A former Bloomberg journalist who broke up her marriage and left her career for “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli is opening up about their romance before he abruptly dumped her.
Christie Smythe was a successful Bloomberg journalist and lived a privileged life with her then-husband, financier Devin Arcoleo, before she gave it all up for Shkreli, the “most hated man in America,” according to The Times. Shkreli earned his nickname after he raised the price of lifesaving drugs in 2015 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud in 2017.
The pair first met in person in 2016 when Shkreli was out on bail, and Smythe decided to write a book about him, his life, his ex-girlfriends, and more, that she is self-publishing on Substack. (RELATED: Martin Shkreli Drops $100K Bounty For Info On Seth Rich’s Murderer)
Smythe described Shkreli as “a quirky nerd, antagonistic, insecure, brimming with bravado and imposter syndrome, and extremely bad at the optics mainstream media relies on,” and not the “Hannibal Lecter somehow crossed with a cockroach,” she felt the press had portrayed him as. She was the first person to be added to his visitor list in prison, and missed her first marriage counseling session with Arcoleo to see Shkreli behind bars, The Times continued.
“I was feeling extremely frustrated by having to keep everything bottled up,” Smythe said, according to The Times, “I was just, like, ‘Everyone is so worried about what? That I will fall in love with him?’ After that thought sunk in, I was like, ‘You know what, maybe I do love him — screw everyone.’”
“I was the first person he added to his visitor list,” she says proudly.
Meanwhile her employers at Bloomberg were becoming increasingly unhappy with Smythe’s close relationship with Shkreli pic.twitter.com/g0iBX2APlc
— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) June 26, 2022
A year later, Smythe resigned from her job, abandoned her marriage and left her home to start her life with Shkreli, The Times reported. She even froze her eggs as she waited for him to be released from prison, according to the outlet.
When Shkreli found out that she had breached his trust and spoke to the press during the pandemic, he dumped her via a statement from his lawyers that read, “Mr Shkreli wishes Ms Smythe the best of luck in her future,” the outlet reported.
Smythe referred to herself as “an unlikeable heroine” of her story with Shkreli, in which she continued to defend his decision to raise the price of drugs, The Times continued. Apparently, the pair are friends.
“I’ll always care for him, that will never go away, but I want him to be happy. I want me to be happy,” she said.
Smythe, who currently writes for a very small outlet, believed that she “got everything I wanted out of this. I finally get to write this book. I’m secretly, or maybe not so secretly, the winner in all this,” she said, according to The Times. Shkreli was released from federal prison in May.