"He badgered me into marrying him": Sarma Melngailis' relationship with Anthony Strangis explored amid Pure series announcement

Sarma Melngailis reacted to the Netflix hit Bad Vegan by releasing a copy of her final letter to her ex-husband, Anthony Strangis. The news is making headlines after Peacock put a new drama into development that will explore their infamous relationship.

Titled Pure, it is based on Allen Salkin's Vanity Fair story "The Runaway Vegan." Pure Food and Wine, Melngailis' premium raw food restaurant in New York City, might have inspired the title of the show.

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The truth behind the relationship between Sarma Melngailis and Anthony Strangis

To refresh your memory, Sarma Melngailis, the proprietor of the vegan hotspot Pure Food and Wine in New York City, scammed investors and employees of the restaurant. The reputation of the restaurant, which once attracted celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Owen Wilson, Bill Clinton, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Brady, is now in shambles.

Melngailis accused Strangis of promising immortality to her and her rescue pitbull, in exchange for her cooperation by transferring $1.2 million from the restaurant's accounts to his accounts.

Strangis allegedly informed Melngailis that he was a former Navy SEAL who worked for the government in black ops. He also talked about having a mysterious, wicked brother who was so tech-savvy that he needed Melngailis' bank, email, and other account credentials for safekeeping.

Nothing he said was true, and the couple ended up in jail. Melngailis and Strangis fled to Tennessee but were arrested in a hotel room in May 2016. Anthony Strangis pleaded guilty to four counts of fourth-degree grand larceny in March 2017 and was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of probation. In May 2017, he was freed from prison.

On the other hand, Sarma Melngailis pled guilty to felony tax fraud, large larceny, and defrauding in May 2017. She received a six-month prison term and a five-year probationary period. She got out of prison in October 2017 and used the money she earned from Netflix to reimburse her employees for the money they lost as a result of her and Strangis' misdeeds.

Sarma Melngailis said in a new blog post that Netflix "misused" a "small slice" of what she claims was a "staged phone call" at the end of Bad Vegan. She insisted that the show didn't accurately portray her relationship with Strangis, who, in reality, "badgered" her "into marrying him." The romance depicted on the show was fictional.

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Did Melngailis write a letter to Strangis?

She wrote out a letter to 'Mr. Fox' or Strangis on her Notes app while taking the subway in 2016 when she was out on bail to vent and express her frustration. In the blog post, she clarified the purpose of the letter which was never meant for sending.

“At the time I wrote it, so much evidence had yet to turn up, all in my favor, yet even then I’d thought… surely I’d not be sent back to jail. This wasn’t a privilege thing, it’s just that I naively thought one needed to have [the] intent to commit crimes. It seemed logical and obvious that I wouldn’t have willingly destroyed my own life and hurt so many people I cared about for no benefit. It made no sense. Yet, eventually, I did go back to jail.”

She added:

“In a lot of ways, I’m glad for that experience. I want to somehow, one day, be a useful advocate for bail reform. Seeing the effects of it on people’s lives up close made me want to do something.”

Melngailis called the ending of Bad Vegan 'disturbingly misleading.' She also attacked Netflix in an Instagram post that included a selfie of her crying with smudged mascara along with the images Netflix used for the episode.