Laura Michelle Owens & Clayton Echard

Clayton Echard, star of season 26 of The Bachelor, had a one-night fling (allegedly just oral sex, according to him) with Laura Owens on May 20, 2023. 11 days later, after he refuses to pursue a relationship with her, she claims she is pregnant. Laura drafted a dating contract to give to Clayton stating she would abort the baby if he agreed to date her, but he still refused. On August 1st, she took him to court to establish a "parenting plan" for the babies (now twins), and sent upwards of 500 emails and texts to him from more than a dozen different accounts. She went public with the case in September when he still refused to date her. She claims under oath on November 2nd that she is 24 weeks and just saw her OB a few days prior. Laura and Clayton are both granted orders of protection against one another. As of December 28th, she claimed she was "no longer pregnant", and sought to dismiss the court case. Because Clayton believed she fraudulently brought the situation into court and did not have evidence to prove she was actually pregnant with his child(ren), Clayton is seeking to be awarded attorney's fees. Their trial is set for June 10th, 2024.

Timeline of events

A detailed timeline of all of Laura Owens' court cases, including screenshots of texts and emails, can be found here.

2023

April 3: Clayton Echard announces on Instagram that he has become a real estate agent, serving the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas.

May 9: Laura Owens creates an LLC for the purpose of Real Estate and Rental and Leasing.

May ?: Owens reaches out to Clayton Echard on LinkedIn for real estate assistance^{[citation needed]}.

May 20: The two meet in person for the first time. The two have an “intimate encounter,” which Echard describes as “only oral sex.” The following day, Echard tells Owens that the hook up was a "mistake."

May 21: Clayton makes his intentions clear, that he does not want to pursue a relationship with her. He apologizes for crossing the professional/personal boundary. She breaks down in tears and refuses to accept it. She asks to have him continue to be her realtor.

May 22: Owens starts telling Echard that she cannot continue to have him be her realtor if he doesn't want to pursue a relationship. He consistently tells her he will assign her to another realtor, but she will not accept.

May 25: Echard asks Owens to leave him alone, informing her that he is considering contacting the police. He blocks her phone number.

June 1: 11 days after their “intimate encounter,” Owens emails Echard a photo of her first positive pregnancy test.

June 17: Echard purchases a pregnancy test and asked Owens to take in front of him to confirm the pregnancy. She goes to the bathroom and the result comes out positive.

June 27: Owens' "Iceland story" is published in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

July 1: Owens emails Echard to try and convince him to sleep with her and told him that she would get an abortion if he agreed to date her.

July 2: Owens emails Echard’s parents inviting them to her ultrasound.

July 7: Owens sends Clayton a photo of her alleged ultrasound. You can view that ultrasound during Clayton's interview with the Viall Files at the 1 hr and 23 minute mark here.

Note: The ultrasound shows the date that the encounter happened, not the date of the last missed period, which is what doctors go by when determining fetal age.

August 1: Owens files Petition to Establish Paternity against Echard in Maricopa County Family Court.

August 3: Owens emails Arizona Suicide Prevention Hope Conference to get Echard removed as a guest speaker.

August 8: Owens files first "Motion to Communicate" and Child Support Worksheet

August 17: Owens emails Echard, warning that she will be filing a "Motion to Contempt" if he does not agree to meet up with her privately.

August 21: Echard answers Owens' Petition to Establish Paternity.

August 23: Owens files Motion for Contempt.

August 27: Owens completes 4 Hour Co-Parenting and Divorce Class and files Parent Education Certificate with the Family Court.

August 29: Owens files second "Motion to Communicate"

September 11: Owens provides information about the case to a reporter from the New York Post via email.

September 13: Newly created Reddit account u/Training-Trade4145 attempts to post four threads, titled "Clayton scandal?!", "Clayton...the dad?!?!", "Clayton...the dad?!", and "Clayton...the dad?!", on the subreddit r/BachelorNation. Two days later, the account again attempts to post multiple posts about the "Clayton scandal" in a different subreddit r/thebachelor. All posts were removed by the moderators.

September 14: Owens files an Expedited Motion to Seal Court Record because "the media outlets New York Post and Page Six have expressed interest in publicizing the case."

September 15: Arizona Real Estate Department sends Echard a notice that he violated realtor conduct. This was after Owens filed a complaint against him a month earlier. They issued Clayton a "non-disciplinary letter" and closed the case.

