Loading summary
Anna Sinfield
This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual, even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
Anna Sinfield
Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
What is this, your first date?
Charlamagne Tha God
Oh, no.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
Anna Sinfield
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
Anyways, only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
Anna Sinfield
Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.
Charlamagne Tha God
Peace to the planet. Charlamagne Tha God here. And listen, we are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yard. Yeah, and the full lineup is nuts. We got the Grits and Eggs podcast, Deontay Kyle and Big Ice Cup Cat. We got Club 520 with Jeff Teague and the gang. Don't call me White Girl. Mona will be there. Keep it positive, sweetie, with Crystal Renee. We got Reality with the King with Carlos King. And yes, Drink champs will be in the plus. You know we gonna have a lot of guests, so you need to join us. And we got the Black Effect Marketplace, the picture podcast, and everything you expect from the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Tickets are on sale right now. Go get yours@blackffect.com podcast festival. Don't play yourself. Okay, pull up.
Anna Sinfield
Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?
Boys and Girls Podcast Host
Welcome to the Boys and Girls podcast. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show. And auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging? Only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition hoping to find love the right way. And instead I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Anna Sinfield
No. Hey, girlfriends. Anna here. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up about what you'll hear in this season of the Girlfriends. The series touches on themes of coercive control. And there'll obviously be a little bit of swearing here and there too. But the women at the heart of this series are so funny and powerful and vivacious. And there's a great payoff at the end. For the full story, listen all the way through. If any of the themes feel difficult, you'll find links to mental health and support organizations in the episode. Description. Wendy is sitting poolside in a luxury hotel resort, listening to the sounds of waves crashing against the nearby beach. It's 2013 around the end of August and Wendy, the lucky devil, is in Hawaii. Wendy's in her early 40s and a single mom with a busy job. By the time she arrives, the sun has set over the Pacific and it's dark except for the glow of the tiki torches. Wendy's expectations for the evening had been pretty low. She's wearing yoga pants and it was too warm to bother with makeup. But now the balmy night air is alive with the buzz of possibility because Wendy is on a date and it's going well. Sitting across from Wendy is a successful businessman. Derek.
Wendy
There was something about him. He was very charming, very attentive, very, very smart and very engaging.
Anna Sinfield
He's explaining that he's on Maui for a little while to look at investment properties. He comes over regularly from San Francisco, hence the dating.
Wendy
He's in finance and he's a scuba diver and he loves to travel. He sounds like the perfect match for me.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy hasn't got the total hots for Derek. Looks wise. He kind of blends into the wash of faces that appear on dating apps. Short brown hair, slightly balding. Through absolutely no fault of Derek's, he is an entirely average middle aged white guy. But the conversation is flowing.
Wendy
He was talking about going scuba diving and he saw a whale shark.
Anna Sinfield
A whale shark sighting is rare on Maui. Derek is a lucky man. Taking his cue from Wendy's absorbed expression, he continues his story. There he is just off the coast, flapping his flippers on yet another unremarkable dive, when suddenly this gentle, speckled, flat headed sea giant glides past him. It was amazing. Amazing. As the tiki torches flicker around them, Wendy is gripped.
Wendy
I would die to see a whale shark.
Anna Sinfield
That is until Derek ruins it. He tells Wendy that he was scuba diving that day with a particular whale conservation group, a local, not for profit Pacific Whale Foundation.
Wendy
He didn't know this, but my daughter's best friend's parents owned Pacific Whale Foundation. And I said, I'm sure you didn't go on Pacific Whale foundation because they only do whale watching and snorkeling. They don't have scuba diving boats.
Anna Sinfield
It's such a small detail.
Wendy
And had he said, oh, you know what, I must be confused. It must have just had Pacific in the name. I would not have thought a second thing about it.
Anna Sinfield
But he would not let it go.
Wendy
No, it was Pacific Whale Foundation. He was adamant. So then he said he kept swimming down to try to spend more time with the whale shark and didn't quite do a safety stop.
