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Sherri Papini, the California woman who became once convicted in 2022 of faking her kidnapping and lying to the FBI, is all some other time claiming that she became once, undoubtedly, kidnapped.

Papini, 43, told authorities in 2016 that two Hispanic ladies kidnapped her and held her captive for 3 weeks. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the counterfeit kidnapping and became once sentenced to 18 months in penal complex.

But in an interview with ABC Data on Friday to promote her fresh memoir, Papini said she became once, certainly, kidnapped after all.

This time, she claims her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, kidnapped her. Through the investigation into her lies, authorities concluded that Papini became once staying with Reyes in secrecy while her husband, two children and officers sought for her in 2016.

“I’m not in actuality asking anyone to judge anything,” she told ABC News. “I factual am free now, and I obtain the capacity to talk for myself with out being afraid and with out having to lie and not being as afraid as I had been sooner than.”

Reyes could not immediately be reached for comment.

Papini said she lied to authorities about who kidnapped her because she was in an emotionally abusive relationship with her now ex-husband.

“Penal complex became once a ways safer than the penalties that I’d bear if my ex-husband discovered out I became once having an emotional affair,” she said. “I’d prefer penal complex over telling Keith Papini that I became once having an emotional affair.”

Authorities began to ask Papini’s kidnapping claims when they chanced on male DNA on her apparel.

The DNA became once that of Reyes, who told authorities at the time that Papini had asked him to hit her to create it appear that she became once abused throughout her counterfeit kidnapping. As a replacement, he held a hockey stick for her to crawl into and branded her upon her ask, he told officers.

Reyes dropped Papini alongside Interstate 5 when she said she wanted to return home, in response to authorities.

Authorities discovered her about 145 miles south of where she had vanished. She became once emaciated with self-inflicted injuries and a chain round her waist, officers said.

Asked what she would love to claim to Reyes, Papini told ABC Data that “or not it is time to divulge the truth.”

“I’ve done it. I’ve suffered for it. You watched me burn for it, walk to penal complex and lose custody of my children … and it’s time to near again ahead and divulge the truth to everyone. He is conscious of what took place,” she said.

Matt Lavietes

Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC Data.