Fyre Fraud, which landed on Hulu January 14, was captivating for too many reasons to count. For one, the unannounced Hulu documentary beat the highly anticipated Netflix documentary on the same subject by a whole two days. For another, the documentary was teeming with insights into the Fyre Festival disaster that unfolded on Twitter timelines and Instastories last summer.
Most thrillingly, Fyre Fraud provides an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of Billy McFarland, the man behind the ill-fated festival — from his delusional ambitions to his love life. As the documentary reveals, McFarland is currently in a relationship with Russian model Anastasia Eremenko.
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According to an interview on the website Models Blog, Eremenko was born in 1990 in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southeastern Russia. When Eremenko was 17, she moved to Delaware and received an M.B.A. from Goldey-Beacom College. In 2012, not long after graduating, Eremenko signed with a modeling agency; she's now with Silent Models. Eremenko has since graced the cover of Elle Bulgaria and appeared in ads for Guess and Balmain.
Judging by her perfectly coiffed Instagram feed (recently set to private), complete with enviable Italian vistas and modeling photoshoots, Eremenko would have made the ideal Fyre Fest-goer. Fyre Fest was especially interested in enticing a crop of young, beautiful influencers with large social followings. Eremenko, who has 34k followers and is best friends with Victoria's Secret model Vita Sidorkina, fits the bill.
However, as Eremenko reveals in the documentary, she didn't meet McFarland until after the festival disaster unfolded. "When Billy and I met, it was destiny. It was love. I don't know how to explain it," she giggles. "I never had this kind of connection. But he drew my connection just with my energy."
Fyre Fraud makes subtle commentary on Eremenko and McFarland's relationship. Interwoven between Eremenko's gushy statements and footage of their relationship are interviews with the New Yorker's Maria Konnikova, who wrote a book about con-artists. "Con artists like Billy are personable and fun. They have extraordinary charm," Konnikova said. "These are people who get people to trust them."
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Konnikova is right: McFarland certainly got Eremenko to trust him, even after she found out about his role in the festival. McFarland explained that he had "[lost] a sense of reality" in that period, and they stayed together. After McFarland was released on bail, he and Eremenko spent the summer of 2017 in a Hamptons house he'd rented using cash. Meanwhile, McFarland was still committing fraud under the company NYC VIP, which promised people exclusive access to high-profile events like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and the Met Gala (which is invite-only).
Though McFarland is serving a six-year prison sentence for multiple counts of fraud, Eremenko and McFarland appear to still be dating. At the end of the documentary, Eremenko reads some of McFarland's hand-written notes. "Jail sucks. Don't go to jail," she remarks, also pointing out some pictures he drew for her on the bottom of the paper.