Cassie Sainsbury speaks on Sunrise about new tell-all memoir Cocaine Cassie: Setting The Record Straight

Convicted Australian drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury has spoken out about her new tell-all memoir, saying the book is a chance to “finally get everything out in the open”.

The former personal trainer was sentenced to six years behind bars after the then 22-year-old attempted to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine out of Colombia’s El Dorado International Airport in April 2017.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Cocaine Cassie sets the record straight in new tell-all memoir.

Three years later, Sainsbury, widely known as ‘Cocaine Cassie’, walked free from El Buen Pastor women’s prison due to concerns about overcrowding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her strict parole conditions however meant she had to stay in Colombia for another 27 months before returning home.

Speaking on Sunrise on Monday morning from her home city of Adelaide, Sainsbury opened up about her new memoir Cocaine Cassie: Setting The Record Straight, which is out on Tuesday.

She said the book was a chance for her to tell her side of the story and put some of the misinformation about what happened to bed.

“I think it’s just been a chance for me to finally get everything out in the open, not have anyone twisting or changing anything, and I just want people to understand how easily you can end up in a situation like this,” Sainsbury said.

She claims she was “lured” into attempting to traffic the drugs into Australia and that she was “very vulnerable” at the time.

“While I was writing the book, it all made sense to me. I just look back on it and go ‘I was such an idiot. How did I not see this at the time?’,” Sainsbury said.

For years Sainsbury insisted she did not know what was in her bag until the last minute.

However speaking to Spotlight in 2022, Sainsbury admitted she did know she was trafficking cocaine but says she couldn’t see a way out.

She then went on to detail a series of events that led up to the day she was arrested, revealing she couriered drugs while working at a Sydney brothel and made up to 15 deliveries a week.

Despite titling her book Cocaine Cassie, Sainsbury said she did not like the name and that having the label has been “extremely hard”.

However over the years, Sainsbury says she has learnt to come to terms with it.

“It’s how I was portrayed by the media for nearly seven years now,” she said.

“I don’t like the name, but I feel like by accepting it and owning it and being OK with it, it kind of closes a whole chapter for me as well.”