The Bachelor Who Was Betrayed | BONUS

Summary

Betrayal Weekly – "The Bachelor Who Was Betrayed" | BONUS

Podcast: Betrayal Weekly
Host: Andrea Gunning
Guests: Stephanie Young (Producer/Host, Love Trapped), Clayton Echard (Storyteller, Love Trapped)
Release Date: March 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special bonus episode, Andrea Gunning welcomes Stephanie Young and Clayton Echard—creators of the new podcast Love Trapped—to discuss Clayton's harrowing true story of deceit, emotional manipulation, and the ongoing fight for justice. The episode dives deep into Clayton's experience with Lara Owens, a woman he met after his reality TV fame (The Bachelor), who embroiled him in a fabricated paternity scandal. The trio explores themes of trust, psychological fallout, the criminal justice system, and ultimately, personal accountability and resilience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction to "Love Trapped" and Clayton's Story

[02:39-04:24]

• Andrea introduces Love Trapped as a cautionary tale fit for Betrayal listeners.
• Stephanie shares her role as producer, writer, and host, emphasizing the research and time invested.
• Clayton frames himself simply and poignantly:

  "I am the liver of this whole experience." (Clayton, 04:24)

• Both note the broader goal: justice for all of Lara's victims.

The Encounter and the Initial Red Flags

[05:30-09:22]

• Andrea sets the stage: post-Bachelor, Clayton meets Lara Owens in Arizona via a business (real estate) transaction.
• Clayton describes their first falling out as chilling:

  "One of the darkest energies that I've ever experienced. ... I had instant chills." (Clayton, 06:30) "...her demeanor went from crying to stone cold, just expressionless. ... It was like two separate entities." (Clayton, 08:28)

Escalation: Manipulation, Harassment, and False Paternity

[09:24-11:17]

• Clayton recounts:
  • Crossing professional boundaries ("lesson learned")
  • Lara’s pursuit of a relationship, threats to cut ties, and finally, endless text messages
  • Hints of possible pregnancy escalate to a manufactured claim, complete with fake test results and a “doctor’s note”

The Ordeal of Proving Innocence

[11:29-12:31; 16:12-19:33]

• Stephanie highlights the rapid and bizarre timeline:

  "He met her via LinkedIn message on May 17. The hookup happened on May 20, and then by June 1, she was pregnant." (Stephanie, 15:06)

• Andrea and Clayton discuss navigating a confusing and relentless legal barrage:
  • Lara files a parenting plan while “technically still in her first trimester,” forcing immediate legal response
  • Clayton’s bewilderment in court:

    "I said, because there are no children. He said, you mean they haven't been born yet? I said, no, there's no child or children. They don't exist." (Clayton, 16:12)

• Clayton admits his own ignorance and isolation:

  "I was Googling... as a man, I had no idea." (Clayton, 18:19)

  • The stress caused intense chronic anxiety, affecting daily function.

Psychological Fallout: Trust, Healing, and Accountability

[19:34-23:21; 26:30-29:03]

• Clayton confides in the cost to his trust in others, noting the difficulty of compartmentalizing trauma:

  "It just felt very suffocating." (19:58) "Any moment of silence...you just go right back into that box..." (21:19)

• He reflects on roots in his own unhealed wounds post-reality TV:

  "You were what you were when you first met her, which was a damaged individual." (Clayton, 23:21)

• Andrea and Clayton both stress the role of inner work and therapy:

  "As much as we can't control Laura... all we can do is really look internally at ourselves and say, it's not our fault, but how did I get here?" (Andrea, 26:30) "...you are still someone...like, you made decisions to put yourself in a position like that. It doesn't make it right... But... I found my way here, but I can also take myself out of it." (Clayton, 27:37)

The Justice System: Privilege and Perils

[29:31-34:27]

• Andrea highlights that Clayton’s ability to navigate the courts is a privilege many betrayal victims lack.
• Clayton candidly describes naive confidence, legal self-representation, and the sobering reality of legal technicalities:

  "I had so much confidence that I self represented, which, oh boy, I didn't do for too long." (Clayton, 31:19)

  • He now recognizes his support system as a function of celebrity—a resource other victims didn’t have.

