‘Shocking and dangerous’: The real Rachel has slated Netflix for portrayal in Inventing Anna

It’s been suggested Netflix has a ‘brutal vendetta’ against Rachel because she is working with HBO


One person who certainly isn’t happy with how Anna Delvey’s story has been told in Inventing Anna is Rachel DeLoache Williams. She’s slated Netflix for how it has portrayed her and for how it showed Anna’s story in general.

In the show, Rachel is introduced as working for Vanity Fair and being a friend of Anna’s – and that much about her is true. From then, it’s safe to say she comes across as pretty nasty, and looks like she is enjoying sponging off Anna whilst she can. She then abandons her when she finds out Anna Delvey is really Anna Sorokin and the whole rich heiress thing was all a lie. Rachel was scammed by Anna, putting $62k on her personal card when Anna’s was declined on a trip to Morocco – which did happen in real life too.

However, the real Rachel says her personality is anything but how she comes across on the show. Journalist and writer Rachel wrote a book about her time with Anna Delvey, titled My Friend Anna, of which she has sold the rights to HBO. It’s been suggested Netflix has a “brutal vendetta” against Rachel because she sold her story elsewhere, and that her being presented this way was done on purpose. Here’s what she has had to say since Inventing Anna hit Netflix.

The real Rachel said her portrayal in Inventing Anna is ‘shocking’ and says Netflix is ‘doing a con woman’s PR’

Rachel DeLoache Williams first clarified in an interview that she was “not involved” in Inventing Anna, adding: “I learned at the same time as the rest of the world that it would feature Katie Lowes as a character named ‘Rachel,’ described by Netflix in the following terms: ‘A natural-born follower whose blind worship of Anna almost destroys her job, her credit, and her life. But while her relationship with Anna is her greatest regret, the woman she becomes because of Anna may be Anna’s greatest creation’.”

Rachel said she definitely wasn’t naive about the series, and she expected to feel “uncomfortable” by watching herself play out. “I would only have so much control over how I was portrayed,” she said. “[However] this Netflix description felt shocking.” She said the part of her character’s description that hurt the most was “the woman she becomes because of Anna”, as these “seven little words that in one fell swoop stripped me of my agency, accomplishments, and truth”.

“Were we meant to believe that the woman I had become was not on account of the parents who raised me, the love I shared with family and friends, my own efforts or personal growth, but because of Anna?” she said.

Real Rachel DeLoache Williams on her portrayal in Inventing Anna on Netflix

via Instagram @rdwilliams

Rachel later issued a statement, in which she condemned the show for its “dangerous” portrayal of events. “This show is playing a fine line – peddling it as a true story, but also [in the title sequence disclaimer] saying, ‘except all the parts that aren’t,'” Rachel told the Vanity Fair newsletter, adding: “At what point is the half-truth more dangerous than the lie?”

She added: “I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong. 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.”

In 2019, Netflix paid Anna Delvey, real name Sorokin, $320k for the rights to her life story. However, shortly after Netflix acquired the rights to her story, The New York Attorney General’s office sued Anna Sorokin, citing the Son of Sam Law. This law is in place to stop criminals profiting from their stories. The New York State froze Anna Delvey’s funds in 2019 to prevent her making money from the show and it’s the first time the law has been used since 2001. Her funds were only unfrozen last year so she could pay money back to her victims.

Real Rachel DeLoache Williams on her portrayal in Inventing Anna on Netflix

Rachel also slated actress Katie Lowes, who plays her in Inventing Anna, saying: “Lowes’s concern for accuracy, when it comes to portraying me as I am, seems limited to the spelling of my full name.”

Rachel has been discussing the show on Instagram too, sharing the Independent article about Netflix having a “vendetta” against her for working with HBO. The article states Netflix “went out of its way” in an attempt to make us hate Rachel, “making her out to be the worst person in the world”.

Inventing Anna is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• ‘Fictionalised and unappealing’: What the real Anna Delvey has said about Inventing Anna

Inventing Anna: What happened to the Anna Delvey Foundation and how much was real?

• What the cast of Inventing Anna look like compared to the real life people they portray