The former Bloomberg News reporter who gave up her job and marriage for imprisoned pharma CEO Martin Shkreli doesn’t regret coming forward about their relationship. Since going public in an Elle magazine article on Sunday, Christie Smythe has given two more interviews, one with Elle and another with The New York Times. “I’m so insulted by the fact that people would think I’d be afraid to stand up for what I said,” Smythe told Elle, when asked about why she took to Twitter to defend herself since the article’s publication. “Why would I do that? Why would I slink off? That does not sound like me.” Of Shkreli—who, when asked to comment on Sunday’s Elle article, sent a statement saying he “wishes Ms. Smythe the best of luck in her future endeavors”— Smythe told the Times that the pharmo bro has “a lot of kind of PTSD around media exposure” and is “sort of attached to his villain image as a sort of a safe space.”
Shkreli has harassed numerous female journalists on Twitter, including getting his Twitter account suspended in January 2017 for harassing freelance writer Lauren Duca. He is scheduled to be released from prison in 2023. “I love him,” Smythe told the Times. “I’m here for him.”
Read it at The New York Times
