When was this?
CW: In 2021. I was like, This is just a really interesting story. Let me see what I can first find out. And then it was later that I was like, Oh, this could be a really good podcast.
It seems like, just like the listeners, the story hooked you immediately. What drew you in?
CW: When I first looked into this, I’d not really heard of anybody faking cancer. So I was shocked but also curious. I have to say, as a human being, I was really curious as to why and how somebody would do this. You know, I’ve been through quite a lot in my own life and I know how manipulative people can be. I found it really fascinating, especially the depth and the complexity of what she did, and her as a character.
Amanda’s scam really took off due to her blog about fighting cancer, which is now defunct, although fans have dug up posts from the internet archive. Were you able to read the full blog?
CW: Yes, I have read all of her blog posts and there were a lot! To give an idea, she had her blog live for over seven years. She would go quiet for a bit and then come back on and go quiet again. There’s roughly seven-plus years’ worth of blogs, and at times she posted two, three times a week. So you can imagine how many that is.
Were there any parts of the blog you wanted to include but couldn’t?
CW: The pictures. There’s pictures of her in New York after she said she was a part of a clinical trial, going on Broadway and such. You just look at those pictures and you’re just like, what? And there’s the pictures of her family at fundraisers, her and her husband and the kids. There’s a picture that matches every claim she made, basically. And I think that’s what I would’ve loved to have been able to give listeners more of. But legally I’ve gotta be careful of what I put out. I can’t just post the blog posts everywhere. I’d love to do that, but I can’t.
Speaking of photos, I think the number one thing listeners want to know is how on earth did she get photos of herself in the hospital for her blog? People have posted them online, and it truly looks like she was a patient. How’d she do it?
CW: So my understanding is she did actually go to the hospital. They’re not fake photos. She did things like said she fainted or that she wasn’t feeling very well and then took herself to the emergency room. And then she would say things like she got dehydrated or she had cancer and she was dehydrated. So then they immediately put her on a drip, and then, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. She’d turn up in different ER rooms and then take photographs. She also would get medical equipment, which I was like, How’d you get medical equipment? Actually it’s really easy to get medical equipment. You can go and buy it from a medical store.
The second big question listeners have is about Amanda’s husband, Cory. He was never charged in the case. In your opinion, did he know what was going on?
