Here's What Debra Newell from 'Dirty John' Is Up to Now
Bravo just blessed the world with a new show based on 2017's most popular true crime podcast Dirty John and it's SO. DAMN. GOOD. So, naturally, you probably want to brush up on some facts about the show's real-life protagonist, Debra Newell-a truly fascinating woman who's being depicted on-screen by Connie Britton.
But before we get to Debra, here's some need-to-know background info: Dirty John is based on the extensive research of Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard. In his podcast, Goffard chronicled Debra's whirlwind romance with a con-man named John Meehan, who seemed normal...until he wasn't. Basically things got real intense, real fast, and in order to talk about Debra (and what she's up to now!) we kinda have to spoil the ending of the podcast/show. So on that note:
When she met John in 2014, Debra was 59-making her around 63 right now. She was raised by a youth pastor dad and a piano teacher mom, has been married a total of five times (including to John), and has four kids who she raised in the Orange County area of California.
Because she's a total boss, Debra started a profitable design firm called Ambrosia Interior Design, which-according to Forbes-employed 50 people in its heyday. As a result, Debra's...well, she's rich. Making her a prime target for creepy men.
Debra's own story is terrifying (we'll get to John in a minute...shudder), but her older sister Cindi's life took a very tragic turn long before the John drama even started. In 1984, Cindi tried to leave her husband Billy Vickers, and he ended up killing her with a handgun. As Goffard writes, "It was the reason Debra hated firearms. It was the reason she refused to have one around, long after people began warning her that she needed one."
Billy was charged with first-degree murder, but Debra's mother Arlane thought he hadn't been in his right mind when Cindi was killed, so she chose to speak on his behalf at the trial. Per Goffard's reporting, he ended up pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and spent just under three years in jail. He stayed in the Orange County area, and Debra has even run into him from time-to-time-though, unlike her mom, she never forgave him.
You can get the full run down of Dirty John right this way, but here's the story in a nutshell: John and Debra met in October 2014 after connecting on a dating website. Pretty normal, right? Yeah, well, then they got married after just two months, which is a little less normal.
"He said all the right things. And he had a family," Debra said when asked by E! what attracted her to John. "He has a picture on his dating site that is of his daughters. So I thought, 'Oh, he's a family man, this is great.' So I thought he had it all."
Debra and her kids eventually discovered all sorts of secrets about John-including the fact that he had a prison record, had lied about his career, and had a highly questionable history with women. To quote Goffard, "he had seduced, swindled and terrorized multiple women, many of whom he had met on dating sites while posing as a doctor, court records showed."
In March 2016, Debra left John and he subsequently harassed her by posting nude photos to her nephew's Facebook page. He even stole her car and lit it on fire, which...WTF. As you may have guessed, the end of Debra and John's time together resulted in extreme violence when John showed up with a knife and attacked Debra's daughter Terra in the parking lot of her apartment building. After wrestling each other, Terra got hold of his knife and managed to stab John repeatedly. He died in the hospital four days later on August 24, 2016.
Nowadays, Debra lives in Nevada and runs a new company called Ambrosia Home which she founded in November 2017-one month after the Dirty John Podcast dropped. Here's Debra explaining her new business to Forbes:
My oldest daughter was at the point where she could take over the business in Irvine. I was ready for a change. I love residential and helping people with their homes.
Debra says she handpicks all the items at Ambrosia Home herself, and it seems pretty successful, with two locations and plans to open a third next year. But she's not completely done with California-despite her past there. She works with clients in Orange County and often commutes, telling Forbes, "When you do what you love, it’s not like work. It’s getting to have fun with your passion."
When it comes to Dirty John, Goffard wrote in 2017 that Debra "still struggles with guilt that she brought John into her family’s life," and that she's once again close to her kids, who she bought "stun guns, pepper spray and rape whistles."
Debra has been pretty involved in the Bravo series, telling Us Weekly, "Some of the family members were not for this. So it was really hard being able to know if we should do it or not. They were going to do it without us so we felt like, 'Wouldn’t it be better if we were able to have an opinion or share our story?' At that point it was pretty easy."
Sure, you want to know if Debra has met someone new. The answer-which she confirmed to Us Weekly-is a solid NOPE. In fact, Debra hasn't gone on a date since John, and now views her story as a cautionary tale for other women, saying "I’m hoping that a lot of women will listen to this and go, 'Oh my gosh. I’ve got to listen to the red flags, take my time.'"
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