  "If I wasn't a Celebrity, I wouldn't have had the support. ... Previous victims, they did not have that support." (Clayton, 33:06)

The Ripple Effect and Importance of Community

[35:10-37:28]

• Stephanie underscores the broader impact: the "collateral damage" and "wave of destruction" for secondary victims.
• Clayton voices gratitude for having found solidarity and encourages others to seek support:

  "Going public was the greatest thing that ever happened because there was an army of people that were willing to rally around me..." (Clayton, 36:18)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the chilling “mask slip” moment:

  "Her demeanor went from crying to stone cold, just expressionless... it was just this instant. I said, no means no, Laura... there was a switch that flipped."
  (Clayton, 08:28)

• On public support:

  "Going public was the greatest thing that ever happened because there was an army of people that were willing to rally around me."
  (Clayton, 36:18)

• On the justice system:

  "You have to be so specific and you really can't have any flaws in your arguments. ... If you have some level of status, you have a better chance of navigating the court system."
  (Clayton, 32:45-33:06)

• On accountability and healing:

  "We're all doing our best, right? So there's no victim blaming that should be had... But I also want to be a better human."
  (Clayton, 27:37)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:39] – Announcement of Betrayal Weekly’s TV adaptation; intro to Love Trapped and guests
• [04:06] – Stephanie and Clayton introduce their roles
• [05:30] – How Clayton met Lara and the initial fallout
• [06:30] – "Darkest energies" and the mask slipping
• [09:32] – The evolution from business to harassment
• [11:17] – The manufactured pregnancy and legal nightmare
• [15:06] – Stephanie details the frantic timeline
• [16:12] – The courtroom’s disbelief and legal confusion
• [18:19] – Clayton on Googling pregnancy and suffering in silence
• [19:58] – Clayton on emotional fallout and isolation
• [23:21] – Accountability and the importance of self-reflection
• [29:31] – On the legal process, privilege, and TV status
• [35:10] – Stephanie on the story's broader impact
• [36:18] – Clayton on finding strength through community

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Final Thoughts & Where to Listen

[37:34]

• Love Trapped is available on all major podcast platforms, with new episodes every Thursday.
• Both guests encourage listeners to find and support each other through difficult experiences.
• Andrea closes by thanking her guests for their candor and resilience.

---

This episode is a powerful, raw discussion about how quickly a life can be upended by another's deception—but also about the path to healing, the realities of justice, and the hope found in community.

Transcript

[Andrea]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Clayton Eckerd]

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[Stephanie Young]

Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to

[Andrea]

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[Clayton Eckerd]

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[Andrea]

Andrea here. I have some exciting news to share. ABC has turned Betrayal Weekly into an eight episode anthology, which means each episode features one of your favorite Betrayal Weekly stories. You'll get to see the people involved, hear from people who have never spoken before, and actually see where the story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. It's called Secrets and Lies and it premieres this Sunday, March 29th at 10pm Eastern Standard Time, 9pm Central. Please check it out. I'm here today with Stephanie Young and Clayton Eckerd. You are the host and you are the storyteller of our Glass podcast and I heart's new podcast, Love Trapped. We're in Austin, Texas. This is really exciting for people who don't know. Love Trapped is about your story, Clayton, and your relationship with Laura Owens, which started as a business transaction and then turned into a paternity scandal and then a three year pursuit for justice.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yes.

[Andrea]

You guys have done an incredible job and I'm just glad to talk a little bit about your show and why it's right for the Betrayal audience. Thanks for joining me today.

[Stephanie Young]

Thanks for having us.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Thank you for having us.

[Andrea]

For the Betrayal audience, can you tell them a little bit about who you are and what you do for the show?

[Stephanie Young]

My name's Stephanie and I am the producer, writer and host of Love Trapped. I've been working on this since June of last year. So we're coming up on almost 10 months and I think I've needed that entire time to do all of the research for this project.

[Clayton Eckerd]

And I am Clayton and I am the liver of this whole experience.

[Andrea]

It's your life.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah. But I've been really grateful that I have a platform to help not only me, but the other victims with receiving justice.

