Former Bloomberg reporter Christie Smythe has no regrets after opening up about falling in love with the former hedge fund manager, who is convicted of securities fraud.
- Dec 22, 2020
AceShowbiz - Journalist Christie Smythe has defended her decision to open up about her relationship with convicted felon Martin Shkreli. The former Bloomberg reporter, who broke the story about Martin's arrest on federal fraud charges and covered the case for the newspaper, quit her job in 2019 and left her husband after she fell in love with the so-called Pharma Bro.
After her story was published on Elle, Christie has been faced with a storm of criticism from social media users who questioned her mental state. Now, in a follow-up interview with the same magazine, the journalist has explained how it has been going on since her story about her relationship with Martin was released.
"It was a tremendous relief. A huge part of me doing this is not image based. It's about just getting something off my chest. That's been really hard to carry around," Christie said of finally revealing the long-held secret to the public. Quoting Carl Sagan, Christie also took to Twitter to explain her decision to go public with her relationship with the controversial figure. "When you're in love, you want to tell the world," read the quote.
Of people's judgment on her mental state, Christie admitted, "It's a little depressing and saddening because I don't like being called 'the victim,' 'mentally ill': neither of those things are accurate." She insisted that she "made these choices very consciously."
Saying that there's "sexism buried in the themes and all these struggles people have with someone just coming up and saying they love him," she explained, "What feels very sexist to me is, why am I a victim? I chose to do this. There's nothing bad that has happened to me other than a bunch of people being nasty to me online."
Christie also defended standing up against the naysayers. "I don't want to go crazy online, obviously, but I can engage, I'm not afraid, not going away," she said of engaging with the haters on social media. "I find it very insulting when people think I should, like, get off of Twitter. It's like, what am I doing? Am I hurting anyone? Am I harassing you? I'm not doing any of those things. I'm just speaking my mind."
Hinting that she has no regrets about going public with her feelings for Martin, she went on saying, "I'm so insulted by the fact that people would think I'd be afraid to stand up for what I said. Why would I do that? Why would I slink off? That does not sound like me."
While Christie said her family and friends have been supportive of her on the heels of her shocking story, her former husband is not so happy about it. She has received "a couple of texts" from her ex, and "they were not happy texts." She's not bothered by her ex-husband's reaction though, saying, "It's up to him, whatever he wants to do, it's his business."
Christie also revealed what made her fall for Martin. "His intelligence and his energy and endless curiosity," she gushed about the former CEO of the pharmaceutical firms Retrophin and Turing Pharmaceuticals (now Vyera Pharmaceuticals). She added, "He can talk about anything, literally anything, can have a fascinating probing discussion on just about any topic, both low and high culture."
Responding to an inquiring tweet from a user who was curious about her romance with Martin, Christie clarified, "I categorically have never slept with Martin, and did not engage in romantic interactions with him of any sort while covering him as a journalist."
Meanwhile, Martin released a statement through his lawyer in response to Christie's initial interview with Elle. "Mr. Shkreli wishes Ms. Smythe the best of luck in her future endeavors," read the statement.
Seeing it as his way to call it quits with her, Christie told The Post, "That was a classic break-up-slash-if-you-fire-somebody kind of line. It's similar to getting fired by a CEO." She admitted, "It was heartbreaking and really sad."
Asked if she's ready to start seeing other guys, the journalist responded, "I'm definitely open to it. I have been basically celibate for two years." She added, "I'm not going to sit around and wait."