September 18: Owens goes to the Sun and Medium with an anonymous article. This was released the 2nd day of Echard filming a new pickleball show.

September 22: Owens posts "I am the anonymous woman in the Clayton scandal. Here's the proof. Here's my story:" on Reddit with a link to her original Medium article of the same name. She provides other Redditors with links to her public Dropbox with photos of her pregnant belly and texts/emails from Echard.

September 27: Echard takes his side of paternity test. Owens is photographed competing in an Equestrian jumping competition — allegedly 20 weeks pregnant with twins. No baby bump seen.

October 6: DNA test results come back. Echard announces “little to no fetal DNA” on his Instagram story. Owens claims the results were “ongoing” and recorded a call with the lab to support that.

It is important to note that all of Owens’ DNA tests returned the same result of “little to no fetal DNA.”

According to Echard, Owens then sends him an ultrasound that he believes was doctored. He also claims she later refused to call the OBGYN’s office to verify the ultrasound’s authenticity during their early resolution conference.

Owens files OOP against Echard.

October 13: Dave Neal breaks the story that on October 11th, Owens had circulated her alleged sonogram video to the media, which was later proved to be an edited 6 year old sonogram from an unrelated Youtuber. There were several things off about the ultrasound video, which are shown on Neal's video. Owens later claims Greg Gillespie hacked into her account and released the fake sonogram.

October 16: Laura Owens has an HCG test done, showing that her HCG levels on this day, at 21+ weeks pregnant, were 102 mIU/mL.

October 19: Owens sends Dave Neal a cease and desist letter for his coverage.

October 24: The first part of the Echard vs. Owens IAH case takes place. Laura appears virtually, while her lawyer and Clayton, who is self-representing at the time, appear in court. Judge Gialketsis determines that the hearing must continue on November 2nd because Laura's lawyer failed to give Clayton some of the documents in advance. You can watch the hearing here.

October 25: Owens vs. Echard OOP case takes place. Laura appears in person with a large pregnant bump. You can watch the hearing here. Judge Doody upholds the OOP against Clayton, specifically stating that costume image released on Reddit being the main cause for upholding it. Clayton denies that he is the one that uploaded that image. Laura testifies to Judge Doody that Clayton is the only one that has that image, so could be the only person that could have done that. She failed to testify that she made her dropbox public, which means that dozens of Redditors also had access to the image. She also states 2 weeks later in a police report that Greg Gillespie was the one that uploaded the costume image. It's also worth nothing that the person that did create the image stated on X that they were the one responsible for the image, and were verified to be neither Clayton nor Greg.

October 26: Owens files for a temporary restraining order against Neal. The judge denies the request on first amendment concerns.

November 2: The second part of Clayton's IAH takes place. Clayton is now represented by Deandra Arena from Woodnick Law. Echard wins his injunction against harassment hearing. Owens states in cross-examination that she was 24 weeks pregnant and had just seen her OB "last Friday". Owens is seen drinking an energy drink during the hearing, which is unadvised to do during a pregnancy. Echard claims that Owens got him fired from speaking gigs and reported him to the Real Estate commission. Judge Gialketsis sides with Echard due to the 500+ messages/emails he received from her after he asked her to stop contacting him and blocked her. You can watch the hearing here.

November 3: Dave Neal is served lawsuit from Owens alleging harassment and revenge porn. The photo she cites as revenge porn, was shared by Owens in her public Dropbox “evidence” folder, which she sent to various media outlets, as well as in Bachelor related subreddits.

November 6: Video surfaces of Owens’ alleged baby belly moving wildly during court hearing against Echard, 27 days after she was photographed without a bump at horse jumping competition.

November 9: Judge throws out Owens’ suit for emotional damage against Greg Gillespie. News leaks that Laura Owens is trying to change her name to Emily Wilson.

November 10: Owens filed a police report on Gillespie for violating his OOP by allegedly posting her private information to Reddit under various alt accounts. Detectives found no evidence of her claims and closed the police investigation. (#23–20074)

November 14: Owens sends mass email to podcasters threatening to sue them for defamation if they cover the case without platforming her.

November 15: Reality Steve offers Owens a platform to share her story. She does not accept his offer and instead threatens to sue him.

November 18: Owens pulls out of The Las Vegas National (horse jumping competition) after it leaks on Reddit that she was signed up to compete while allegedly six months pregnant with twins.