Anna Sinfield
A safety stop? To release all the nitrogen his body had stored up while diving. Derek, our experienced diver, forgot he ended
Wendy
up getting the bins and he had to go to a decompression chamber. The only decompression chamber in Hawaii at the time was on Oahu. They don't have one on Maui, or they didn't at the time. I have not known a single person that ever got the bends or that ever had to go to a decompression chamber. I didn't call him out on that, but I thought, this is kind of weird and I've been scuba diving all over the world. Not to say it couldn't happen, but it really sounded a bit fantastical.
Anna Sinfield
Ever get that feeling in your gut like you're being lied to? Wendy has that feeling right now.
Wendy
I'm one of those people. I just can't let it go.
Anna Sinfield
Whale sharks, the bends, they're such inconsequential things.
Wendy
Why would you lie about that?
Anna Sinfield
It'll be five years, many more first dates, a federal investigation spanning states and decades, and a determined group of pissed off girlfriends raising hell before Wendy gets a satisfying answer to that question.
Wendy
My name is Wendy and I dated a con artist named Derek and it completely changed my life.
Anna Sinfield
I'm Anna Sinfield and from the teams At Novel and iHeart podcasts, you're listening to the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe. Episode 1 shark bait. When Wendy was young, her mum Sherry would share stories with her, tales from her youth about her own dating experiences. It's a Friday night in 1964 on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Sherry and her two housemates are at home in their first floor apartment. The smell of citrus blossom from the surrounding groves floats in the air. They're no older than 20, two recent college grads, and tonight one of them has a date. He's here. On date nights, these three friends have a bit of a routine. One of them tonight, it's Sherry, lets the suitor in, distracts him with aimless conversation while his date pretends to put the finishing touches to her hair. The third friend, with a bag full of trash from the kitchen, sneaks out the door and notes down the make, model and license plate of their guest's car. Safety protocol complete, the friend on the date leaves glammed up to the nines. Her two friends watch her cruise into the sunset with a stranger, safe in the knowledge that while they're probably just going to Shakey's for some dark beer and warm pizza, if, God forbid, something bad were to happen, they're prepared.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
That was a thing Even back in the 60s, to keep each other safe, just in case.
Anna Sinfield
That's Laurie. She heard this story growing up, too.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
We couldn't stand each other because, you know, sisters.
Anna Sinfield
Laurie is Wendy's older sister.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
Our dad told us, one of these days, you girls are gonna be best friends. And we would gag and ew, gross. He was right. He was so right. Wendy always called me her safety net. And I love that. I love being her safety net.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy got married young to her college sweetheart, and they did the whole nine yards. Had a kid, got the white picket fence, and it was a great marriage, but it ran its course. By 35, Wendy is newly single and making a home for herself on Maui with her daughter. Everything feels new, especially dating.
Wendy
I'd never even been to a bar to have a guy buy me a drink. I didn't know about online dating. I didn't know about match.com.
Anna Sinfield
will you regale me with one of your dating stories?
Wendy
Ooh, I have so many Broke Bone Bobby and Jailbird Ryan and the Cuticle Picker, and I just have so many, right? Like, it's insane.
Anna Sinfield
As Wendy dives into the dating game headfirst, she tells her big sister Lori all about it over long phone calls. Wendy in Hawaii, Lori in Texas.
Wendy
He did not look like his photos at all. He was trying to take pictures of the sunset, and he kept using his flash. I get a letter from the county jail asking me to come visit him. I never told anyone that I was remotely interested in seeing a dick pic. Hordes of them. So many of them.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
That's when I started realizing she needs a little backup.
Anna Sinfield
So in steps big sister Lori.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
She allowed me to have her location on Google.
Anna Sinfield
At first, it doesn't all run as smoothly as their mother's trash run reconnaissance strategy.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I had to call her one time and say, your W is out in a lake.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy's Google Maps icon is surrounded by water.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you. It's a houseboat.
