Betrayal: Secrets & Lies with ABC News Studios | BONUS

Summary

Betrayal Weekly: Secrets & Lies with ABC News Studios | BONUS (April 20, 2026)

Podcast: Betrayal Weekly
Host: Andrea Gunning
Guests: David Sloan (Creative Leader, ABC News Longform), Muriel Pearson (Executive Producer, ABC News Studios)

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Episode Overview

This bonus episode of Betrayal Weekly dives into the transition of powerful stories of betrayal from podcast to TV, focusing on the new docuseries Betrayal: Secrets & Lies by ABC News Studios. Host Andrea Gunning is joined by creative leaders David Sloan and Muriel Pearson to discuss why stories of broken trust resonate across mediums, preview harrowing new cases, and reflect on the broader impact of telling these stories, especially from the survivor’s perspective.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing the Guests & Their Roles

• [02:47 - 03:37]
  • David Sloan: Creative leader for ABC News Longform (includes ABC News Studios, 20/20, Nightline, and Impact).
  • Muriel Pearson: Executive producer overseeing the podcast-to-TV adaptation and a close collaborator on the series.

2. True Crime and the “Eighth Deadly Sin”

• [03:37 - 04:31]
  • Discussion of the emotional core of true crime stories, focusing on betrayal.
  • Quote (David Sloan, 03:43):

    "The eighth deadly sin is betrayal. It's almost the eight's deadly sin. It's not in there along with gluttony and sloth and all of those other ones, but it really is one of the deadly sins... Someone everywhere on earth has been betrayed by someone big or small."

3. Taking the Podcast to TV

• [04:31 - 05:46]
  • The move was motivated by the podcast's cross-platform appeal and loyal audience relationships.
  • Quote (Muriel Pearson, 05:03):

    "There are very few things that migrate cross platform with the success of Betrayal... Your listeners, your audience are tuned in to watch these stories as they evolve on television."

4. Season Preview: Stories They’re Most Excited About

• [06:14 - 07:57]
  • David Sloan: Drawn to stories where the perpetrator is "hiding in plain sight"—like a trusted community member revealed as a criminal.
    • Quote (David Sloan, 06:14):

      "The best villains are the ones hiding in plain sight... It almost shocks the conscience."

  • Muriel Pearson: Highlights stories where women reclaim their power.
    • Focuses on Morgan’s story as an example of a survivor fighting back against betrayal and power dynamics.
    • Observes a recurring theme: some men’s discomfort with successful wives as fuel for betrayal.
    • Quote (Muriel Pearson, 07:01):

      "Morgan is so spunky... You don't have to be victimized. You don't have to take it from somebody. You can do something about it."

    • Quote (Muriel Pearson, 07:37):

      "It was a power thing, it wasn't just a betrayal thing... What was the ultimate, deeper, darker motivation?"

5. Recurring Themes and Patterns

• [07:57 - 09:13]
  • Andrea notes the similarities between cases (e.g., Crystal Harris and Morgan) involving breadwinner wives and partners whose insecurities lead to dark transformations.
  • Many perpetrators and their crimes, as well as victims' struggles, are "hiding in plain sight."
  • Quote (Andrea, 08:34):

    "Some of these stories are hiding in plain sight... You would have no idea what that woman went through."

6. Building a Sisterhood & Community Empowerment

• [09:13 - 10:05]
  • David praises the podcast for creating a "sisterhood" among listeners and storytellers—a supportive network fostering collective empowerment.
  • Quote (David Sloan, 09:13):

    "You've created a sisterhood not of just listeners, but women who can bear witness to stories... It's very, very impressive and rare."

7. Shifting the True Crime Narrative

• [10:08 - 10:52]
  • Muriel values the show’s focus on survivors and reframes the crime from their perspective, distinguishing it from traditional true crime media.
  • The upcoming season will also include more male perspectives, addressing the stigma male victims face.
  • Quote (Muriel Pearson, 10:08):

    "There's something incredibly, emotionally compelling about constantly reframing the crime within that context, inside a woman's point of view..."

8. Male Victims of Betrayal

• [10:52 - 11:18]
  • First male weekly episode with Ramon signifies a landmark, inviting men into the community.
  • Highlights the unique shame male storytellers might feel and the strength required to share their stories.
  • Quote (Andrea, 11:18):

    "For male storytellers, it's really hard in particular. And Ramon, man, is he not just so strong... This is what happened to me."

