A Washington D.C. woman who claimed the Washington Post inadvertently exposed her husband’s affair in a restaurant review has come clean — admitting she concocted the entire episode, according to a report.
The unnamed woman, a 40-something lawyer, made headlines last month when she called out the paper’s food critic, Tom Sietsema, claiming that her husband was photographed dining with his mistress in a review.
“Once confronted with photographic evidence, he confessed to having an ongoing affair,” she wrote during his weekly online Q&A. “Just thought you’d be amused to hear of your part in the drama.”
But she has now admitted to the critic that she invented the story after a few drinks,
“I think I had just come home from happy hour,” she told the outlet.
She said she had often imagined a similar scenario playing out, where a philanderer incidentally busted by a photo.
“I’ve used a lot of dating apps, and there are a lot of married men on them. Those men ask you out to public places,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘What are you thinking?’”
The newspaper said it was able to verify the woman’s identity by matching her IP address to her original anonymous submission.