Anna Sinfield
The more Wendy dates, the more the sisters fall into a kind of rhythm.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
Every guy that she went out with, I'm going to see what I can find out about him.
Wendy
I told him, I said, I'm okay to come to your home, but I'm having my sister look you up. And he goes, oh, try it. She's not going to find anything.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
Challenge accepted.
Wendy
Here's the picture of his house. He's got these two kids, and it looks like he flies back and forth for these two cities.
Anna Sinfield
Oh, my God. Eight years and hundreds of first Dates later, Wendy has perfected her own strategies and is even planning to turn her bizarre dating stories into a book. It's the end of summer 2013, and it's been just two days since her first date with Derek the whale shark guy. And while she's still none the wiser as to why he'd lie about scuba diving, she's also kinda into him. He's successful, adventurous, and attentive, perhaps too attentive. He's been a prolific texter and emailer. Just two days after their first date, Derek offers to fly Wendy to San Francisco to meet his mother. He signs off his message, love you more than this morning with two exclamation marks.
Wendy
I said, you couldn't even name ten facts about me. And he then sent me an email, 100 reasons why I love you. Parts of it were, I love that you have to have a coffee first thing in the morning. I don't drink coffee. He literally didn't even read it. He just googled 100 reasons to love someone and then just sent it to me.
Anna Sinfield
Derek is a little carried away with his feelings, sure, but Wendy thinks maybe he's just kind of clumsy with it. We've all been a little cringy when we've had a crush.
Wendy
I was excited to meet someone that was very interested in me and was very open to me. That was very refreshing. Something just didn't feel completely right. But I wanted to like him.
Anna Sinfield
And so Wendy picks up the phone and makes a call to her sister in Texas.
Wendy
Can you check out Derek?
Anna Sinfield
Wendy and Laurie have been in the game for a while now.
Wendy
I had so many details. His name, how old he was.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
She said, oh, he has a daughter, same age as my daughter.
Wendy
How long he said he'd been divorced,
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
the college that he went to, what year he graduated. She did get the name of the company he was working for.
Wendy
I don't even know that much information about some of my close friends.
Anna Sinfield
While Laurie gets to work online sleuthing, Wendy and Derek keep seeing each other. And one of those dates is in an upscale neighborhood where Derek is viewing a luxury condo.
Wendy
He had told me he's on Maui because he's looking for investments.
Anna Sinfield
It's been less than two weeks since they met.
Wendy
He said, do you want to go with me to look at some of these properties? So I'm like, yes, absolutely.
Anna Sinfield
They're walking through a place Derek is considering investing in. It's a three bed property with all the amenities, Ocean views, built in, lighting fixtures, for hanging your own art collection. It's classy. Wendy's realtor friend is showing them around.
Wendy
Oh, wow. He seems like such a great, successful, nice guy.
Anna Sinfield
But before long, Derek fumbles into weirdo behavior again.
Wendy
He started acting like, oh, this could be our home.
Anna Sinfield
Our home.
Wendy
And I'm like, I thought this was a real estate investment thing. He started saying, you know, I really see this as our house. He's like, let's put our both our names on it. I'm like, what? He goes, I want to make sure you and your daughter are taking care of him. Like, well, then put me in your will. I'm never signing anything with you.
Anna Sinfield
This is the moment at which Wendy's interest in Derek as a possible boyfriend really takes a turn. Whatever his charms, he is coming on too strong. It's not just the real estate business. He's sending shared calendar invites for upcoming family visits.
Wendy
Now they call it love bombing, but I didn't know the term back then.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy's big sister, Lori, is starting to question Derek, too. In a small, narrow room of her bedroom, Lori is at a cluttered desk. She's sitting on one of those ergonomic backless chairs where you rest your weight on your knees. She's looking at the website for Derek Allred's real estate investment company, the one he sent Wendy. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, she notices the site was only created that year. Could be something, could be nothing.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I started noticing things that were static. They weren't clickable.