9. Where to Watch the TV Series

• [11:47 - 12:04]
  • Muriel Pearson:

    "Betrayal, Secrets and Lies. Coming to the ABC News Network near you. Sundays, 10 o'clock Eastern Standard Time. Streaming on Hulu and Disney afterwards."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• David Sloan:

  "The best villains are the ones hiding in plain sight..." ([06:14])

• Muriel Pearson:

  "Morgan fights back, as many of these women do... You can do something about it." ([07:01])

• Andrea Gunning:

  "Some of these stories are hiding in plain sight... You just don't know what someone has gone through or what they're going through." ([08:34])

• David Sloan:

  "You've created a sisterhood not of just listeners, but women who can bear witness to stories... It's very, very impressive and rare." ([09:13])

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Important Timestamps

• 02:47: Guest introductions and roles
• 03:37: Origins in true crime and “the eighth deadly sin”
• 04:46: Why take Betrayal to TV and cross-platform success
• 06:14: Season preview—villains, hiding in plain sight
• 07:01: Focus on empowered women in upcoming stories
• 08:34: “Stories hiding in plain sight”—survivors in the community
• 09:13: Building a sisterhood and supportive network
• 10:08: Reframing true crime—survivors’ voices
• 10:52: Including male survivors—breaking stigma
• 11:47: Where to find Betrayal: Secrets & Lies TV series

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Tone & Language

The episode is earnest, collaborative, and empowering. The hosts and guests express deep empathy for survivors, excitement for cross-platform storytelling, and a clear intent to highlight resilience over sensationalism.

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Key Takeaways

• Betrayal: Secrets & Lies stands out by centering survivor perspectives, building an empowering community, and evolving the true crime genre.
• Real-life stories of betrayal carry universal resonance and have proven to translate powerfully from audio to television.
• The upcoming season will feature both women and men as survivors, shedding light on many forms of betrayal and exploring the deeper motivations behind them.
• The series aims to cultivate a supportive "sisterhood" (and now, brotherhood), encouraging story-sharing and resilience in the face of deception.

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A must-listen episode for those interested in real-life stories of resilience, the inner workings of cross-media storytelling, and the continued evolution of true crime.

Transcript

[Andrea]

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[Andrea]

I am joined today by David Sloan and Muriel Pearson. I know who you are, and you guys are huge advocates of betrayal, but can you tell the audience who you are and in relationship to the show? David, why don't you go first?

[David Sloan]

Sure. I'm the creative leader for ABC News Longform, which comprises ABC News Studios, 20 20, Nightline, and Impact, our other news magazines. So I'm the creative lead over content.

[Muriel Pearson]

And I'm Muriel Pearson. I'm the executive producer over here overseeing your wonderful show, Andrea. And yeah, I work really closely with David on a lot of the things that he's working on, but I work really closely with your producer, John Hirsch, on making beautiful television out of your amazing podc.

[Andrea]

How did you guys get into true crime?

[Muriel Pearson]

David is the king of true crime. I'm passing that to you.

[David Sloan]

I mean, I have been doing crime since I worked on 2020, 25 years ago or maybe a little longer. And I became the executive producer for 20 years. And it's ferreting out these stories of not only the most notorious, and it's like the seven deadly sins. I mean, why crimes are committed. It's jealousy, it's envy, it's anger. These are kinds of feelings in humanity. But the eighth deadly sin is betrayal. It's almost the eighth's deadly sin. It's not in there along with gluttony and sloth and all of those other ones, but it really is one of the deadly sins. And again, it has a commonality where someone everywhere on earth has been betrayed by someone big or small.

[Andrea]

I'm so curious. What made you guys interested in taking the weekly series and converting it to tv? Obviously, we've done stage Jen's story and Ashley's story.

[Muriel Pearson]

Yes.

[Andrea]

What made you interested in the weekly format?

[David Sloan]

It's been remarkable. These limited series on Hulu have been remarkably received and keep adding viewers all the time in terms of driving subscriptions on Hulu. And then we just thought, like, why are we doing this for the network?

[Muriel Pearson]

But you know what, Dre is. What is really remarkable about this is we all ask about how transferable these kinds of stories and the popularity is between platforms. And I think what we've learned from your show and a couple others is with a very, very powerful podcast that translates into network, that translates into viewers on Hulu, and it is astonishing to me because there are very few things that migrate cross platform with the success of betrayal. And we've seen it happen time and again, certainly with the Hulu series and with the network series as well. Your listeners, your aud are tuned in to watch these stories as they evolve on television series.

