Not such a bad vegan after all? Sarma Melngailis—whose unbelievable rise and fall are chronicled in Netflix's docuseries Bad Vegan—is sharing what she thinks the retelling got wrong about her 2016 arrest.
In a March 16 blog post, the former celebrity restaurateur wrote that she felt compelled to set the record straight. "There's a lot Bad Vegan gets right," she explained, "but it's hard not to get stuck on the things that aren't right or leave an inaccurate impression."
Chief among her complaints is that the documentary, released on Netflix March 16, was "disturbingly misleading" about whether she's still in contact with ex-husband Anthony Strangis, a.k.a. Shane Fox. Despite phone conversations with the ex that are played in the series, Sarma insists, "I am not in touch with Anthony Strangis and I made those recordings at a much earlier time, deliberately, for a specific reason."
She also claimed that she was unaware a warrant was out for her and Anthony's arrest in 2015. "I didn't know what funds Anthony had at the time, and I no longer had access to my electronic devices and email/text accounts," she said. "I can already hear the troll chorus of Yeah right! but most of what I say is verifiable."
Sarma suggested that she was forced into leaving New York City with Anthony, who she "hated and feared." According to the chef, "I didn't want to marry him, and that part of the story was inaccurately condensed."
But she also acknowledged that most viewers may not comprehend the nuances of her story. "There was no actual gun to my head so it will be said that of course I had a choice," she explained. "I get that. However, the response that I must be crazy and/or stupid is an easy, reductive one. I'm not stupid and I'm not crazy. I am humiliated and shamed by all the damage caused, but have been working to rebuild a strong foundation of self-reliance and self-awareness."
E! News reached out to a lawyer for Anthony and did not hear back.
Sarma noted that the documentary got one thing right: "I think Bad Vegan conveys what anyone that knew me understood, which is that I was very close with so many of the employees over the years, and intentionally harming them is just about the last thing I'd have done."
And she doesn't seem to hold a grudge against the filmmakers, writing, "The story is so weird and complicated, even to me, that it seemed inevitable that the documentary would get some things wrong, and I worried about this."
Additionally, she shared that she participated in the documentary to pay back the staff of her former raw vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine. "It's standard practice—to say nothing of journalistic integrity—that subjects do not get paid for participation in documentaries, at least not the reputable ones," Sarma revealed. "In my case, however, and at my insistence, the producers made an exception so that I could pay the total amount my former employees were owed—amounts that accrued after my disappearance in 2015."
E! News reached out to Netflix for comment.
Sarma and Anthony were both arrested for grand larceny, tax fraud and conspiring to defraud in 2016. She went on to plead guilty to all three charges and served four months at Rikers. The New York Post reported that Anthony took a plea deal and was sentenced to 5 years probation.
Bad Vegan is streaming now on Netflix.