This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite, on humor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. This week my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeters Side L, helped an Aka Pella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the look back at a podcast. The next episode of "Bick Mama" for me, 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex Egrish. Each episode we pick you here, unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians and favorite artists like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a while, I mean it was a while. It was a while, yeah. I don't think there's a more important year for Black people. Listen to look back at it on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to superhuman on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it was good, y'all. You're listening and learning the hard way with your favorite therapists and host care games. This space is about Black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. And so many men carry a suit of armament. It's a suit of world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to listen to learn the hard way on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's just before 7 a.m. on January 29th, 2025 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Please search for it. The Scottsdale police are at the home of 34 year old Laura Owens. She and her parents live in one of the most desirable areas of Scottsdale. Think upscale ranch-style homes on spacious lots. It's a rare urban neighborhood that still allows horses. But this morning, the calm and quiet was interrupted. Laura lives in a casita on her parents' property, which is kind of like a little studio apartment that's separate from the main house. Through a sliding glass door, officers can see Laura, who is already awake and feeding her dogs. Laura, Scottsdale police. You see my badge? Where with the Scottsdale police department? Okay. Can you come out and talk with us, please? No. The county attorneys have a search warrant for your property, so we need you to come out. Okay. I'm sorry. It's not even seven in the morning. That's fine. Laura looks incredibly thin, dressed in an oversized Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and leggings. Her dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail. She's not exactly shocked to see the police, but she is annoyed by their timing. I was told that if the police were going to come, they would come during business hours. Can I call my attorney, please? Laura reaches for her cell phone and calls her attorney David Jingress. David, do you know what's going on right now? The Scottsdale police are trying to handle this as calmly as possible, but Laura is getting more agitated by the minute. Our target is very animated at this point, receiving the come out. She's speaking to us through a sliding disaster. We're getting her an opportunity to talk to her attorneys and get them to escalate things, but that's just where we're at right now. I'm going to call her this morning. She's on speaker with her attorney and the attorney's advising her to come out. There's a-a-how. Let me be here. We're open the door. A lot. We'll see the door. When do they have authority to search for her? I'm going to call her in the morning. We serve our attorney to let them do whatever they want. With her lawyers okay, she slowly opens her screen door and the Scottsdale police lead her into the main house where her parents are waiting. Laura's having a meltdown. It is not cool. I said I'm excited. I'm in the morning. There's everyone I've heard of somebody. I agree. I agree. Laura is a subject of an investigation by the courts. It's regarding that. Neither would it's not even seven-clock. I have done nothing except get printed by the fucking bachelor. The bachelor, as in the hit reality TV show. Imagine one of its stars, a former lead, at the center of a major paternity scandal. The man whose story prompted this early morning police raid is none other than Clayton Eckerd. He's one of the most notorious and unpopular bachelors of all time. His season fell to pieces, leaving him single and rejected by the woman he'd fallen in love with. After the show, he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, hoping for a fresh start. On the show, Clayton didn't meet his person, but after moving to Arizona, he would meet the person that would change the course of his life forever. I'm Stephanie Young, and this is Love Trap. If you ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, try to leave. Nearly two years before the police raid, Laura Owens hooked up with Clayton Eckerd and allegedly became pregnant. That is only the beginning of the story. A story that is still very much going on. It's about how difficult it can be to verify the truth, especially when facts are constantly shifting. Anytime someone doesn't want to give you the full information, they lose all credibility. I don't know what she did, but we certainly didn't rule out the spit maneuver. The things that she said to Clayton, the famous lines about don't want you to feel how tight I am and stuff like that. Why would she have said that if they had already had sex? She says, we were sexually intimate. Okay. Well, now he's saying you only had two blow jobs. Well, jobs don't make babies. It's like a miracle somehow that she got pregnant. She could have shot herself in the ass with fertility drugs. They hooked up, but they didn't have sex. Turkey