Nearly three years after Laura Owens dated former “Bachelor” star Clayton Echard, her pursuit of paternity claims against him is the subject of a new investigative podcast.
The first two episodes of “Love Trapped” dropped Thursday, and the 10-episode series promises to explore the court battle and the “shocking scandal of my father’s life” that ended with Owens, the daughter of Bay Area radio personality Ronn Owens, facing multiple charges, saying she lied about being pregnant with Echard’s twins in order to marry him.
Owens, 35, was indicted last year in Maricopa County, Arizona, on a total of 14 counts including fraud, forgery, perjury, tampering with physical evidence, theft by fraud and identity theft. The charges relate to allegations involving Echard and a second man, who he also accused of impregnating her.
Owens has denied the allegation and maintained in previous interviews and a 2025 press conference that she had proof that she became pregnant with Echard but had a miscarriage. “I intend to address these allegations head-on – and will defend myself, fully and relentlessly, through every step of the process,” his release said.
The case of Owens v Echard began in May 2023 when the two met in Scottsdale, Arizona. Owens and his parents moved there in 2021, after his 80-year-old father retired from his longtime National Radio Hall of Fame career at KGO-810, where he was known as the Bay Area’s “voice of reason.”
Ronn Owens and his wife, Jan Black, a former KCBS reporter, bought a home in Scottsdale where their equine daughter could live separately and have a place to care for her horses. Meanwhile, after Echard appeared on Season 18 of “The Bachelorette” and Season 26 of “The Bachelor,” he began working as a salesman in Scottsdale. Soon after, Owens contacted him about looking at the property for real estate, according to a Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office investigator’s report.
Owens and Echard met at her home on May 20, 2023, where they had sexual intercourse. Echard maintains there was no sex, only oral sex, while Owens said the contact was enough to get her pregnant, according to the investigator’s report and court testimony.
After their date, Echard told her he couldn’t represent her professionally and didn’t want to see her romantically, according to the detective’s report and documents in the father’s case. Twelve days later, Owens sent an email telling her she was pregnant and showed her a picture of the pregnancy test.
Echard later told police that Owens bombarded her with approximately 500 texts and emails from multiple phones, according to the investigator’s report. He also said he proposed a “dating contract,” in which he would have an abortion if she dated for one week, and sent her an email touting the benefits of dating, court records show.
Owens’ final decision to reveal his paternity claims against Echard in The Sun tab brought their court battle to the “Bachelor” fans, whose sensational details began to play on popular YouTube channels and internet watchdogs began to find their own case.
According to a press release about “Love Trapped,” the podcast will investigate the high-profile nature of the case, following the “roller coaster of digital abuse” and “live court appearances” between Owens and Echard, while exploring “broader questions about public opinion.”
The podcast, co-produced by iHeartPodcasts and Glass Entertainment Group, will feature interviews with Echard, his family, one of Owens’ alleged victims, attorneys involved and YouTube celebrities Dave Neal and Reality Steve, who spoke extensively about the case.
It was not immediately clear if Owens or his parents participated in the podcast. That information will be revealed in the series, the producer told the news agency. The reporter who wrote this article was also interviewed for this podcast but had no part in its production.
Charges against Owens were filed in Maricopa County, where the trial began in the summer and fall of 2023. Owens first sued Echard against her father on August 1. She filed a restraining order against him after he threatened to go to the media, while seeking a protective order against her for texting an investigator.
During court hearings in October and November 2023, Owens said she was 24 weeks pregnant and appeared to have a visible pregnancy belly, as seen in a video of the hearing. But at the end of 2023, he filed a petition in court to dismiss his paternity claim, saying he believed he had miscarried some time before. Echard is seeking a court order against the father, telling police his reputation has been attacked and he wants to clear his name, according to the investigative report.
After a June 2024 hearing, Maricopa County Judge Julie Mata said Owens lacked “good faith” in pursuing paternity claims against Echard. The judge noted that Owens had never been seen by an obstetrician or gynecologist, even though he said she was at high risk of becoming pregnant. The judge also cited “fraudulent material misrepresentations” Owens made in his court declarations, depositions and testimony, and referred the case to the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution.
Owens was initially charged with seven counts in May 2025, including allegations that she lied in a statement and in court testimony that a sonogram image and video of her pregnancy were hers. She was charged with seven more counts in November, related to her alleged pregnancy with a second Scottsdale man, with whom she briefly dated in the summer of 2021.
During Owens’ fight with Echard, a third man from San Francisco, he came forward and said he accused her of impregnating him while they were dating in 2016. The investigative report said Owens also accused a fourth man of impregnating her in 2014 or 2015.
The podcast airs following news that the Owens family home in Scottsdale will be foreclosed on, as Ronn Owens lives with Parkinson’s disease and other health issues, according to a notice of trustee’s sale. The house will be auctioned in May.
Last month, a US Bankruptcy Court judge dismissed Ronn Owens and Jan Black’s efforts, by filing Chapter 13, to prevent creditors from trying to collect on their reported $2.3 million in debts, including their home and more than $511,000 they reported owing to banks, credit card companies and other creditors.
Owens, too, filed for bankruptcy and had to check on Feb. 9 attorney for the US Department of Justice regarding statements he made in his Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, including a self-help podcast and a horse training business he started with his mother.
The audio of the audition reveals that Owens admits that, at 35 years old, he has never had enough money to pay his bills on his own, saying that his parents have always paid for his housing, food and car. “I was the face of my parents’ businesses so they paid me living expenses to help them,” Owens testified.
For purposes of his criminal defense, Owens has been declared indigent by Maricopa County and is being represented by a court-appointed attorney as he is scheduled to go to trial this summer.