[Andrea]

Give me a little bit of a top line about what's been going on for you in your life over the last few years and why you need justice.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's been three years of my life that I am not able to let go of until there's resolution. And currently it's just slowly chugging along and she's still out there and about and has looked for her next victim. And for me it's a matter of being able to stop all of this and make sure that she doesn't have the ability to continue to perform these antics that she's done for 10 plus years. This goes Far beyond me.

[Andrea]

So a little bit about Love Trapped. It's the story of your post Bachelor life, your experience on the show. You are still a bachelor yourself.

[Clayton Eckerd]

I'm a mess.

[Andrea]

Yeah. But your experience on the Bachelor. And so we meet you on this podcast after, like, in the aftermath of that and through your move to Arizona, you end up meeting a woman named Lara Owens. And through that meeting, that chance encounter, all this craziness and complicated stuff comes out of that. That meeting.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yes.

[Andrea]

When I first heard about your story, it feels like a brief romantic experience with a person. It doesn't work out. There's a moment of rejection that Laura can't face, and there is fallout from that. And what was that like? How would you define that fallout?

[Clayton Eckerd]

One of the darkest energies that I've ever experienced. It was so uncomfortable that I had instant chills. And before she sent me the messages saying she was pregnant, I had the exact thought in my head that I don't know what that just was, but whatever it was, it's far from over. And lo and behold, 11 days later, from that point, she sends the initial messages that she's pregnant. But it was a very, very uncomfortable presence. It was as if the lights went off and she was no longer there. It's like nothing I've ever experienced.

[Andrea]

Right. So it became really clear that she wanted a romantic relationship with you. She wanted to have a dating relationship with you, a long term relationship with you. And when that didn't work out, she was telling you that she was pregnant. And there was this. She wanted to be connected with you in some way and was trying to leverage this idea of you being potentially the father to stay in connection with you, and was doing whatever she could to stay in connection and keep you on the. On the hook. One of the things that I think a lot of our betrayal listeners will relate to is that moment of when the mask comes off. We talk about it a lot, actually. There is a moment in time when a lot of the storytellers I work with where they discover, like, the day of discovery. The husband that they've known for 25 years then reveals their double life, and they physically change.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah, right.

[Andrea]

Their voice changes, their face looks different. So I think a lot of our listeners and other stories can really relate to that moment of you saying no to Lara. And then something shifts.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah, I mean, I was just going back, as you're describing that, back into that moment, and I just got chills again because her demeanor went from crying to stone cold, just expressionless. And there was this Darkness where her eyes didn't go all fully black, but it felt as if they did. And it was just this instant. I said, no means no, Laura. There's nothing more here to explore. She wiped her last tear and she said, no, I understand. Have a great day. And it was just this. It was like two separate entities. Like, I was talking to one version, and then all of a sudden, there was a switch that flipped. I mean, it was that sudden. So it's interesting that you say that that's what other people have experienced, because I saw it face to face, and I've just never experienced something like that.

[Stephanie Young]

Yeah.

[Andrea]

After that interaction in the car, what happened from there? Tell us a little bit about the harassment and then everything you had to go through.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah. So we were involved in a real estate transaction. She reached out to me originally to do real estate. You know, I made the mistake of mixing business with pleasure. And it was lesson learned. Yeah, lesson learned. I don't do that now, but I, you know, crossed that boundary. But then I had mentioned to her that in the car the next day, I said, that was unprofessional. You know, I can pass you off to another agent. She said, no, I want to work with you. I said, okay, let's keep it professional from here on out. She said she agreed to it, but then she kept going back to trying to make it more than that. So over the course of the next few days, it was this, well, hey, I actually still want to explore this. And then it got to the point of, if you're not willing to explore a relationship, I'll just go work with somebody else. To which I said, called her bluff. I said, okay, then go do that. And then she said, no, no, I really want to work. So it was this back and for. And ultimately, she just kept texting me, kept texting me. And then she started alluding to the fact that she was fertile, and she knew that she was fertile during this period of her life. And she was concerned that night, even though we didn't have sexual intercourse, that when we were grinding, something could have fluid, could have, you know, been transmitted. So she starts alluding to it before she said she was pregnant. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing this. And so I was like, hey, I'm going to block you like this. I don't want anything more to do with you. Like, please stop texting me. You're harassing me. Because there's constant messages coming in, and we're talking in paragraphs long, so I end up blocking her. And then that was 11 days or probably a few days later after that, on day 11, from the time from when we originally hooked up was when I got that email from her and she had sent over a positive pregnancy test and like a doctor's note. Yeah.