Anna Sinfield
It's full of testimonials, generic stock images, but the links are dead. Are these real people? For that matter, is a business real? Laurie finds the company's address on the website.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I went to Google Earth and I went down to street level, and in that building, you could see the directory of what companies were in that building.
Anna Sinfield
Derek's supposed company wasn't there. Other than the stuff Derek's provided to Wendy himself, Laurie can't find any detail whatsoever on the guy.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
This puzzle was missing a lot of pieces. I just was not finding the normal things that I could find.
Wendy
Why am I stuck?
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
Why can't I find more on this guy?
Anna Sinfield
As she sits alone at her desk, a new thought occurs to Laurie. Maybe the lack of information, the very existence of so many strange gaps, is the enormous, frantically waving red flag she's been looking for. Laurie decides it's time to call in a little backup of her own. She looks up a name and number that she hasn't thought about for years, gives him a call.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I recognize that voice immediately.
Anna Sinfield
Laurie's old College pal Pat is now a private investigator. Private investigator Pat, he said, of course
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I will do this. Of course I will do this for you, PI.
Anna Sinfield
Pat gets to work right away, pulling off his own research tools while the two old friends sit on the phone. And in almost no time at all, the computer spits back some results.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
He said, just from looking at this report. Tell your sister to run. Tell her to run.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
Hey, everyone.
Anna Sinfield
Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
What is this, your first date?
Charlamagne Tha God
Oh, no.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
Anna Sinfield
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (possibly Doug or partner)
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
Anna Sinfield
Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
On the Serving Pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court. Today we have a little best friend compatibility test. Okay, and how long have we been best friends for? Since the day we met. As the League1 volleyball season heads towards its final stretch, there's no better time to tune in. We really are like yin and yang, vodka and tequila. You'll hear unfiltered analysis, behind the scenes stories and conversations with leaders making an impact across the sport. Today we have Logan Lednecki. I feel like our fan base in general is very connected. It's like a comforting feeling getting to play at home. Whether you're following the final push of love season or just love the game, serving pancakes brings you closer to the action and the people shaping the future of volleyball. Jordan Thompson had that microphone out. God forbid we make mistakes or cuss at our coach. Like when talking. Open your free iHeartradio app, search serving pancakes and listen. Now, this has been serving pancakes. And we'll catch you on the flip side.
Anna Sinfield
Okay.
Wendy
Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart.
Silk Protein Advertiser
Women's sports mornings can feel like a lot. But there's one small choice that can make mornings feel good. Silk Protein. It's the smooth plant based beverage with 13 grams of complete plant protein and 50% less sugar than dairy milk. Pour it into your cereal. Blend it into a smoothie, Stir it into your coffee. Silk Protein makes mornings feel a little calmer, a little brighter, a little more. Okay, I got this. Silk Protein feel planty. Good.
Anna Sinfield
Laurie's just got off the phone with PI Pat, who has told her in no uncertain terms to get her sister the hell out of her weird dance with Derek Allred. With Pat's report sitting in her inbox, Lori reaches for the phone again. In her panic to tell Wendy the news, she nearly falls off her chair.
Wendy
I was really disappointed that there wasn't more information about this. There wasn't anything really big. And I kind of my shoulders dropped.
Anna Sinfield
You see, the report PI Pat sent over didn't really answer Wendy's questions. It just gave her more. Firstly, Derek had been lying to Wendy about the spelling of his name. Derek Allred was Derek Alldred. That's how Pipat had found him. Secondly, Derek Alldred had a long list of previous addresses. Oddly long. And across states as well as that a larger than average number of evictions. And that's pretty much it.
Wendy
I thought for sure we're going to find out there's something going on here.
Anna Sinfield
For Wendy, it doesn't seem like much. For PI Pat and Laurie, reading between the lines, it says a lot. There were no felonies, but PI Pat can explain that.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
He said I can't see certain reports because states don't share the information. But it was enough to know he's not a good guy.
