Celeb goss 29th June 2017 by Grace McGettigan

See The Resemblance? This Is What The Real Life Piper And Alex From Orange Is The New Black Look Like

The show is based on their real-life experiences in a U.S. women’s prison.

Orange Is The New Black

Some of you may not have known that the Netflix’ original series Orange Is The New Black is loosely based on the real life experiences of Piper Kerman and Catherine Cleary Wolters, and the actors who play them look *fairly* similar to the women they’re supposed to represent.

Just like the show would suggest, Piper and Catherine were intertwined in the same criminal circle before landing themselves in prison. Piper was done for money laundering, while Catherine was caught for dealing heroin under the control of a Nigerian drug lord.

The pair met in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1991 shortly after Piper had graduated from Smith College. According to Catherine, they drank and went clubbing together, and Piper even took care of Catherine’s cats when she traveled.

Piper then joined her friend on her travels, which was when her involvement in crime began. “When we were traveling together I started developing a crush on her,” Catherine explained to Vanity Fair, “And eventually that turned into a crazy mad love affair. We weren’t girlfriends, we were friends with benefits.”

https://www.facebook.com/OutofOrange/photos/rpp.1568959903375261/1568976980040220/?type=3&theater

https://www.instagram.com/p/BV2PeZWjK7T/?tagged=piperandalex

However, Piper later returned to the States without Catherine, and she entered into a serious relationship with a man named Larry – just as season one of OITNB suggests.

Years later, in 2004, the police arrived to her door, and Piper spent 13 months in a minimum-security prison in Connecticut.

Yet, according to Catherine, she and Piper were only ever in the same prison facility for just five weeks – mostly during a brief stretch in a Chicago detention centre in 2005, and they didn’t speak much during that time because of a fall-out. (Worry not though, they’ve re-become the best of friends!)

Since their respective releases from prison, both women have gone on to write books about their experiences inside. It was Piper’s book that led to the creation of Orange Is The New Black, while Catherine admits some of the depictions in the show are true to her own experiences too. Except the ‘sex in the shower’ scenes. That never happened.

Check out Catherine’s thoughts on the hit Netflix show here…