Baster's. It's just chaos. In the end, the man at the center of this drama would begin to question everything, setting him on an all-consuming path to prove the truth. Hello, this is Clayton speaking. Hey Clayton, it's Stephanie from Glass Podcast. How are you today? Hey, Stephanie. I'm doing good. It's honestly just another slow Friday today. When I first heard about this case, it sounded simple. But as I began looking into it myself, the twists and turns became increasingly strange. So I gave Clayton a call. We have emailed back and forth a few times about this whole Laura Owen saga. And I want to tell your story. I want to tell it in a podcast and get all the details out there. I know you've shared some, but I don't think that you've shared all of them yet. I mean, there's so much. I do want it out there. Just full transparency. I just, I hope it's told correctly. This would be my first of many phone calls with Clayton. I live in Chicago now, but I used to call Arizona home. It's one of my favorite places. It's where I attended college. It's where I got married and began my career in radio and podcasting. I was actually in Arizona shopping for a wedding dress when I first heard about this on the news. And I'll be heading back there soon to start reporting on this case myself. So how do you feel about letting me share your story? I mean, Stephanie, I hope that over time that this becomes a budding friendship and like, I can trust you and it can be told in the way that it needs to be told and how I would like for it to be told. But I want to also just again be completely honest because that's the time I live my life. I've been screwed over so many times by producers that have told me this is how I'm going to be seen and then it's complete opposite. So like, is there a little bit of hesitancy yet? I'm going to definitely want to be in the know as much as possible. Clayton's story is an epic battle of he said she said. It's a story about who you believe and why. Over the past two years, it's ignited the internet, becoming a kind of viral cautionary tale.
Along the way, dozens of citizens sleuths and armchair investigators joined the conversation, scrutinizing every little detail. But here's the thing. When the news broke that Clayton was part of this paternity scandal, no one believed him at first because he was a reality TV star and an unpopular one at that. All of a sudden, his word was at the center of a case that would put him back in the spotlight in a way he never expected. Just so you know, I have family that lives in Phoenix. So next time I'm in Arizona, I'd love to try to get together and maybe have a conversation to see how we can tell this story together in a way that makes sense. Honestly, I think that'd be great. I mean, I'm a huge believer in just face-to-face interaction. And I would really like that that way. Obviously, we can get to know one another and understand what's seriously we're both getting into because you were going to be in over your head. And he was right. I had no idea how big this story really was. To really understand what's going on here, you first have to understand how Clayton was portrayed on TV and why he was so unpopular. You see, his season of the Bachelor ended in flames. The rose ceremony from Hell, it's one of the most memorable moments in the history of the show. That basically blew up his whole season. I promise you that when you look back on this, this is going to all be the fight that you let me go. It didn't help that the three final contestants were some of the most likable in the entire franchise. Clayton came off as almost insensitive. But that's only part of what earned him the title of most hated Bachelor ever. He left the show in embarrassment. The internet turned on him. This is going down as an all-time bad season. He's going down as an all-time bad bachelor. I've been saying all season that I think this guy sucks. His words and his actions did not line up. I see any of these people defending this guy on me shame on you. And in the end, Clayton was left alone. He was at an all-time low. I was the worst bachelor ever at this point. People were hating me everything that they were watching on TV. I thought, how am I ever going to recover from what I've done? Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all. Embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to superhuman on the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. My mother-in-law spent years sabotaging our relationship until karma made her pay for it. Wait a minute Dakota, how bad did it get? Well, it got bad enough that her son-in-law had to eventually arrest her himself. Oh. She moved in for two weeks, lasted for five. She left nail clippings in the bathtub, candy stuck to the furniture, and then she pressed her ear against the bedroom door and burst in screaming. She did not burst in while they were. She did. They kicked her out and paid for hotel. And they thought, "It's finally over." Days later, she called her son-in-law at work claiming that his partner had been in some kind of freak accident and had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. He called every hospital in the city and his partner was making coffee the entire time. She faked a medical emergency just to test whether or not he loved her son. Yeah. And she sat in the hospital parking lot waiting for him to see if he would show up. When that didn't work, she walked into the son-in-law's police station and filed a kidnapping report against him. She