Anna Sinfield
But Wendy's moved beyond wanting to date Derek. She has other ambitions.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
She has this thing. She considers herself a karma warrior. Okay, Meaning in her mind, this is a guy that needs to be put in his place. The toxic masculinity guys go for it. Wendy, say what you need to say, do what you need to do. This guy was totally different. Attractive, friendly, helpful. All these things, those are the ones that, you know, scare me. And I think she thought, eh, I'm just gonna play with them a little bit just because she could.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy, with a penchant for poking the bear and the final chapter of a book about online dating to write, sets out to find the truth. Wendy meets up with Derek armed with evidence from PI Pat and Deputy PI Laurie. It doesn't really go according to plan because Derek cops to none of it. The long list of previous addresses.
Wendy
Oh, I'm in real estate investment. Those are properties I've owned and rented.
Anna Sinfield
The eviction notices I've had to evict other people. Derek even calls Maui Memorial Hospital while Wendy is on speakerphone beside him to prove he really was in hospital around the time of his story about getting the bends.
Wendy
He did not own up to anything that was remotely off. He had an answer for everything.
Anna Sinfield
Without cold hard proof, all she has is gut instinct. And in the face of Derek's confident self assuredness, it's not the satisfying confrontation she had hoped for. Wendy just has more questions.
Wendy
Why is he coming after me? I kept thinking maybe there's something to do with buying a house. But I don't have a lot of extra cash sitting around. It's not like I was super wealthy or anything.
Anna Sinfield
It's only been a couple of weeks. But Wendy is clear on one thing. Derek is not investing in the Maui property market.
Wendy
That whole deal fell through because he didn't have money. My friend was the realtor. She's like, there's no money in that account. I'm a super curious person. So I kept agreeing to meet with him now and then I would go with him to look at condos and he would talk about how much money he had. One time he said, I know you don't believe me. And he had pulled up an investment account, like 1.2 million. First of all, it looks like a PDF. And then I also noticed that there was a typo in the word checking. The most basic word.
Anna Sinfield
And yet all the while, he's lavishing her with attention and more.
Wendy
One, two, three dozen roses, Sherry's berries, Tiffany jewelry, prescription sunglasses, a giant teddy bear.
Anna Sinfield
To give you a sense of scale, I'm 4 foot 11 and I'd call this bear Daddy.
Wendy
If he would have been just any other person, I would have stopped. But because I had already started writing a book about online dating, I kept going with it.
Anna Sinfield
She doesn't just want Derek to admit that he's a liar. She wants him to explain why he's lying.
Wendy
Who in their right mind would spend so much time and effort trying to con someone? It just didn't make any sense to me.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy is starting to doubt whether anything Derek says is true. Does he really have a dog named Max? Is he even from San Francisco? And if so, where does he actually live? In response to Wendy's questions, Derek sends Wendy a video tour, padding around the inside of a home. We start off in a living room and there's some red walls. He walks through a doorway into a kitchen. Lots of pictures, a nicely made up bed. There's a dog bed in the living room, and the name on the back says Maxwell. But what does a random video really tell you? It's like if someone said to me, anna, you're not really a vegan. And to prove to them that I am, I send them a video of a salad. Everyone eats salads. Who's to say it's even my salad? Who's to say I even took the video? But whenever Wendy Pushes too hard with questions or challenges about Derek's metaphorical salad. He seems to find ways to derail things in his favor.
Wendy
There was always some tragic thing that was happening. One time he told me his dog died. He would have drama in his life. He just wouldn't let it go. He still kept trying.
Anna Sinfield
Wow. He just would not quit.
Wendy
Right?
Anna Sinfield
Did he like it? You know, the rejection?
Wendy
I don't know, Wendy. I've been nothing but transparent with you, and I love you. And it really is so hurt that you're saying these things about me. Once I knew he was a pathological liar, I really just wanted to catch him in a way that he couldn't get out of.