[Andrea]

And so it really has been this journey of proving that she could have never been pregnant, that you are not the father.

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[Clayton Eckerd]

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[Andrea]

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[Clayton Eckerd]

Why is he smiling? He knows he's gonna call me hemorrhoid Lloyd tomorrow. I know it. I gotta quit my job. Next time, avoid awkward conversations and get fast free delivery.

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[Andrea]

What has it been like covering this story, Stephanie?

[Stephanie Young]

It's been mind blowing because every time you think that you've heard it all, there's something else that comes out and you're just like, this can't possibly be real. And I think one of the most mind blowing things is the timeline of events. So in betrayal, you just mentioned like some of these people have been together for 25 years and it's that, you know, shock of being betrayed by somebody that you've known that long. With Clayton's case, he met her via LinkedIn message on May 17. The hookup happened on May 20, and then by June 1, she was pregnant. So this is like a speedy timeline compared to some of the betrayal stories. So that to me is shocking. And covering that part of it, it's just like, whoa, this is like a very quick timeline to go from 0 to 100.

[Andrea]

And the unrelenting barrage of information. Because she then filed like you've become embroiled in just a legal battle.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah, she filed A parenting plan, which I couldn't believe and was in shock that I had to respond to it via the court system. Otherwise, they would submit a default judgment, and most times they would assume the majority of the time, people filing parenting plans are actually pregnant. So I was gonna throw away the paperwork, and then I had someone on the el. Legal side of things that said, no, you can't do that. You need to respond. And I went into the court, and the judge asked me why I was countering this parenting plan. And I said, because there are no children. He said, you mean they haven't been born yet? I said, no, there's no child or children. They don't exist. And he just looked at me. He's like, are you being serious? Are you messing with me? I said, no, I'm telling you, she's making all this up. And he was just perplexed. And he goes, okay, well, I'll push this up the court. So he basically just pushed into another realm of the court. But it was. Yeah, I'm like. I felt ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous. I'm like, I don't know how to respond to this. She's making it up. How do I prove this? And that's where we ended up going with it was, okay, well, let's get her to prove pregnancy. Because, I mean, that's how I get out of this. Because this is something that now she's gonna hold over me. And how far is she gonna take this? And as we've just recently uncovered, obviously through the timeline of this podcast, like, she took it public. So then it became a. I need to prove to the public now, a court of public opinion. I have to be able to prove that this is all a lie.

[Andrea]

Yeah.

[Stephanie Young]

And I want to jump in and just say that from the time that she told Clayton she was pregnant to the time that she filed in the court in Arizona, it was only about eight weeks. So she was technically still in her first trimester. And as a woman, you know that most people don't tell people that they're even pregnant until after the first trimester.

[Andrea]

12 weeks, right? Yeah.

[Stephanie Young]

So I think that was another interesting part of this, that from the time that she found out she was pregnant to the time that it was filed to establish paternity in the court, there's only eight weeks.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Well, I think what's interesting, too, for one, you can tell she has the timelines better than I do at this point. For me, I mean, it just feels like a blur of three years. You know, it's like, the emotions are so strong, but I don't know exactly on what dates these things happen. And it just felt like it all was smushed together. But the other side of it too, you see the ignorance of a man to people go, oh, come on, day 11 and she's pregnant. Why would you even take that up and believe that in the first place? But because I was Googling. I mean, as a man, I had no idea. I'm like, I don't know how to fact check this. And I wasn't bringing it to my family originally. So this is just me living this experience and I'm just Googling. And Google was like, yeah, I mean, technically someone could miss their period and like, show show signs of pregnancy or be test positive as soon as like, 10 days. So I was like, well, that we're on day 11. So it was just one of these things where at first I'm fighting this alone. Obviously I don't want this to get out to the public, but it's, you know, there's like, I also don't understand what I'm up against because I'm like, I don't know. I mean, I'm a guy. Like, I don't know if this is possible. And so I'm just constantly Googling. And I think she was too, though, I. She was also, you know, doing her homework.

