Crime & Safety
Woman Faked Pregnancy In Paternity Scheme Targeting 'Bachelor' Star: Authorities
She altered an ultrasound image, faked a pregnancy video and lied under oath in a scheme targeting Clayton Echard, officials said.
MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ — A woman is charged with several felonies in Arizona in connection with a paternity scheme targeting former “The Bachelor” star Clayton Echard, according to authorities.
Laura Michelle Owens filed a lawsuit seeking child support from Echard, then dropped her claim on the grounds she’d had a miscarriage, authorities said, adding between May 2023 and June 2024, she altered an ultrasound image, faked a pregnancy video and repeatedly lied under oath.
She was charged earlier this month with fraudulent schemes and artifices, forgery, tampering with evidence, and four counts of perjury, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
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“Justice is finally served,” Echard said in a video posted Tuesday on Facebook. “This nightmare is over.”
Echard’s season of “The Bachelor” was the series’ 26th, aired in 2022 and was partially filmed at the famed “Bachelor” mansion in Agoura Hills, according to Cosmopolitan.
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