Anna Sinfield
Isn't until mid October that Wendy gets her next opportunity to try and figure out what Derek's really up to. And this time it's on his home turf. Wendy has to travel to San Francisco for a biopsy following a breast cancer scare. When Derek hears about it in classic Derek style, he makes a big fuss, offering to buy Wendy's plane ticket. And then sending details for a flight that doesn't exist. Didn't he think you'd find out about the flight?
Wendy
You would think so. I have no idea why he would do some things and not others.
Anna Sinfield
She gets there anyway, under her own steam. The biopsy results come back negative within a couple of days, and Wendy's feeling good. Then Derek pops up again. He invites her to dinner. Wendy can't resist the opportunity to do a bit of sleuthing on Derek's patch. They go for the dinner, and not only does he rock up in a BMW, he actually pays for everything. He even takes Wendy to a Bryan Adams concert. Merch drinks, all paid for by this strange man.
Wendy
I'm sitting there going, well, he looks like what he told me he was. I was trying to figure out, like, where did he come into money?
Anna Sinfield
Wendy looks at the man beside her and asks herself for maybe the hundredth time, what kind of con is this? It's a Tuesday evening in the very middle of October. Wendy is back on Maui and the Prosecco is flowing. A medley of dance pop albums play in the background. Brittany, Madonna, Lady Gaga. There are potluck snacks on Wendy's living room table. It's been a month and a half since Wendy's first date with Derek. And it's girls night. There are eight women crammed into Wendy's small living room, gawping at the giant TV on the wall. The show Wendy's Love Life. She's hooked the TV up to her phone and is doing a full class report of her latest dates with supplementary screenshots and selfies.
Wendy
All my girlfriends were getting the reports about what was going on, and they were all invested.
Anna Sinfield
There's nothing quite as intoxicating as being the headline act at girls night. And the last few weeks have given Wendy a lot of material to work with. As she regales them with her latest tales, the girls speculate about Derek's motives.
Wendy
What is this guy's deal? What is he after?
Anna Sinfield
Until finally, one of Wendy's girlfriends says the thing we've all been thinking,
Wendy
Wendy, he does sound like he is a psychopath. And what if he physically hurts you? What if he hits you? What if he kidnaps you? Up until she said that, it had never crossed my mind.
Anna Sinfield
It's the same worry Wendy's sister had quietly all those weeks earlier.
Wendy
It really made me open my eyes.
Anna Sinfield
It's been two months of exchanges with Derek, and despite all the evidence, all the difficult questions, Wendy is no closer to learning the truth about who this man actually is. But now she realizes, really realizes,
Wendy
this is clearly an unhinged person, and maybe I'm not safe. I'm just never going to figure this out. I need to get him out of my life before he does do something really crazy to me.
Anna Sinfield
It's only been a couple of days since Wendy's girls told her gently to leave Derek well alone. When he reaches out again, wanting to meet up, Wendy does decide to go. Maybe this is her chance to end it in person.
Wendy
He asked me to come meet him because he wanted to get his mother a birthday gift.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy meets Derek at the jewelry store in a busy shopping center, and at first she browses solo while Derek does his own thing.
Wendy
And then he's like, oh, hey, I think I found the gift for my mom.
Anna Sinfield
Derek shows her a pair of diamond stud earrings, $4,000.
Wendy
And he goes, would you try them on? They're just diamond studs. Everybody knows what they look like on ears, but I put them on. And then he goes, well, let's look out in the light. And he was trying to pull me outside of the store.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy looks over at the salesperson for help, but they just nod. I imagine with the patience of all underpaid retail workers who are unwillingly roped into romantic gestures. Gestures. Outside the jewelry store, under the bright lights of the shopping mall, Derek makes his reveal.
Wendy
I've already paid for them. They're for you, not my mother. I want to do it to show you that I'm committed to this relationship.
Anna Sinfield
She comes in here to end it, and now he's throwing earrings at her.
Wendy
And I'm thinking, where is this coming from? I gave him back those earrings. I said, I do think that you are a con artist. And even though I can't put it all together, I don't ever want you to contact me again.