filed a kidnapping report against him in his own police station. And spoilers, Karma's gonna show up in the best way possible. So if you wanna hear how this story ends, search OKStoryTime on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush gotta do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Watch episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just 'cause of crack. [LAUGHTER] I'm down with talking about crack on day, but yeah, yeah. Literally, put just so you all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. Really? Yeah, for me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to Look Back at it on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way With Me, Your Host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking trip, quarantine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we done enough. Because people scoreboard-wide. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, 'cause you find it important to be a good person while you're here on Earth, are you a good person because you're afraid? 'Cause that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kier Games, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free, our Heart Radio app, search Learn the Hard Way, and listen now. I'll admit it. I have always been a fan of the Bachelor franchise, but I missed Clayton's season, and it turns out a lot of people did. Before I began reporting on this story, I went back and watched Clayton's season. I've got to be honest, while I was definitely entertained, it was also a bit of a train wreck. I could see why he got the reputation he did. Even his brother Nate didn't think he did a very good job. I wouldn't give him the best grade. I think he was authentic. I think he was himself, but it just ended up getting him in more trouble. Respectfully, there have been many other Bachelor contestants who have actually committed crimes. Clayton's only crime was not being likeable. He's blunt and truthful, and oftentimes, that lands him in hot water. When people watch a show like the Bachelor, they think that they know you based on what they watch on TV. And what sucks is that I didn't get a great edit, and so now people were less likely to want to rally behind me with this whole cause because they didn't like me, based off of what they saw on TV. I had my own preconceived notions about Clayton before I met him. I kind of thought the same thing a lot of people did. He was your typical playboy. I had to get to know him myself, because this story isn't about the Bachelor. Hey. How's it going? Oh my gosh, you really are that tall. I got a bless with some height. That's nice to meet you. You're good to see you too. Absolutely. Welcome to the humble abode. I met Clayton for the first time last August when I was visiting my parents in Arizona. He's a big guy. His hands are double the size of mine. He's got a killer smile, hazel eyes, and a square jaw. He has thick curly hair, most men, or women would die for. And at 6'5, he towers over me. I drank cream soda growing up in my parents said, "You know if you keep drinking that, you're going to stunt your growth." So I switched over to milk, and I think there was hormones in the milk. All those hormones would probably pump it up my height. Today, Clayton is a pretty normal guy. He's in solar sales, he's a realtor, he takes hip-hop dance classes, and he owns and manages an Airbnb in Scottsdale. In fact, the day I met him, he shared his original concept of an optional Airbnb add-on. Where for an additional fee, he would personally provide guests with a private rose ceremony experience. I give them the exact same spiel that I would have given to the woman on the show. I'm so grateful that you all are here tonight for this incredible moment. What a journey we all have had. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, when he recreated this rose ceremony moment for me, it was like Clayton became the bachelor again. I had a videographer here to film all of that, and I released it in the Navy so he hit me with the season assist. The season assist wouldn't be the last of his legal troubles, as you'll soon find out. So how did Clayton even get here in the first place? What was his path to becoming the bachelor? I wanted to start from the beginning. Clayton grew up in Missouri and spent 28 years of his life there, and Clayton is your normal Midwest guy.
I grew up with my two younger brothers and we're just a household of boys and we competed in every single thing, from sports to grades. So a lot of who I am today stems from those early childhood challenges amongst me and my brothers. Clayton says his younger brother outshined him. He had a lot of confidence growing up that I never possessed and so he succeeded at a higher level than me. A lot of the girls loved him, he was smooth because he didn't overthink things. Meanwhile I was getting friend zone by all the girls and my grade, even girls in my grade liked my brother more than they liked me. When Clayton got to high school, he was determined to prove himself. That's when I decided the way that I established worth is by becoming the best on the football field and becoming like the most sought after man that I can be. Clayton had a good senior football season, not good enough to get a scholarship but good enough to walk on the team at the University of Missouri. Everyone expected me not to make it. It's a division one program, top program in the state. And he made it. He became a tight end on the team and even went on