ABC’s Scamanda docuseries ended with the revelation that convicted and imprisoned cancer fraudster Amanda Riley spoke off-camera to producer Charlie Webster, also the creator/host of the hit 2023 podcast of the same name. What the doc didn’t disclose: Webster has been speaking to Riley off the record since her sentencing in May 2022.
“She has said to me that she is sorry,” Webster told Us Weekly exclusively in a recent interview. “She regrets everything she’s done. Every single day … Now she’s in a situation where she has lost everything.”
As Scamanda listeners and watchers know, Riley has a lot to regret: For several years in the 2010s, the perky wife and mom from a tony Bay Area, California suburb used a personal blog and staged photos to pretend various, nearly-fatal bouts of cancer — raising over $100,000 in monetary donations plus more in gifts, trips, celebrity meet-and-greets and other perks. It all led to a 2021 conviction for wire fraud.
Webster first approached Riley “from the beginning” as she began to produce the podcast and, later, the documentary. “No matter what she’s done, it’s important she was informed,” she says. “As a journalist and writer, it was very important for me to try and know who Amanda is. Was she this vindictive, horrible monster? Was she somebody with mental illness?”
Riley declined to take part in the podcast or the documentary, and at present “can’t talk to the media” on record, Webster tells Us. Riley is also in the midst of divorcing husband Cory, with whom she shares two sons, further complicating anything she publicly discloses.
Wary of being manipulated, Webster concedes that she found Riley “nice” throughout their conversations over the past three years. “I’ve been very conscious about the situation and not just being gullible. To me, she’s come across very upset at times, but she’s also conscious that she doesn’t want people to think that she’s acting like a victim.”
Riley’s scheme began to crumble after investigative producer Nancy Moscatiello, contacted by an anonymous tipster (who turned out to be Riley’s former friend Lisa Berry, as revealed in the show’s first episode), began looking into the case — eventually leading to a police investigation.
How did she get in so deep? Why didn’t she simply cease offering false health updates on her blog? “She told me that she did try to stop and then was worried about losing everything,” Webster says. “But she didn’t. She just carried on because then people would ask her [for health updates], right? She just dug herself in deeper and couldn’t get out of it.”
While many have posited that Riley is a narcissist, a sociopath or suffering from Munchausen’s syndrome, she has yet to be diagnosed with any mental disorder, Webster points out. Riley has told Webster that she understands “the emotional hurt she’s caused people . . she wants to serve her sentence and then try and figure out, if possible, how to apologize to the people [she hurt].”
Those in-person apologies could happen before Christmas. According to Webster, Riley has been moved from prison to a transitional facility, and her current release date has been moved up to December 9, 2025.
Webster, for her part, is optimistic that Riley will not attempt to scam again once she’s free — particularly since her podcast and TV fame will make it extremely difficult to do anything anonymously.
“I think it’s going to be very, very hard for her,” Webster tells Us. “Do we believe in second chances? Do we believe in redemption? Do we believe that people can learn their lessons and change? It’s a case of trying to rebuild her life. Maybe not rebuild actually — try and build a new life. I don’t think she can rebuild.”
Scamanda is now streaming on Hulu.