[Andrea]

Yeah.

[Stephanie Young]

Yeah.

[Andrea]

We do often deal with stories of people who are intimate partners or relationships that have been built over a number of years. This is about two strangers meeting. How did that affect you emotionally having your life completely upended? Like, do you think about if I just didn't respond to that LinkedIn message? Like, where does your mind go?

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah, it depends if you ask that question six months ago or even three months ago as opposed to now. I mean, I've found the silver lining in all of this, but it certainly messed with me. I mean, I lost a lot of trust in people. I mean, I became very protective of my energy, which I needed to be more protective. But I almost overcompensated. But it's something where I struggled to function on a daily basis because I really felt, I mean, very quickly I realized this individual was looking to destroy me emotionally and render me useless. I mean, take me out of my ability to be able to function and work my jobs. And it just felt very suffocating. And this person also had time on their hands. I mean, she was working around the clock. I'd get emails just all throughout the day. And as people find out, she doesn't have A job. So she made this her full time job and it was very suffocating. Yeah, it was just hard to go about my daily life when you have this happening in the background. And I mean, a lot of us can relate to this. If you have someone that's abusive or somebody that has some news that they're like, I'm gonna share this news with, or they're threatening you in some capacity, it's basically the thing that's on your mind at all times.

[Andrea]

Yeah, it's stress.

[Clayton Eckerd]

It's just constantly weighing on you. So no matter what else you're doing in life, in any moment of silence, you just go right back into that box that I so hard tried to compartmentalize. I just push everything in. I'm like, I have to go about my life, but this box exists. But any moment of silence, you know, where things slow down in life, you just go right back into the box. You're like, I can't help this because this is out of my control too. You know, there's somebody on this other side that's plotting and you don't know what their next move is going to be.

[Andrea]

Have you, like, envisioned what life would be like when you're done dealing with, with Laura Owens, or do you feel like it's always going to be there?

[Clayton Eckerd]

I'll be able to let go of a lot of anger. There's a lot of anger that's rooted in this, not only just at her, but within myself. And I have to give myself grace. But I do see, obviously that this was all brought on part me and partly of my own doing because of the actions I took. But even leading up to it, I mean, I was utilizing marijuana at the time to cope with the stress from the reality television experience that I just recently realized I still have not gotten over. I still harbor a lot of anger from that whole experience. And so there's parts of me that say, yeah, I mean, if you were able to have healed from these experiences, you wouldn't have found yourself back in this, this cycle. You wouldn't have subjected yourself to this kind of energy. Yeah, but you did, because you're not healed to the degree where you wouldn't place your energy in a person like her. And, you know, that's, that's something that I, I do understand is like, hey, you could have avoided this. But ultimately you were what you were when you first met her, which was a damaged individual.

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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously on Public. You can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S P500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Incident Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] disclosures and now another

[Maracan Rice Vinegar Sponsor]

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[Stephanie Young]

like, I never liked being told, oh wow, you look so good for your age.

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[Stephanie Young]

great at any age?

[Andrea]

Every age.

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[Clayton Eckerd]

Amazon Pharmacy presents painful thoughts of course I see my co worker in line at the pharmacy. Can he tell I'm picking up prescription hemorrhoid cream? I'm probably standing weird. Why is he smiling? He knows he's gonna call me hemorrhoid Lloyd tomorrow. I know it. I gotta quit my job. Next time, avoid awkward conversations and get

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[Clayton Eckerd]

just got less painful.