to play in the NFL. He was cut early on but hey, he made it. That's what mattered to him. And this experience led him to the next chapter in his career, medical device sales. They love their athletes. So they're like, hey, we don't care if you don't have any sales experience, we love athletes. And so they bring me on so I get this nice, great job out of college. Clayton paid his dues in the industry while living in Columbia, Missouri. He was big into fitness and posting his workout videos on Instagram. And on his 28th birthday, he had what he referred to as a quarter life crisis. I had this epiphany where I realized I had not grown as a person in five years. That's how I felt. I was doing the same job that I'd been doing for the last five years. Romantically, I was just dating casually. I'd hadn't grown in that regard whatsoever. And I realized I need to get out of this environment. I'm stagnant. This when everything changed for him. I got a DM from a casting producer on Instagram. A producer from the bachelor was searching via fitness hashtags, which I had put on one of my pictures and that's how they found me. It wasn't the first time he'd been scouted. He'd been approached to be on Love Island and an HBO Christmas dating show. He turned them both down and told his brother that the only show he would consider was the bachelor at. But then, when the opportunity was actually presented to him, I'm like, there's no way I can do this. So my brother brings it up one day and he's like, you're going to go on the show and I said, I don't think so. He goes, oh, so you're not a man in your word? I said, what do you mean? He goes, don't you remember that conversation we had? He said, you said the one show you would go on is the bachelor at. And so now you're not going to do it. So you're not a man in your word. And that's all I needed. He agreed to go on the bachelor at. He barely watched the show except when he was glancing over his mom's shoulder. It was my mom's favorite show growing up. It was always on in our house. Clayton was cast on Michelle Young's season of the bachelor at in 2021. Michelle's a natural beauty with wavy black hair. She's a college basketball player turned elementary school teacher. Clayton thought she was drop dead gorgeous. But when he got on set for the first time, he was overwhelmed by the production of it all. I will never forget my first night before I walked on Routy Television. He was a nervous wreck when he got out of the limo to meet Michelle. I step out the limo. Lights are blinding me. They said, if you mess up, keep going. There are no redoos. When the cameras were thrown on me, it was just a shock. I was in that moment wondering if I was swaying my arms too much while I was walking. That's how hyper fix it. And I was on the minute things. It was all sudden in that moment, you're like, nothing is hidden. Everything is out there. And things didn't get any better once you met the other guys. First guy I see ends up being the guy that won the whole thing. He's six foot eight, light skin. It looks like a model. I'm like, well, I'm done. There's no way I'm going to make this last longer than one night if this is my competition. Clayton made it past night one, but he didn't get a lot of screen time. It was hardly any. It was like eight minutes max, maybe. Ultimately, he was sent home before hometown dates. Michelle walked into the limo and he was driven off the set. But the next morning, Clayton was called for one final exit scene. Michelle was an elementary school teacher, and earlier in the episode, Clayton met two of her students. He was brought in to shoot a final scene where the two kids gave him handwritten good byletters. We watched Clayton read each letter and well up with tears. It was surprising because you are super genuine and I like to you a lot. I know you'd be a really great husband for Miss Young. You would probably meet someone else and fall in love and have lots of kids and be a great dad. Clayton didn't realize it in the moment, but this scene was his screen test to be the bachelor. He nailed it and then his producer made the offer. They wanted him to be the next bachelor. Even Clayton was surprised. I got sent home with seven guys ahead of me so I figured I wasn't even contentioned. When he said that, I was like, yeah, I'll do it. Clayton said something that stood out to me. He was sent home earlier in the season than most future leads, so picking him was kind of a strange choice. I wanted some insight on this, so I turned to reality Steve. He's a podcaster, blogger, and de facto authority on the bachelor franchise. He knows how the show works behind the scenes. Here's why he thinks the show casts Clayton as the lead. My guess was to control him, a guy that they could clearly see, hey, he's going to do what we tell him to do because he's so grateful for this opportunity. The thing is, Clayton was grateful for the opportunity. It was validation that I was special, which the people pleaser in me was always chasing. So to have that moment come to a place where it was like, we want you to be the guy. I was like, I'm the guy. You don't just become the guy without having a whole track record of success. He finally found the validation he was looking for. But he didn't realize that once you invite the world in, you can't tell them when to leave. I'll never forget this producer looks at me and she goes, take this moment in because this is the last moment of silence that you'll likely have in your life for a long time, if