TRUE CRIME NEWSKaren Read Breaks Down in Bombshell New Interview, Admits She's Still Traumatized After Acquittal in Boyfriend's Murder
Karen Read shared how being on trial for murder took a toll on her in a new interview.
Jan. 14 2026, Published 2:49 p.m. ET
Karen Read broke down in tears during a new interview while discussing how being accused of murder impacted her mentally.
Read, who was acquitted in June 2025 in the high-profile murder trial of her boyfriend, appeared on the Monday, January 12, episode of the "Rotten Mango" true crime podcast hosted by Stephanie Soo.
Getting choked up as she talked about the ordeal, which started with the January 2022 death of Boston cop John O'Keefe, she said, "I do feel I've had this delayed reaction to the persecution. I'm finally reacting to this...horrible thing that happened to me."
'I Had to Swallow It'
'I'm having to address things I've swept under the carpet,' Karen Read shared.
The former financial analyst, 45, continued, "I had to swallow it and, and roll with it, and now I'm digesting it. Like.. I swallowed something horrible and it's just sat in my body and now I'm finally breaking it down..."
"I'm having to address things I've swept under the carpet. Like emotionally," she added.
"Those feelings just don't disappear," she spilled before explaining she felt like she was in "fight or flight" mode for a long time.
"But you can't do that to your body and mind without paying the piper eventually," she said. "I feel like I've had to do that." She also expressed that she doesn't really know how to move on and thinks she might have "PTSD."
What Was Karen Read Charged With?
Karen Read was accused of hitting O'Keefe with her car and leaving him for dead.
Read was accused of hitting O'Keefe with her car and leaving him for dead during a snowstorm in Canton, Mass., on January 29, 2022. Maintaining her innocence throughout two trials, she was eventually found not guilty of murder and manslaughter after the first ended in a hung jury.
Elsewhere in her emotional conversation with Soo, she admitted she "has nothing," as she sold her house to pay for her defense. Read now lives with her parents but is planning to leave Massachusetts in search of a fresh start.
Karen Read Plans to Write a Book With Lawyer Alan Jackson
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Karen Read was acquitted in the death of her boyfriend in July 2025.
She also has plans to write a book with her powerhouse attorney Alan Jackson, who withdrew himself from Nick Reiner's double homicide case earlier this month.
"I want this to be a story about corruption," she told Soo. "I want to have some impact on the state where I've lived most of my life and where my family's from and where we battled this. I want to make an impact on what people think about politics, about the government, about the dangers of a one-party political system, which is what Massachusetts is."
Adding that one-party systems are dangerous and the reason she ended up on trial, she said she hopes her book will help others who find themselves in similar positions.
Karen Read sat down with true crime podcaster Stephanie Soo to talk about her ordeal.
Karen Read Alleged She Was the Target of a Cover-Up
'I will go to jail for something I didn’t do before I plea out,' Karen Read previously said.
Prior to her acquittal, Read told Vanity Fair in October 2024, "As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn’t do before I plea out. I will never give them that win.”
Read alleged in court that she was framed by her former boyfriend's cop friends at the Boston Police Department, claiming she was the target of a cover-up and that O'Keefe was killed during a fight inside the house.