It has been rumored that she then attempted to compete under an alias — but that rumor has not been corroborated.

December 4: Owens and Echard’s paternity case gets moved to the inactive calendar because of a lack of movement in the case.

December 5: Law Talk with Mike covers the case and offers Owens a platform to prove her pregnancy. She does not accept, instead threatens to sue him.

December 6: Neal breaks the news that a third DNA test came back with the same result of “little to no fetal DNA.” Around this time, Owens submits criminal complaint against Neal with Los Angeles District Attorney.

December 8: Owens publishes blog post to Medium titled "Unveiling the Unbearable: My Battle Against Cyberbullying and Online Harassment | by Laura Owens"

December 12: Echard files a motion in family court to extend the dismissal date, to definitively, on record, settle if he is or is not the father of Laura Owens' alleged twins.

December 20: Owens posts a public video on her Facebook page which opens with "My name is Laura Owens..." and proceeds to speak for over 6 minutes about being "cyberbullied". The video is shot from her neck up. The sounds she makes are of a crying nature, but no tears are actually seen for the entirety of the video. She specifically calls out Neal, Reality Steve, and "Reddit sleuths" for alleged cyberbullying. Owens also shared Patreon paid subscriber private stream footage of Neal saying things about her over the past few months without any context. Once again, let it be known that Neal has never once said her name (he refers to her as Jane Doe) or shown any photos of her. After about a half-hour, the video disappears from her public Facebook page and she claims that it was only intended for her close friends and family (her beginning the video with "My name is Laura Owens..." seems to dispute this claim).

December 21: The Medium article by Regina Phalange was taken down by Medium. Interesting that Medium continues to leave up her defamatory post about Echard and Dave, then takes down Regina's cogent rebuttal of Owens' post.

December 23: Chase J. Jones (widely believed to Owens - see below for details) submits to have his Google and Patreon subpoenas quashed, claiming that he has nothing to do with the case. Dave's lawyer has reached out to "Chase J. Jones" several times, asking for a quick FaceTime to verify he is real and put this matter to bed, but has been met with silence on the other end.

December 25: Laura Owens sends a cease and desist letter to TikTok/YouTube personality, Liz Neptune, regarding the use of a video Owens had posted to Facebook that had been used in a TikTok video by a different creator (not Liz Neptune). That creator is not affiliated with Liz in any way, yet Owens claims that she has proof that they are, but has not provided that proof. Owens and Neptune engage in a brief email correspondence, ending with Neptune telling Owens to never contact her again. Owens reported the correspondence as harassment to Liz's local Sherriff's department.

December 28: Owens retains a new attorney in the family court case against Echard, files to dismiss petition to establish paternity. Owens claims that she's "not now pregnant" and wants the case dropped. She is also saying in her motion that because a portion of Echard's legal fees were crowdsourced that he isn't entitled to any awarding of legal fees.

2024

January 2: A new article about the case is published in The Sun. Owens responds to the article, stating: "that she 'firmly stands by everything' she had previously claimed and that she had a positive pregnancy test at one point, which was also documented in court docs, that 'confirmed' her pregnancy and 'was corroborated by a test at a medical facility.'"

Owens files to quash her deposition from Echard and his attorneys. Owens' new attorney, Lexi Lindvall, withdraws as counsel just one week after she takes on the case. Shortly thereafter, Cory Keith becomes Laura's new attorney. Evidentiary Hearing is set by the court for February 27th.

January 17: Laura fails to show up for her deposition.

February 2: Clayton shows up for his deposition. Laura attends it as well.

February 6: Clayton's lawyer files expedited motion to continue trial and motion for additional trial time.

February 7: Laura Owens receives harassing Facebook posts from what appears to be a troll account. She calls the police about these Facebook posts. Audio of this public call can be found here. The public Scottsdale Police report can also be accessed here:

February 11: The account Justice for Clayton has been banned from twitter (X).

February 12: Clayton's lawyer files expedited motion to set virtual status conference.

February 14: On Laura's alleged due date, she posts a blog post about miscarriage that is so cruel, insensitive, heartless, immature, and irresponsible that we will not link it here.

February 15: Status conference is set for February 21st. The account Justice for Clayton has been reinstated on twitter (X).

February 16: Judge denied Laura's motion to quash her deposition. The next few days, the Justice for Clayton sub on Reddit was banned and reinstated twice.

