Former Bloomberg reporter Christie Smythe admits her ex-husband is ‘not happy’ after she was made public about her romance with the maligned ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli.
Smythe, a former court journalist who divorced financier Devin Arcoleo when she fell in love with Shkreli, said she’s heard from her former husband since her bizarre story came out this weekend – but it wasn’t pretty.
“A few text messages,” she told Elle when asked if Arcoleo had contacted her, according to a follow-up interview she gave the magazine after it published her first sensational story Sunday.
“They weren’t happy lyrics,” admitted Smythe, 38,.
But the ex-wife added of her ex: ‘It’s up to him what he wants to do. It’s his business. “
Arcoleo, 36 – a graduate of New York University’s prestigious Stern School of Business and, according to his LinkedIn page, now vice president at investment firm Pimco – and Smythe, 38, married in 2014.
The couple lived an idyllic life in Brooklyn, she told Elle – cooking, walking their rescue dog, and enjoying “ literary pub crawls. ”
Then Shkreli came into the picture.
In 2015, the 37-year-old former prodigy pharmaceutical chief was infamously dubbed “ the most hated man in the world ” – for driving up the price of an AIDS drug by nearly 5,000 percent overnight. Two years later, he was convicted of brightening up investors and then sentenced to seven years behind bars in 2018.
But Smythe, who helped cover Shkreli’s fraud case for Bloomberg, said he was misunderstood, and as the couple’s relationship blossomed, her marriage fell apart.
“He’s just using you,” Arcoleo said to Smythe at one point at Shkreli, according to Elle.
A woman who knew Smythe and Arcoleo when they were married and lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, told The Post on Tuesday that the ex is “a nice guy who’s gotten into an unfortunate situation.”
Smythe and her husband finally filed for divorce on January 2, 2019, the reports show – and her romance with Shkreli spiked, with the couple kissing and trading “I love you’s” during her visits to him in a Pennsylvania correctional facility. , she told the mag.
But Smythe’s current relationship with the con man is now in the air. He seemed to dump her via a statement from one of his lawyers to Elle, and Smythe later told The Post that she might start dating other men.
Arcoleo did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, and neither did Smythe.
Smythe now lives in Harlem, while her ex calls downtown Brooklyn home.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts, Lorena Mongelli, and Priscilla DeGregory