[Andrea]

One of the things that we do on Betrayal is every storyteller works with a mental health provider or a therapist life coach in each season to unpack a certain part of their story. And a little bit of a preview for season five as Saskia is working with Jessica Baum. They do a. Jess specializes in imago therapy which is really understanding, like it's inner child work. And you know, when I met Saskia, she really wanted to unpack her childhood and really figure out what is her relationship with her self worth and how she understands love and validation that ultimately led her to Mike loving good. And we hear those conversations in her therapy sessions. But it is like it is important because as much as we can't control Laura Owens, we can't control Mike Leppingut all we can do is really look internally at ourselves and say it's not our fault. But how did I get here? And it's just a really fascinating conversation and it's work to be done and like to do that work and to have that perspective. You should be proud of yourself.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah. And I appreciate that. I also just understand that. Yeah, I mean my environment has obviously influenced me and I've also went back into my childhood and I've seen why I've become the way that I have and why I take certain actions and subject myself to certain people. Maybe there was a lack of something in my, my childhood that I'm seeking and there's certain things that I've uncovered. But ultimately too, I think it's just as important in order to heal from that and overcome it, you have to accept accountability that while you were doing the best with what you could, you are still someone like you made decisions to put yourself in a position like that. It doesn't make it right, doesn't make it right that someone took advantage of me or anybody else. But there is the okay, hey, I want to better myself. So I need to understand that I found my way here, but I can also take myself out of it. I mean, we're all doing our best, right? So there's no victim blaming that should be had. It's more just, hey, I am a human being for the better and for the worse. I've made decisions in my life, my environment's impacted me, but I also want to be a better human. So how can I make sure that I don't find myself in this position again? You know, what steps do I need to take to become stronger and more resilient and just have more self love? Because I believe that me with more self love again, would have never have interacted with somebody like her.

[Stephanie Young]

Yeah, I think something too that's so interesting from my perspective is the way that his emotions have shifted over.

[Andrea]

Oh, you've seen it?

[Stephanie Young]

Oh, yeah. Over the last nine months. It's, you know, there's times where he's really angry, there's times where he's sad, there's times where he's willing to forgive, and then there's times where he's like, no, I'm actually really mad. So to see this rollercoaster of emotion over the past nine to 10 months has been interesting from my perspective.

[Andrea]

We talk about this, that a lot on betrayal, about how progress is in a straight line and like healing isn't linear and sometimes you're just going around because you're meeting the experience at different phases of your own healing journey and your own, like you're reading, you're engaging in certain books and podcasters and like material to better yourself. And so it makes you look at your experience in a different way. You know, like you were talking about. What are you reading right now?

[Clayton Eckerd]

The Artist.

[Andrea]

Oh, the Artist of Doc show. Probably not the best for that show, but you're constantly, you're trying to, but you're working through your experience. And so it's gonna bring up complicated feelings about different choices and the different fallout. The last thing I want to say about the betrayal, but I think the audience is really going to relate to is your journey with the justice system, because this is something that we cover a lot. You know, I deal with storytellers that, you know, despite fear, despite being in a really dangerous situation, they couldn't get a protection from abuse. They really had to fight tooth and nail to get any acknowledgement from the court system. And so what is complicated about your story as someone who is actually being able to navigate the criminal justice system pretty seamlessly in ways that our storytellers actually struggle to, which is gonna be really hard for some of our listeners to listen to, but it's fascinating. What is it like to be in a courtroom? Like, in the scene that you were just telling me about? It's a serious place, serious people. Yeah, but what are we even talking about here? There's not even a real pregnancy. It's absurd.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah.

[Andrea]

Like that duality is mind bending.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah. I had a little level of confidence early on probably because watching so much Law and order growing up. So I, as people found out early on, I had so much confidence that I self represented, which, oh boy, I didn't do for too long. But I showed up with my glasses and my tucked in shirt and my briefcase and he binged suits and was

[Andrea]

like, I got this. Yeah.

[Clayton Eckerd]

And I. But I ultimately thought, hey, look, like this is a ridiculous claim. I'm the one that's telling the truth. I mean, all I have to do is just speak my truth. So I did have a level of confidence, which again, I would also say based on like, I played, you know, Division 1 football, I was on the bat truck, I was in high stress environments. So to me, I had a level of comfort and confidence going into the courtroom and truth on my side. That being said, I realized very quickly that I could not keep up with the jargon, you know, the court jargon, that I was like, oh wait, I'm over here raising my hand. I'm like, I don't even know if I. Can I speak? Can I not? It was a surreal experience. And obviously I was like, look, I have to take this seriously because I could get caught up in a technicality. Even though I'm telling the truth, I could get caught up on some technicality where she could end up then winning.