February 21: Status Conference is held. Laura Owens and Clayton Echard were present. Judge denied: Motion to Seal and Dismiss. Judge approved: Extend time of hearing and Owens needs to be deposed. Judge set Deposition to be on March 1st. June 10th is new hearing date. Laura Owens claims in this hearing that she thought she was pregnant in November, but found out later that she had a miscarriage "1 to 2 months prior". Her statement from the November 2nd hearing contradicts that claim. Steve Carbone (Reality Steve) also claims that in correspondence with her, she claims she was still pregnant in December.

February 22: It was discovered that Laura M. Owens' December 8th post on Medium had been edited from what she posted initially. On her original December 7th post, she initially included "However, I won't be sharing updates regarding the status of my pregnancy with Clayton. I kindly ask not to receive congratulations or engage in discussions about Clayton and my pregnancy. This post is not intended for that purpose." She has since removed that portion of her post. The original post and the edited post are both linked here and here.

February 27: Laura M. Owens emails Clayton's attorney, Gregg Woodnick, directly (instead of going through her lawyer, Cory Keith) stating that she intends to sue Echard for $1.4 million for breaches of contractual and fiduciary duties as well as emotional distress. She states in this email that she will not sue Clayton if he drops the family court case against her and that he has until the day before her deposition to agree to her terms. Woodnick also mentions in his email that three of the doctors that Owens has claimed to have seen for her pregnancy have responded to the HIPAA request stating that they have no patient by the name of Laura Owens.

March 1: Laura M. Owens finally attends her deposition.

March 7: Echard releases a statement to the press, stating that Owens, during her deposition on March 1st, admitted to tampering the ultrasounds from Southwest Medical Imaging. The press release can be read in its entirety here. The Sun releases an article covering the forged pregnancy records.

March 11: Gregg Woodnick files a Motion to Compel. In this motion, Woodnick states that Laura claims to have passed two fetal sacks and has sent the picture to her sister and spoke to tele health sometime in September or October. However, no evidence has been shared by Laura.

March 12: Cory Keith submits a motion to withdraw as Owens' attorney, with client consent, making him the next in the ongoing list of attorneys that refuse to further represent her. Also, The Sun retracts their March 7th article, but lives forever here.

March 25: Gregg Woodnick files a Motion for Joint Hearing Pursuant to Rule 5(a)(4). This motion seeks to have the court rule if Laura's protective order against Clayton can be dismissed due to being founded on both implicit and explicit fraud. The motion seeks for the judge to conduct a joint hearing and order relief to Clayton as the court deems just.

March 26: The Maricopa County Family Court docket shows that Laura has retained new counsel after her former lawyer, Cory Keith, withdrew. Her new lawyer is David Gingras.

April 1: After Gingras's Motion for Extension of Time was denied by Judge Mata, the April 1st deadline passed with no response from Owens' side.

April 8: Owens' attorney, David Gingras, files a Motion to Compel Lunch and for Alternative Relief. The motion was denied by Judge Mata.

April 10: Owens' bar complaint against Gregg Woodnick was released on the Justice for Clayton Reddit page.

April 25: A livestream video by Dave Neal and Megan Fox reveal several inconsistencies in Owens' pregnancy stories, including a Fiverr logo left on an ultrasound she purports to be her own, an audio recording which shows that the ultrasound she claims is fake was actually from her, and two different copies of the same HCG test from October 16, 2023 which show two extremely different levels.

April 30: Owens' lawyer, David Gingras, files a Motion in Limine to keep Laura's 3 past relationships from testifying at the trial. The motion was denied by Judge Mata.

May 1: Owen's bar complaint against her own previous lawyer, Lexi Lindvall, was released on the Justice for Clayton Reddit page.

May 2: Dave Neal reveals in a video that Laura sent text messages to her previous boyfriend, Michael Marraccini, claiming that she had cancer and had an ovary removed.

May 3: Laura submits an affadavit to the court stating that she never sent the messages to Marraccini and has no idea who did, but they are obviously fake.

May 4: Dave Neal and Megan Fox put together a fundraiser for a forensic investigator to analyze Marraccini's laptop.

May 7th: The forensic report was released to the public, stating that they found the images to come from the phone number attached to Laura Owens.

May 24: A new lawyer on YouTube, The Tilted Lawyer, begins covering the case after receiving communication from both Owens and people from Echard's side.

May 28: Laura releases a new blog on her lawyer's website, detailing the cyberbullying she claims to be enduring.