ever. That's the moment I remember because my life has never been the same since that point. The noise has never stopped. Clayton began filming his season of the bachelor in late September of 2021 and he was ready to find love. At that point, I was so overcome with just excitement. What is my life? This isn't even real, pinch me, but don't actually pinch me because if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up from it. That's how grateful and excited I was. I was just soaking it all in and I felt like I'm going to give everyone the love story that they're looking for because I got the genuine heart that's actually looking for something serious. This is going to be a fairy tale ending. I'm going to write off into the sunset and be the hero that everybody was anticipating I'd be or once me to be. That's what I believe was going to happen. I really believed it up until like the last week. Where the fuck did I go wrong? So here's what happened. When Clayton got down to the finalists, he broken unspoken rule of the bachelor, which is, the show doesn't really work if you tell all the finalists you're in love with them, especially while they're all standing in front of you. I still to this day didn't realize that was an untold rule. I believe in radical honesty. It's probably gotten me and actually it has gotten me in trouble more than a few times of my life. Not only did Clayton admit to falling in love with all of the finalists, he also revealed that he'd had sex with two of them. Here's what he said he was thinking. Every emotion was rushing in. It was a lot. I mean, I was so drained at that point. I had a mix of frustration with myself, sadness to see the looks on the faces of the women. I realized that things were going in the exact opposite direction that I planned for them to go. The rose ceremony from hell was filmed in Iceland and Clayton's parents and two brothers were there too. While it was being filmed, his family was out to dinner with some of the show's producers, who were getting frantic texts from the production team. Here's Clayton's dad, Brian. Even the producer told me when I was sitting in a room with her, she goes, you know, Mr. Rackard, your son gave us some great material. Unfortunately, it's just going to look like shit. She goes, I don't know why anybody's saved him. I was like, well, we'll see what it looks like when it comes out. The producer.
The officers were right. It didn't look good for Clayton. In the end, there were three women. The first was Rachel, a radiant blonde who was also a pilot. Next was Gabby Wendy, a nurse and former NFL cheerleader with a quick wit. She's since become a pop culture icon who you might have seen on the traders and dancing with the stars. When she was on Clayton's season of the Bachelor, she was not happy with how he handled himself. "I'm pissed because I spent the last two days away from my family and my friends who actually get the **** about me and you don't." That was rough. Then there was Susie. She was a wedding photographer, former Miss Virginia, actually. And she was the one Clayton was leaning towards. But Susie decided to leave the competition early, right before the finale. She got cold feet about getting engaged. In a very unusual and risky move, Clayton sent the other two finalists home. He wanted to propose to Susie. And surprise, surprise, she was still in Iceland. So he made a grand gesture and asked her to come to the final Rose ceremony. She agreed to show up. And when he handed her the Rose, she said what no other contestant has ever said before. I have made the decision to leave Iceland alone, but it doesn't take away from everything that we've had and the love that I genuinely feel in my heart for you. In other words, she said no. I asked Clayton if in that moment he regretted becoming the Bachelor. Yes, 1,000%. I wish I'd never answered that DM when I, yeah, absolutely. That's how I felt. Someone told me that he felt like the producers pushed him to develop a strong connection with more than one woman. And they encouraged him to try that last-ditch effort with Susie. I felt like the producers were trying to lead me and potentially produce me into reacting a certain way. And so I started to question, are we on the same team? Am I able to really just do what I want or is there some type of motive here from you all that I need to fall in line with? It's telling that Clayton didn't realize this until the end. Here's reality, Steve. They took advantage of a naive guy who didn't know television and didn't know the process of this show and had a field day with him. Shortly after Clayton returned from filming the show, he received a DM from Susie on Instagram, asking if they could talk about what happened in Iceland and Clayton agreed. We had a three-hour conversation that night and talked a lot about producer involvement and how it stopped us from being able to pursue the relationship further. Susie felt the same way that producers forced them into a decision at the end. It just felt like producers got really involved and I felt like the whole situation felt manipulated and orchestrated and I didn't know who to trust anymore whether it was not Justin Clayton or producers and I was like, "I just need to leave here." After that conversation, they decided to reconnect and give the relationship a go on their own terms without cameras. But America couldn't know yet because the show hadn't premiered. Living through it had been one thing. Then Clayton joined the millions of