Anna Sinfield
A few weeks later, Wendy gets a text.
Wendy
Hi, Wendy, I'm on island. My dad doesn't want me to contact you, blah, blah, blah.
Anna Sinfield
It's from an unknown number and the text that claims to be not Derek, but Derek's daughter.
Wendy
I started laughing. I knew right away it wasn't her because it's texting like adults think. Teenagers text. No word is written out.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy even shows them to her own daughter.
Wendy
Do you think this is actually from a teenager? Oh, gosh, no. We don't really text like that.
Anna Sinfield
The unknown number sends a follow up.
Wendy
Oh, my dad would be upset if he knew I was reaching out to you, but he's in the hospital.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy resolutely broke up with Derek, but this is too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Wendy
I call the hospital, he is registered as the patient. I'm like, what?
Anna Sinfield
Wendy's own daughter wants answers now too.
Wendy
She goes, you gotta go down there. You can catch him because you know his daughter's not there. I drive to the hospital and I go in the room and I see him and I'm thinking, where's your daughter? Oh, my friend on island took her. They went to Starbucks. And I'm like, oh, Starbucks closes in like 20 minutes. It's Maui. Everything closes by 9pm if not earlier.
Anna Sinfield
Derek has taken off to get a scan. Wendy sits in his room waiting. 20 minutes go by.
Wendy
Starbucks is closed. Where's your daughter? He just kept saying, oh, well, they must be doing this or that or whatever. And she just didn't come. And so I'm like, okay, you know what? Whatever. I gotta go home.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy doesn't go home because it's time for a good old fashioned stakeout.
Wendy
I went and I parked my car across the street.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy sits in her car in the dark, eyes trained on the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital main entrance, and waits.
Wendy
He got discharged and I saw him come out of the hospital in plain clothes and then just started walking down the street. He didn't have a vehicle, he didn't have anything. There was nobody to pick him up.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy was right. Derek's daughter is nowhere to be seen. But as she watches him retreat into the distance, she's no closer to finding out the truth.
Wendy
It really was a bummer because nothing made sense. It killed me to not have answers and to just say that I'm never going to have correspondence with him again.
Anna Sinfield
Back in San Francisco, Derek takes a little longer to drop it. He keeps sending emails, which Wendy doesn't reply to. He even tries one last sympathy play, telling her that he in fact has cancer, that she's the love of his life, that he loves her forever. Attaching copies of his ultrasounds as proof.
Wendy
I did a Google image search. The ultrasound picture that he sent me was one of the first ones that came up.
Anna Sinfield
Oh, wow. So he didn't even try hard.
Wendy
He wasn't trying hard. He wasn't putting in the effort like he used to. I just felt like that was his attempt to lure me back in. And I didn't take the bait.
Anna Sinfield
Instead, she resolves not to respond to Derek ever again, to close the chapter without answers, she sits down at her computer and changes her WI fi password
Wendy
to the immortal words, Derek sucks my one ass.
Anna Sinfield
Wendy is done. Months later, Wendy is walking down Maui's busiest street when her phone rings.
Wendy
Hi, Wendy. You don't know me, but my name's Cindy and we both dated. Derek and I was like.
Anna Sinfield
And just like that, Wendy's back in.
Wendy
Baby, I'm gonna figure out what's going on.
Anna Sinfield
Coming up on the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe,
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
Something's off about this whole thing. Something's fishy.
Wendy
She was relentless. He is not gonna get away with this. It sounds so familiar. She kept saying, can you text her and see if you can get a picture of him? And she did.
Laurie (Wendy's sister)
I can tell you neither one of us had any idea what he really was.
Anna Sinfield
A terrible, middle aged, nearly balding boyfriend pops up in Minnesota. Bad news.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
We don't like him.
Wendy
He kind of gave me creepy vibes
Anna Sinfield
and runs into a group of no nonsense, pocky loving nurses.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
We still talk about it.
Anna Sinfield
We always say that.
