Orange Is the New Black came to an end this summer after seven seasons on Netflix. The comedy-drama is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. In 1998, Kerman was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison on charges of money laundering and in the series. Her memoir was adapted for the TV series, with Taylor Schilling playing the lead character Piper Chapman, who is loosely based on Kerman. In the series, Piper is reunited with her ex-girlfriend Alex Vause who is played by Laura Prepon.
Is Alex Vause based on a real person?
Alex Vause is loosely based on the real ex-girlfriend of Piper Kerman, Catherine Cleary Wolters.
In the original memoir, Wolters is given the pseudonym Nora Jansen but she later chose to reveal her identity.
In 2015, Wolters released her memoir titled Out of Orange in which she discusses her involvement in a drug trafficking ring, her relationship with Kerman and her prison experience.
The love story between Piper Chapman and Vause in the series was inspired by the relationship between Kerman and Wolters, but most of the storyline is fictional and certain events exaggerated.
For example, unlike the fictional Chapman and Vause, Wolters and Kerman did not serve their prison sentences together.
However, they were reunited on a flight to Chicago in 2005, where they were detained for five weeks to testify in a drug trafficking case, which does feature in season two of OITNB.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Wolters recalled: “We were ghosts of the humans we had once been, milling about amongst hundreds of other human ghosts, shackled and chained, prodded through transport centres at gunpoint, moved through holding facilities.”
She added: “Praying is about the most intimate thing two people can do in some places, not sex.
“We made some mean dinners together, though, out of cans of cheese, corn chips, and chilli, and Piper [Kerman] learned how to communicate effectively through a toilet—a little something you’ll never pick up at Smith [college].”
In her interview, Wolters revealed that she worked for a Nigerian drug lord and Kerman soon joined the operation.
Wolters and Kerman travelled to different places across the world, carrying drug money for the cartel.
Wolters said: “When we were travelling together I started developing a crush on her. And eventually, that turned into a crazy mad love affair.
“But that was after she had already done the deed that made her complicit. We weren’t girlfriends, We were friends with benefits… I was not the older sexy, glamorous lesbian who snatched her from her pristine Smith College cradle.”
In response to Wolters comments in Vanity Fair, Kerman said: “It should come as no surprise that we may have different points of view about the time we spent together.
“I think anyone would understand that my relationship with her was, and is, complicated. What I wrote about us in my book is true. If Cleary believes we were never girlfriends, that is startling news to me, though it’s certainly not the first time she has surprised me.|
Kerman walked away from Wolters and the drug ring after Wolters asked her to transport heroin instead of money. Kerman went on to date a man named Larry (Jason Biggs), as depicted in the show.
Years later, Kerman was indicted and plead guilty to a money laundering charges – she served 13 months in a minimum-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
Wolters was charged with conspiracy to import heroin, serving six years in a California prison and 14 years on parole.
Speaking to People, Wolters said the “only [physical] similarity between myself and [Vause] is my black glasses.”
However, one of the storylines in OITNB is whether Vause was responsible for Chapman’s incarceration, an issue that Wolters and Kerman had to address in reality.
Wolters commented: “Yes, I named her, she named me, and we all named each other.
“Fact was, we all thought we were doing the right thing, confessing, getting protection, and saving ourselves from certain death at the hands of a Nigerian drug lord who we knew would soon find we had all been arrested.”
In her response to Vanity Fair, Kerman said: “Although I did plead guilty and tried hard to take responsibility for my actions, there is no doubt that I held on to blame for Cleary.”
She added: “We certainly did not have sex in prison, and that should be quite clear in my book. The relationship between the characters in the Netflix series, Piper Chapman and Alex Vause, is fictional.
“I did have the opportunity to make peace with Cleary in Chicago, to relinquish any sense of blame for her, and to work through my ideas and emotions about forgiveness and responsibility.
“Cleary did not force me to do anything, but rather made me seductive offers that I found very compelling back when I was 22 years old. I am exceptionally grateful that our odd chance meeting in Chicago happened, and I wish Cleary a very happy life moving forward.”
Orange Is the New Black is streaming on Netflix now
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