Americans watching his season play out on TV. It did not go well. The premiere trailer, it started off all happy, go lucky and then the back half of the trailer, they just showed everything blowing up. They showed that clearly there's no love story here. It's full drama and they set me up for failure right out the gate. And the internet was ruthless. Clayton knew it had been bad. He didn't know it had been this bad. So many of those people that sent me death threats told me that I never deserve love, told me that they would put a bullet in my head if they ever saw me in person. Tell me I'm stupid, ugly, my physique was attacked, my actions were attacked and it's like they all forgot that I was a human. I'm like, "Guys, I'm still a human being. This stuff hurts." The show provided mental health resources for as long as Clayton needed them. It's just a shame because you would hope that you wouldn't have to ever utilize them in the first place. Clayton knew he wasn't perfect, but as the finale approached, the online hate took its toll on him. My mental health was the worst that it's ever been in my life. I thought, "Wouldn't it be better if I just wasn't here?" There was a point where I focus in on the closed drawer in front of me that had my pistol inside the drawer. And I started having the thought just that it's there and I felt weak in that moment and I almost felt guilty for even considering that because I thought there's no way I could ever put this type of pain on my family. And I knew at that point I was like, "I gotta get out of this environment. This is not good." Clayton reached out to the bachelor producers for help. I said, "I am in a terrible place right now. I'm having extremely dark thoughts. I feel worthless. I need support." He desperately wanted to see his girlfriend Suzy, but the rules were, if they wanted to meet in person, they had to go through producers first since the show was still airing. Suzy was genuinely worried about him. Here's Suzy. At the time he didn't mention the gun in the drawer, but I remember also calling producers at that same time and I said, "Hey, I really think something is very wrong and I don't think he should be alone right now." Thankfully they understood the severity of it. They got me out on a red eye. They got her out on a red eye. And I then had at least Suzy there to support me. Then, during the live finale, America would find out the truth about Clayton and Suzy's relationship. You'd think this news would have started Clayton's redemption arc. He and Suzy did end up together after all, but that's not what happened. The online trolls started to come for Suzy too. I received some of the most disgusting, graphic, nasty messages I've ever received in my life after the final show. That was a lot to go through. Suzy felt like the bachelor left them out to dry and let them take the fall for producers' decisions. There's a lot of criticism on Clayton on how things happened and I think some of that is deserved and some of it is also like, "Okay, we have to take a step back and recognize that there's a whole production behind it." When the show wrapped, Clayton and Suzy had to deal with being a publicly hated couple. Their relationship wasn't celebrated like most bachelor couples and their social media accounts were spammed with hate comments. They were both just trying to feel normal again. After nine months of dating under intense online scrutiny, Clayton and Suzy decided to call it quits. I think our relationship was just too tumultuous to last. I think that we went through something really, really traumatic together and that could have brought us closer. We both were two people that went through something really, really hard and we just didn't have the toolkit to make it work. When I lost her, I lost a rock. I lost somebody that really fully understood me. He took the break up hard, so we spent the next year working on himself. At the end of 2022, Clayton wanted a fresh start. I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, which is the hotspot. There is so much happening here. It's very close to all the West Coast cities. Having lived there, I can tell you it's kind of a party town. Very fast paced. A lot of distractions, a lot of problems as well. It's almost fitting that Scottsdale is one of the most popular destinations for bachelor at parties. When I got to Scottsdale, I didn't have dating on my mind. I had a big old party mindset and I thought I get to be single and I get to be single as the bachelor, a former bachelor. And I'm going to just milk this moment and I'm going to have my fun. He thought it would be smooth sailing now that the bachelor was behind him. Damn was he wrong. - Yeah. - Well, it got bad enough that her son-in-law had to eventually arrest her himself. - Oh. - She moved in for two weeks, lasted for five. - She did not burst in while they were-- - She did. - They kicked her out and paid for hotel, and they thought, "It's finally over." Days later, she called her son-in-law at work, claiming that his partner had been in some kind of freak accident and had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. - He called every hospital in the city, and his partner was making coffee the entire time. - She faked a medical emergency just to test whether or not he loved her son? - Yeah. And she sat in the hospital parking lot, waiting for him to see if he would show up. - She filed a kidnapping report against him in his own police station. - And spoilers, Karma's gonna show up in the best