Podcast Host or Guest (Serving Pancakes or similar)
Trust your girlfriends.
Anna Sinfield
You. I got you. I got you. The Girlfriend's Trust Me Babe is produced by novel for iHeart podcasts. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The series is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield. It's produced by Leona Hamid. Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our editor is Jo Wheeler. Production management from Cherie Houston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolf. Fact checking by Dania Suleiman. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The Girlfriend's theme was composed by Daniel Kempson and Louisa Gerstein and performed by Daniel Kempson with vocals by Louisa Gerstein. Music supervision from Daniel Kempson and Anna Sinfield. The series artwork was designed by Christina Lehmkul, story development by Susie Baker and Olivia Smart. Novel's director of development is Selena Mehta, Max o' Brien is the executive producer for Novel, Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etor are the executive producers for iHeart podcasts, and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iHeart podcast. Julie Sensulo, Ann Langston, Carolyn Shirlevin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munro, Tom Oldag, and Tad Vesna. This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Podcast: The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe
Episode: Season 5, Episode 1
Host: Anna Sinfield
Production: iHeartPodcasts and Novel
Release Date: April 13, 2026
The season premiere introduces the story of Wendy, a vibrant, witty single mom from Maui, who crosses paths with Derek Alldred—a charming yet mysteriously evasive man. Quickly, Wendy’s gut — supported by her sharp instincts and unbreakable sisterly bond — alerts her to cracks in Derek’s impressive facade. The episode explores themes of trust, women’s intuition, and the power of collective action, as Wendy and a growing circle of women begin to reckon with the discovery: Derek is a prolific romance scammer. This first installment sets up the journey from suspicion to investigation, culminating in the resolve to unmask Derek and protect others.
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 03:41 | Wendy | “He was very charming, very attentive, very, very smart and very engaging.” | | 05:34 | Wendy | “They only do whale watching and snorkeling. They don’t have scuba diving boats.” | | 06:30 | Wendy | “…it really sounded a bit fantastical.” | | 10:14 | Laurie | “That was a thing Even back in the 60s, to keep each other safe, just in case.” | | 12:48 | Laurie | “Every guy that she went out with, I’m going to see what I can find out about him.” | | 14:24 | Wendy | “He just googled 100 reasons to love someone and then just sent it to me.” | | 16:41 | Wendy | “He started saying, you know, I really see this as our house. He’s like, let’s put both our names on it…” | | 18:08 | Laurie | “I started noticing things that were static. They weren’t clickable.” | | 20:18 | PI Pat | “Tell your sister to run. Tell her to run.” | | 24:10 | Laurie | “…it was enough to know he’s not a good guy.” | | 27:24 | Wendy | “The most basic word… and there was a typo in the word checking.” | | 28:09 | Wendy | “Who in their right mind would spend so much time and effort trying to con someone?” | | 33:19 | Girlfriend | “Wendy, he does sound like he is a psychopath. And what if he physically hurts you? What if he kidnaps you?” | | 36:06 | Wendy | “I do think that you are a con artist. And even though I can’t put it all together, I don’t ever want you to contact me again.” | | 39:41 | Wendy | “The ultrasound picture that he sent me was one of the first ones that came up.” | | 40:18 | Wendy | “Derek sucks my one ass.” |
Anna Sinfield’s narration is wry and warm, blending suspense with empathy. Wendy’s reflective, candid, sometimes humorous storytelling, paired with the lively banter of her sister and friends, fosters relatability and keeps the tone engaging—even as it navigates dark or emotionally charged material.
In "Shark Bait," the first episode of The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe, we’re drawn into Wendy’s rollercoaster relationship with Derek, a seemingly perfect match who reveals himself in layers as a master manipulator. Through vigilant sleuthing, familial bonds, and the collective vigilance of women comparing notes, the true threat emerges. The episode is a testament to intuition, the necessity of friendship, and the rise of everyday women as justice-seekers—ready to expose romance scammers when no one else will.