[Andrea]

Right. And it's a really hard lesson to learn, especially about our justice system, that sometimes the last thing that matters is actually the truth.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Right. They have again, like, there's technicalities here and there. And you start seeing these arguments be brought up like by her counsel, where I'm like, that's ridiculous. They're just trying to stick on one little exception. And it's like, but that could blow the whole thing up. If you have one little hole in the argument, they can just blow that up and then just say the rest of it is no longer usable. And that is what really I realized. I'm like, this is actually very. You have to be so specific and you really can't have any flaws and your arguments. And so obviously I have legal representation now and that's helped out a lot. And I got that because of the privilege that I've had of being on reality television and being a celebrity to some degree. Most people don't have that luxury. If I wasn't a Celebrity, I wouldn't have had the support. And obviously the previous victims, they did not have that support. I think that is something that rightfully has agitated some people. They go, this is lucky for you, because I wish I could have had support and I'm very blessed for that. But it is unfortunate that if you have some level of status, you have a better chance of navigating the court system. I think there are a lot of victims out there that are afraid because they don't have the financial resources, they don't have the legal representation. And it can be a very scary thing when you go in front of a judge and you don't know what words to say, and all of a sudden you're up against someone's legal counsel that has money, and they just start hammering you with this. These technicalities. And yeah, I mean, again, I've watched the previous victims get run out of court because she had more money, more resources.

[Andrea]

Has she bankrupted any of them? Like it could have easily.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah, well, she's. I mean, she's cost them thousands of thousands of dollars. We're talking 60, $80,000. That's just money that's gone poof. And so, yeah, I mean, maybe not bankrupted them, but has financially harmed them. I mean, that's money that could have been, you know, put anywhere else.

[Stephanie Young]

They both have children, so I was

[Andrea]

gonna say like a college fund.

[Stephanie Young]

And that was. That's a conversation that I had with one of the other victims was, do I wanna fight this or do I wanna use this money for my kids futures? And that was a really hard conversation.

[Andrea]

Yeah. What do you guys want the Betrayal audience to know about your sh.

[Stephanie Young]

I would like the Betrayal audience to know that the story has got the similar elements of the betrayal show. It's got the manipulation, the fraud, the deception, all of those things. But as I've been working on this project, I think the best part has been meeting and connecting with all of the people who have lived it. I think Clayton and I have talked for probably over 30 hours on tape. I've really gotten to know Clayton. I've really gotten to know some of the other victims. And hearing their stories and seeing what they've been through has been really eye opening. And also, you know, a lot of times you think it's just one victim and, you know, it affected Clayton's life. But it's the collateral damage of everyone that's involved and the wave of destruction that goes along with it that is really the most impactful part to me. Because you can see how one woman's choices really affect so many people.

[Clayton Eckerd]

Yeah. And to piggyback off that, I would say, I think what this story really highlights is the power of community. And I hope it inspires those that listen to find their own communities and understand that nothing should be fought alone. Individuals that go through something similar, a lot of times, they carry a lot of shame. And I was certainly in that same position. And I remember when it first went public, I was like, this is going to ruin me. And actually going public was the greatest thing that ever happened because there was an army of people that were willing to rally around me, but I didn't necessarily even need an army. It would have. Just having two or three people in my corner, I mean, makes all the difference. So I think we all are fighting our own battles. And a lot of times people that are listening to these True Crimes series, I think a lot of people, they're able to sympathize. They've went through. They know someone who's went through something similar or they've experienced it. This story, I really think, just highlights the power of that community and that anyone that's going through something similar knows of someone going through something similar. Keep in mind how powerful your support can be for somebody and help them get through a dark time.

[Andrea]

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here today and sharing a little bit about your story. Where can people get your Podcasts?

[Stephanie Young]

Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify anywhere you listen to podcasts. And a five star rating goes a long way. So new episodes every Thursday.

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[Andrea]

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[Clayton Eckerd]

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[Andrea]

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[Andrea]

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[Andrea]

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