way possible. - Do you remember when Diana Ross double-taped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? What the hell does George Bush gotta do a Little Kim? I'm Sam J. - And I'm Alex English. - Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. - To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just 'cause of crack. (laughing) I'm down with Taco Bell crack all day, but yeah, yeah. Literally, put just so y'all know. - I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. - We also have eggs on the table right now, so. (laughing) - Are you finishing that sentence? (laughing) Yes, I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? - Listen to Look Back added on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Welcome to my new podcast, learning the hard way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field, and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking trip fontain, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing, and we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we done enough. - Because people scoreboard-wise. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, 'cause you find it important to be a good person while you're here on Earth, are you a good person because you're free? - 'Cause that's two different intentions, bro. - Absolutely. - And that's two different levels of trust. - Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose, on my new podcast, "Learn the Hard Way." Open your free I Heart Radio app, search "Learn the Hard Way" and listen now. (soft music) - After a nightmarish stint in the public eye, Clayton Eckerd began building a new life in Scottsdale, Arizona. In April of 2023, he announced on Instagram that he got his real estate license. He figured that his notoriety from the show might even help him launch his career. A few short weeks later, he got a message on LinkedIn from a potential real estate client. Someone named Laura Owens. - The LinkedIn message said, "Hi, I'm looking to connect with similar-minded young entrepreneurs in Scottsdale. I see that you work for the (beep) and I actually contacted them recently. They were going to connect me with someone who could help me find investment properties, but haven't yet. Let me know if you could help." - Laura's LinkedIn profile didn't have a photo, but Clayton's did. - It was my bachelor photo. The photo from night one of the bachelor. - You'd think that her not having a photo might be a red flag, right? Well, Clayton saw it differently. - I figured I'm the bachelor and I have a level of fame to me. This is not at all that surprising. I mean, I had people that came up to me once for the coffee shop and said they wanted to work with me in real estate. So I changed my contact info with her to get in front of her so that I could hopefully get my first real estate deal done. - And Laura didn't waste any time. - The text messages started right away. Constant texting and she knew a lot about real estate more than I even knew because I just got my license. So I felt like I was trying to play keypup with her. Laura was asking all the right questions, but Clayton also realized she was testing the waters. - At first, she was flirting a bit. I was keeping it very professional. It was $20,000 commission on the line. Good amount of money and I was trying to keep the transaction going along. - I sat down with Clayton and had him walk me through the printouts of their initial messages. You mentioned she was flirting with you a little bit. Can you read one of those messages and kind of give me an example of what you're talking about? - In all honesty though, I had a great time talking to you and what actually loved to get a drink with you next week if you want to. - And how did you handle that flirtation? - I thought I'll just continue to be professional, push this along, letter feel however she feels and if she wants to flirt here and there, whatever we can let that be. - So you told me your profile picture was the photo of you from the bachelor. Do you think she had any idea of who you were? - I don't think she did know who I was. I mean of course she could have googled me and found out very quickly. But based on what she had said to me and her tonality, I'd assume that she didn't know. - Okay, so then you thought she was flirting with you not because you were famous or the former bachelor but because you're you, a tall 30 something year old guy, handsome. - I mean, hey, I appreciate all those compliments, but yeah, I mean, truthfully I just thought like, yeah, she thinks I'm attractive, okay, no big deal. I'm just really fixated on getting my first real estate deal done and starting a new chapter out here in Scottsdale and also just having people see me for what I truly am, not what was shown on TV which was produced and edited. - Clayton set up some showings for Laura later that week and the flirtatious messages continued. - And then obviously there was a turn of events one night. - Clayton had just moved into a new apartment. That evening he went to IKEA, ordered a pizza and started to put his new furniture together. - So I took this edible and Laura was texting me so I sent her a text back. - This was three days after Laura's initial message to Clayton. At that point, Clayton started to feed into the flirting. Then Laura made a bold move. She sent a photo. - The second I got that photo, I was like, okay, well, the logical brain kicked off. - Clayton invited her to come over. - She was a little hesitant at first. I just