Who Is Kacy Duke?
According to Duke’s website, she has a client list that reads like a “red carpet Who’s Who” and served as the founding Group Fitness Director of the swanky and celebrity-beloved Equinox Fitness Club. She’s been a spokesperson for Dove Deodorant, Kellogg’s, and Nike, and has guested on programs like Good Morning America and CBS Morning News. She created a fitness routine for Dakota Johnson for 50 Shades Darker, gives advice for pre-wedding workouts, and makes videos about how to train at home.
Where Is Kacy Duke Now?
Though she was part of Sorokin’s inner circle, Duke never got as deeply entangled as Williams. Now 65, Duke continues to train clients and offer her “age-defying physique” program to subscribers. Based on her Instagram, she enjoys spending time with her dog Zeus and her grandkids. She also co-hosts Real Ass Woman, a podcast on which she interviews successful business women with Darlene Williams. She recently posted about her excitement for Inventing Anna. “So proud. Everybody should watch it,” Duke wrote on Instagram on Feb. 8. “A great series.”
Kacy’s Intervention With Anna
In August, Sorokin resurfaced and went back to Duke’s apartment looking for a place to stay. Duke immediately contacted Williams and organized an intervention at the Frying Pan bar in Manhattan. Sorokin arrived in oversized sunglasses and wearing the same dress she borrowed from Duke weeks ago. “We are here because we want to help you,” Duke said, per The Cut. “But to do that, we need to hear some truth from you, Anna.”
Despite Duke’s attempts to get Sorokin to open up, she continued to lie. As a result, the next day Williams emailed the New York County District Attorney’s Office and found out that Sorokin was the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
How Did Anna & Kacy Meet?
According to Pressler’s article, Sorokin found Duke online. Described as a “svelte, ageless Oprah-esque figure,” Duke acted as both a personal trainer and a life coach for Sorokin. “Shoulders back, navel to spine. You are a bright woman; you want to be a businesswoman. You gotta be staying strong on your own power,” Duke told Sorokin.
According to Sorokin’s friend Neff Davis (played by Alexis Floyd in the show), Sorokin paid $4,500 in cash for a package of sessions after her first visit to Duke.
Is Kacy Duke Based on a Real Person? Where is She Now?
Netflix’s ‘Inventing Anna’ follows the remarkable story of Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey, a New York City socialite claiming to be a wealthy heiress. As she moves up the social ladder, Anna’s circle of wealthy acquaintances expands, and she continues to mooch off them while claiming to work on a glamorous new art club project.
Amidst Anna’s lofty (grifter) plans, she also makes a few unlikely friends who seem to genuinely care for her. While Neff and Rachel are more amenable to following Anna into a good time, her friend Kacy Duke, a physical trainer, takes a slightly more motherly approach to the young socialite. In the end, it is Kacy that Anna turns to when she has nowhere else to go. Wondering whether there’s a real person behind Kacy Duke’s character from ‘Inventing Anna’? Let’s find out.
Is Kacy Duke Based on a Real Person?
Yes, the character of Kacy Duke, as seen in ‘Inventing Anna,’ is based on a real person. The original Kacy Duke is a fitness expert and celebrity trainer based in New York City. According to Jessica Pressler‘s 2018 New York Magazine article that inspired the Netflix miniseries, Anna found Kacy online and attended her training session along with her friend Neff (who was also the concierge at 11 Howard, the SoHo hotel where Anna was staying). Right after the first session, the young socialite purchased a package for $4,500. However, this was just the beginning of a pretty tumultuous friendship between Anna and Kacy.
Kacy was also part of Anna’s infamous Morocco trip but left after two days. When Anna’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, their friend Rachel DeLoache Williams ended up paying $62,000 to cover various trip expenses (which included a $7,000-a-night stay at a luxurious Marrakesh resort). Days later, when Anna was once again unable to pay for a hotel (this time the Four Seasons in Casablanca), she was bailed out by Kacy, who bought her a flight ticket back to the U.S.
The trainer also let Anna crash at her apartment and tried to hold an intervention for her. However, Anna seemingly didn’t come clean and was arrested in 2017 in a sting operation Rachel (who still hadn’t been paid back) apparently helped plan. Despite being on friendly terms with Anna and even helping her out at times, Kacy was, fortunately, able to avoid getting pulled too deep into the grifter’s web and losing too much money.
13 wild details from ‘Inventing Anna’ — and whether they really happened or not
Julia Garner as Anna Sorokin — also known as Anna Delvey — in “Inventing Anna.” Netflix
Netflix’s new show “Inventing Anna” is about scammer Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey.
It’s based on a viral article by journalist Jessica Pressler, who also produced the show.
Here’s how it stacks up to reality, according to a journalist who covered the saga and Sorokin herself.
The introduction of every episode of “Inventing Anna” carries the same message: “This whole story is completely true, except for all the parts that are totally made up.”
As a person who covered the real-life Anna Sorokin’s trial in 2019, reported on documents from her legal troubles, and interviewed her and people close to her in the years since, I can tell you: It’s more true-to-life than you can imagine.
Though Sorokin hasn’t been able to watch the show, I spoke with her about some of the scenes and broke down fact from fiction.
The Netflix show, starring Julia Garner, is based on a 2018 New York magazine article by Jessica Pressler about Sorokin — who also goes by Anna Delvey — scamming Soho until it caught up with her. Sorokin left hotel bills unpaid, took a trip to Morocco and left a friend with the $62,000 bill, and pretended to be an heiress with a $60 million fortune in order to try to convince financial institutions to loan her money for the Anna Delvey Foundation, a plan to develop a mixed-use arts and restaurant space in Manhattan.
Pressler — a talented journalist who also wrote the story that was the basis for the movie “Hustlers” — produced “Inventing Anna” with Shonda Rhimes. Sorokin, after selling her life story rights to Netflix for $320,000, provided information to lay out the scope of her deceit. Two of Sorokin’s friends, Neffatari Davis and Kacy Duke, as well has her former lawyer, Todd Spodek, are also credited as consultants in the show’s credits.
Sorokin finished her prison sentence after being convicted on charges related to her scam (although she is appealing her case). She was re-arrested by immigration authorities and remains incarcerated ahead of a possible deportation. Earlier this month, she wrote for Insider about her experience in jail and thoughts on the show.
Story continues
“Even if I were to pull some strings and make it happen, nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me,” Sorokin wrote.
So, how much of “Inventing Anna” is “totally made up?” Here are 13 of the most striking scenes and details from the show and how they match up to reality.
The real-life Jessica Pressler really did have something to prove.
Anna Chlumsky plays Vivian Kent on “Inventing Anna.” The character is a stand-in for journalist and producer Jessica Pressler. Cr. Nicole Rivelli/Netflix