[Andrea]

They're a very loyal community and so it's really cool to see them support every phase of betrayal, whether it be when we went from limited to the weekly and then when we launched the show on Hulu. So it's really cool to see the feedback from the listeners and then advocate for the show and for the storytellers. What are some of the stories that you're looking forward to the most this season? I mean obviously I have my darlings, but I'm curious which ones are yours?

[David Sloan]

I'm looking forward to the abduction. I mean, where do you get the story of. First of all, the best stories have the perpetrator or the husband as I will call him, he's really a perpetrator. The best villains are the ones hiding in plain sight. So this guy is a devoted father, he's a financial advisor who his clients trust. He's an elder at their church. And to think that he also would get involved in abduction and ransom and soundproof dungeon with victims. It almost shocks the conscience. And it is really the ones who are hiding in plain sight that are truly remarkable and the most frightening.

[Andrea]

What about you, Marielle?

[Muriel Pearson]

I am looking forwards to Morgan because Morgan is so spunky. Morgan is successful. Morgan is not going to let anybody take her down. Morgan fights back, as many of these women do. You don't have to be victimized. You don't have to take it from somebody. You can do something about it. And it is fascinating to me how a woman like Morgan kind of shows you a little bit of the heart of darkness. Because one little theme that I've seen emerge from this series is a lot of men who really didn't feel comfortable with their wives success that they really, who knows at what point they decided they wanted to take that down. But it was a power thing, it wasn't just a betrayal thing, which is already awful enough. But it really raised questions in my mind about what the ultimate, deeper, darker motivation of some of these men was. Were they trying to take that woman down?

[Andrea]

It's such a great point. When you watch Crystal Harris's episode, you will find similarities between Sean Harris, which is Crystal's husband, and Rodney Morgan's ex husband. Different scenarios. Crystal was the breadwinner, she was Working. He was taking care of the kids. And then he experiences loss and he starts to change. The same story is very similar in Morgan's case. It's really to see things just, you know, to see those, like, themes come up in these perpetrators and the offenders is so fascinating.

[David Sloan]

Yes.

[Andrea]

The one thing I was gonna say off your point, David, about these perpetrators hiding in plain sight is some of these stories are hiding in plain sight. I remember when Danielle emailed us. I think her email was like three sentences long. And it was just like, big fan of the podcast. You know, really quick in and out. You would have no idea what that woman went through. She just heard the show, she wrote in, and you would never know that her husband at one point had dungeon in a random rental property. You know, it's a real indication of you just don't know what someone has gone through or what they're going through.

[David Sloan]

I'm so full of admiration to the Glass group because what you have done with the podcast, and we've been lucky enough to meet you and to collaborate with you on the network and on Hulu, is that you've created a sisterhood. Yeah, you've created a sisterhood not of just listeners, but women who can bear witness to stories like the other listeners. And it's very, very impressive and rare. And the fact that it keeps regenerating and really snowballing into almost this sort of movement of women sharing these stories and taking power and empowering themselves. It's just this collective strength that I really admire all of you for bringing us about.

[Andrea]

Well, thank you for saying that. That means a lot to me.

[Muriel Pearson]

What I kind of love about this series is true crime in the past has taken a little bit of criticism because it's been too much about the crime, the salaciousness of the crime or the perpetrat. This brings it firmly into the space of the victims of the people to whom the crime is being perpetrated on. But I've got to say that there's something incredibly, emotionally compelling about constantly reframing the crime within that context, between a woman's inside of a woman's point of view. Although I shouldn't just say a woman, because, I mean, we should tease it a little bit, Andrea, that we have a man. We have a man betrayal in our coming up.

[Andrea]

We do, Ramon, and he was the first man that we had on the weekly. And that was a watershed moment, obviously, aside from Tyler on the, you know, the Hulu doc. It was. I think Tyler really set a stage for men to participate in betrayal. Cause I do think that there's a lot, there is a level of shame in every storyteller where they feel they are the only one that got duped.

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[Andrea]

And I think for male storytellers, it's really hard in particular. And Ramon, man, is he not just so strong and willing and just to stand on his two feet and say, this is what happened to me. I am so grateful to the both of you for believing in betrayal and just being a fan of the show and the stories. And so I can't thank you enough. Muriel, do you want to tell the audience where they can find betrayal, secrets and Lies?

[Muriel Pearson]

Betrayal, Secrets and Lies. Coming to the ABC News Network near you. Sundays, 10 o' clock Eastern Standard Time. Streaming on Hulu and Disney. Afterwards, watch us and be part of that wonderful sisterhood that David was talking about.

[Andrea]

Thank you guys. I really appreciate you taking the time.

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[Andrea]

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