think she was surprised that I was inviting her over but then she decided that she would come over from there. - The exact details of what happened that night are only known to two people, Clayton and Laura. As we continue this series, we'll hear a few different versions of what allegedly went down but we're going to start with Clayton's version. - That night I was looking for a hook up, that was a percent. I assumed we both were on the same page because she was coming over at eight o'clock at night on a Friday. We know why you're coming. You just sent me a photo of your ass. - Technically, she's wearing leggings in the photo. I've seen a copy of it. And if you can believe it, this picture would later be released as part of an investigation report by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. To call a spade a spade, the photo looks like a thirst trap. - That night, Laura arrived at Clayton's apartment. They started talking and getting to know each other a little better. - I'll be honest with you, all of the conversation was forgettable. And then probably after an hour, hour and a half, I told her to come over closer to me and she did and then that's when we started hooking up. - It's awkward to go into these details with Clayton but they all become critical to this story. So I asked him to define what he means when he says he and Laura started hooking up. - I don't know how descriptive you want me to get but like there was no penis and vagina penetration. - Laura spent the night and left early the next morning. - 11 days later, I received a message from Laura stating that she was pregnant and attached was a photo of a positive pregnancy test. - Clayton couldn't believe it. And there's no way that she could have been pregnant because we did not have sex. I mean, not in the way that would get you pregnant. - Everything that happens next all comes back to this one night and two blow jobs. - On one of our first phone calls, you said that I was gonna be in over my head and I'm kind of understanding a little bit why you said that but like what did you mean? And once you get fully caught up to speed, in over your head just doesn't do a justice. Every time you think it couldn't get crazier, it just does. You have the dating contract, you have forged medical documents. There are so many layers to this story that you peel back one, couldn't get crazier. Oh, surprise, there's another layer and it just keeps going, restraining orders, a criminal investigation and also just the hope.
that at the end of it all, someone's going to be held accountable. This season, Unloved Trapped. Hey Clayton, this is not your typical naked video of a woman trying to impress you. My life is ruined. Everything that I'm working towards is gone. This is either the craziest story of a bachelor villain or the biggest scam is happening. It's one or the other. I'm not the devil. I'm genuinely not wanting to cause any trouble in your life. This is where it was a whirlwind of tax messages. She's probably taxed me 25, 30 times a day. It's hard to explain to somebody how the hairs on your neck immediately go up when you see you get an email from Laura Owens. No privacy anymore. No reputation. No name. I can't even count how many armchair investigators who did ten times better than any P.I. have ever hired. We need accountability and more importantly, we need protection. No human could imagine another person would fake something that is so sensitive. The crazy thing about all of this is if I was not the bachelor, none of this would happen to me. Remember, try to leave. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow LoveTrap on Apple podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a review. A five-star rating helps others find this show. We're grateful for your support. If you would like to reach out to the LoveTrap team, email us at
[email protected]. That's LoveTrap.
[email protected]. LoveTrap does a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. This show was executive produced by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning, and Ben Federman. Written, produced, and hosted by me, Stephanie Young. Our story editor is Monique LeBord. Additional production support from Todd Gans. Our production manager is Kristen Melkiri. For iHeart Podcasts, Ali Perry was our executive producer. Audio editing and mastering by Anna McLean and Matt Delvecchio. Additional editing support by Zach Proto. This podcast was developed in collaboration with Danny Passman and LeB Abramoff at Crybaby Media. The LoveTrap theme is composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by Mybe Music. A special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, Jessica Crinecheck, Ali Cantor, and the entire iHeart Podcasts team. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odin Kirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Side L, helped an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex Egrish. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite artists. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wow, I mean, it was a wow. Listen to look back at it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. Listen to superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations. It's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit of armor? And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to listen to learn the hard way on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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