’ mother.”

Sherri refused to budge on her claim that the women exist.

“These are not made up people. They’re real people,” she continued. “So there’s an uncle and there was a cousin, and the cousin has a wife. The FBI did interview her.”

What Was Her Marriage to Keith Really Like?

While reflecting on her relationship with Keith, Sherri accused him of “pretty severe abuse,” which he has denied several times.

“I am more afraid of my ex-husband than I am of law enforcement and going to prison,” she recalled about her state of mind following her alleged kidnapping. “He was very controlling. That means turning over your phone at night and allowing him to check it at any moment. There was a lot of restrictions going on in my house and there was a lot of control going on in the house.”

Sherri’s Additional Claims Against Her Sister

In addition to questioning her sister’s relationship with Keith, Sherri denied they were ever close.

“My sister is highly abusive to my parents and so they are doing the best they can to manage what they can as her mom and dad,” Sherri claimed. “Just because we’re your children, it doesn’t give us the right to be abusive. Just because you’re a child, it doesn’t mean that you can harm your parents.”

She continued: “She’s very harmful and she’s very toxic. It is emotional [abuse]. She’s just horrible to them and it really very sad to see.”

Sherri on Racist Claims

In the past, Sherri has been slammed by the public for claiming two Hispanic women kidnapped her — even though it wasn’t true.

“Well, that wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t to lead them to his mother. The point was to lead them to James,” she noted. “It wasn’t because there was a race-related point. It was to get them to go to James.”

Sherri was also asked about a blog post she made on a skinhead website, which resurfaced in Hulu’s The Perfect Wife.

“There’s so many things I didn’t even remember that have happened. It’s like they take your entire life and try to pull your entire life out,” she said. “That’s something from so long ago. It was like a mean girl thing that happened to me. It’s not something that I wrote or participated in.”

She added: “My ex-husband gave a statement and said, ‘No, this was totally a mean girl thing that was done to her.’ He was there when it happened. Some of my other friends that I knew back then all knew that it happened as well. It was in relation to an old relationship that I had and an involvement with somebody’s ex-boyfriend that I had in a retaliatory mean girl situation.”

How Are Sherri and Keith Coparenting?

After watching Keith accuse her of child abuse in Hulu’s The Perfect Wife, Sherri confirmed they are still at odds over custody. Sherri currently only sees her kids once a month but is fighting for joint custody in court.

“Keith has used my daughter as a pawn to make these false allegations. It’s incredibly heartbreaking,” Sherri said in reference to Keith accusing her of harming their kids. “In my opinion, it’s borderline child abuse to use her in the way that he has and exploit her in the way that he has [in his doc].”

She added: “I think Keith has quite a lot of challenges that he would be an even better father if he examined them deeper. He has moments of being a good father, of course.”

Would Sherri Ever Marry Again?

“I am so busy with everything that’s happening. My primary focus is Tyler and Violet. My primary focus is just getting my kids back,” she added. “I hope so. I’m open to [getting married again] for sure.”