Anna Delvey has made a lot of enemies. From New York socialites to investment bankers, she conned her way to the top by exploiting people and using them for her own leverage. Among them, was former Vanity Fair editor, Rachel DeLoache Williams, who has been vocal about her disdain for Delvey.
While most of their friendship has become a case of ‘she said, she said,’ both women have repeatedly spoken out about the other, in an attempt to set the record straight on what really transpired between them during their short friendship.
After an explosive trip to Marrakech in 2017 left Rachel in $62,000 worth of debt, Anna’s scam began to unravel. Rachel would go on to testify against Anna at her trial which undoubtedly played a role in her eight-charge conviction (although Delvey was found not guilty of stiffing DeLoache for the Marrakech trip). Anna was released in February 2021 after serving nearly four years of her sentence, but the recent release of Inventing Anna is proving that the conwoman’s story is far from over.
Rachel’s response to Inventing Anna
Following the release of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, the show which documents Delvey’s scams, Rachel DeLoache Williams was quick to criticise the way that both she and Anna been interpreted
Accusing the show of “running a con woman’s PR,” DeLoache made a statement in the newsletter for Vanity Fair where she she claimed it was peddling a “dangerous distortion” of what actually happened.
“I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong,” she wrote. “Having had a front-row seat to [the Anna show] for far too long, I’ve studied the way a con works more than anybody needs to. You watch the spectacle, but you’re not paying attention to what’s being marketed. Netflix isn’t just putting out a fictional story. It’s effectively running a con woman’s PR – and putting money in her pocket.”
She also heavily criticised actress Katie Lowes’ portrayal of her, arguing that it was significantly undercutting the feminist narrative.
“I was caught off guard when Netflix announced its description of the character Rachel,” she said. “To say a woman is someone else’s creation is counter to a feminist narrative. I looked at it and I was like, Really? That’s where you’re going to go with this? So I had some unease, but nobody thinks that someone is going to be reckless with facts, especially when the character is given my name. To me, it’s not making a statement but convoluting truth in a way that’s dangerous,” she said in the newsletter.
As for whether or not she had any contact with Katie prior to filming, DeLoache denies that they’ve ever been in touch.
“No, I never heard from her. From what I’ve seen of the series so far: Lowes’s concern for accuracy, when it comes to portraying me as I am, seems limited to the spelling of my full name. This sort of half-truth is more insidious than a total lie because it causes uninformed viewers to mistake fiction for fact based on mere fragments of reality—like my place of work, for instance, and even a photo of the real me within the end credits,” she said during her Vanity Fair interview.
In 2018, DeLoache penned a first-hand piece for Vanity Fair titled My Misadventures With A Magician of Manhattan, before going on to publish a book titled, My Friend Anna, which delved even further into the fake heiress’s crimes.
Some have heavily criticised DeLoache for her willingness to profit off an event which she claimed was incredibly traumatic, while others believe it’s her right to tell her own story. As we now know, DeLoache has already recovered the money she lost in Marrakech, with American Express reportedly wiping away the charges. DeLoache’s book deal worked out to be $AU416,000 for which HBO reportedly paid $AU49,000 for the TV rights.
One glance at DeLoache’s Instagram comments, and it’s clear to see that people’s patience appears to be wearing thin.
“For someone who has been traveling international for work, I have never dared to use my company credit card for anything other than work trip given how strict the credit card policies are in every companies. Expecting Anna would pay for your lavish trip and stupidly offering to use company credit card for the trip was nobody else’s fault but yours. Your credit card charges were reimbursed, and you profited and still continue to profit tremendously out of Anna’s story. How about stop playing the victim and realize your own shortcomings rather than whining about it on media and socials as if you were the actual victim?” one user wrote.
“She served her time and you got money,stop whining to make more profitable for your self,” said another.
Anna’s response to Rachel’s outrage
Anna Delvey (real name Sorokin) has been keeping busy while awaiting deportation from the ICE Detention centre in the US, with her social media presence feeling relentless following the release of Inventing Anna. In a series of furious Instagram stories, Delvey unleashed a tirade on DeLoache, criticising her inability to move on, while continuing to profit from the events.
“Over past two weeks watching Rachel stubbornly refuse to move on from her contrived trauma, ever brazen and unchecked, while going on every show that will have her, I thought – now I have to,” Delvey wrote, before going on to call DeLoache a “total Karen.”
“The audacity of her to still attempt to sell her white woman tears (that no one is buying) while continuing to shamelessly exploit her connection to me and profit off of her ‘terrible trauma’ is flabbergasting,” she continued.
Following this, Delvey accused DeLoache of attempting to strike up a business deal, while simultaneously pressing charges against her.
“During her numerous public cries for attention claiming I ‘ruined’ her life, relentless Rachel DeLoache Williams conveniently forgets to mention the curious period of time during summer of ‘i8 (sic) when she herself along with her newly acquired literary agent were repeatedly harassing my lawyer Todd (both via email and phone) to get me to agree to write a book TOGETHER with Rachel. And the best part is – this time around, I’ve got all the receipts.”
The feud between the two women is clearly far from over, with emotions still running high all these years later. It’s unclear how far either of them will take it, but the drama isn’t showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
