A New York reporter fell in love with the infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and turned her “perfect” life upside down for him – she quit her job and divorced her husband, she revealed in a new report.
Former Bloomberg News reporter Christie Smythe, 38, first opened up about her relationship with the convicted fraudster in an article in Elle magazine published Sunday.
“I fell down the rabbit hole,” Smythe told the magazine of her life-changing romance with Shkreli, 37, who is serving a seven-year sentence for defrauding investors in hedge funds he manages.
“I am happy here. I feel like I have a purpose, ”she gushed.
But their love story may not get a happy ending. Smythe hasn’t seen her beauty for over a year due to COVID-19 security protocols in prisons.
Smythe was now working remotely for a journalism start-up from her basement apartment in Harlem and promised to wait for Shkreli.
“I’m going to try,” she said. “I will be here.”
The Kansas City, Missouri resident first crossed paths with Shkreli in 2015, when she learned he was under federal investigation for securities law violations.
Smythe was married at the time and had “the perfect little life in Brooklyn,” she said.
She described her increasing involvement with Shkreli over the next few years as “incremental decisions, where you slowly cook yourself in the bathtub.”
Shkreli earned himself the nickname “Most Hated Man in the World” for boosting the price of AIDS drug Daraprim by nearly 5,000 percent in August 2015 and was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 after a trial that made headlines.
By the time Smythe separated from her husband, she had been visiting Shkreli in prison for months and even got a driver’s license so she could drive to him after he was transferred to a Pennsylvania prison.
In the summer of 2018, Smythe quit Bloomberg because of her connection with Shkreli. Shortly after, “I told Martin I loved him” in a prison visiting room that smelled of chicken wings, she recalled Elle.
“He told me he loved me too,” Smythe said, and the two kissed.
She added, “It’s hard to imagine I felt happier.”
The couple have discussed their children’s names and prenups, and Smythe said she even frozen her eggs for fear she would be too old to have children by the time her “ life partner ” is released.
Her now ex-husband had warned her that Shkreli was “just using her” and that she was putting her journalistic reputation on the line by “getting sucked into this bad person too much.”
Smythe even admitted, “Maybe I was charmed by a master manipulator.”
Public hatred of Shkreli is well documented. About 134 future jurors were expelled from his trial for variously describing him as “bad” and saying “he looks like ad-k,” The Post reported at the time.
He was also known for pursuing female journalists covering the trial, buying URLs in the name of two, including a Post reporter, and listing the domains for $ 12,000.
The maligned pharma director even once said that if acquitted, he would “fuck” a freelance writer who rejected his advances.
But smitten Smythe defended his behavior to Elle, saying, “He’s trolling because he’s scared … He really, really wants to be someone.”
In April, Shkreli filed for parole from prison for the coronavirus and his lawyers revealed he had a fiancé, requesting to serve the remainder of his sentence in her Manhattan apartment to work on an alleged COVID-19 cure. .
Although described by his lawyers as Shkreli’s bride-to-be, Smythe said they are actually “ life partners. ”
However, it looks like Smythe spoke out about the love bond that may have poured cold water on their romance.
A statement her beau made to Elle read, “Mr. Shkreli wishes Mrs. Smythe the best of luck in her future endeavors.”
Hearing his aloof words, Smythe – who has sold the film rights to a book proposal about Shkreli – said softly, “That’s sweet,” the magazine reported.
‘That’s what he says: you’re going to live your life and we just won’t be together. Maybe I’ll go get my book and our paths… branch off, ”Smythe continued, tearing.