Laura Owens, an Arizona woman who falsely claimed “Bachelor” star Clayton Echard fathered her twins, has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars.
In addition, Owens was ordered to serve seven years’ probation following her stint in county jail, according to a livestream shared by Fox 10 Phoenix. If she violates her probation, the 35-year-old Owens could spend up to 12 years behind bars.
“I’ve thought about the choices that brought me here every moment of every day, and I wish more than anything I could go back to the moments that I still had the opportunity to make different choices,” Owens said Friday during an appearance at Maricopa County Superior Court in Florida. “I genuinely wish I had made better choices and hadn’t panicked.”
Owens also said she wanted “to take accountability” for her actions.
“I am profoundly, profoundly sorry for the pain, distress and expense I’ve caused them and for failing to meet the standard of honesty that this court had every right to [expect] from me,” she concluded.
Echard, in his own remarks before the court, rejected her apology.
“She’s not sorry,” he said. “She’s sorry she got caught.”
Echard then asked that she get jail time, emphasizing: “If you don’t take her out of her environment, she’s going to come back.”
Owens is the daughter of local radio legend Ronn Owens, who hosted a show on the Bay Area’s KGO 810 AM radio for nearly five decades. She pleaded guilty in August to two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, one count of taking the identity of another and one count of perjury. It was part of a plea agreement that allowed for additional charges against her to be dropped.
The case first made headlines back in 2023, after Owens filed a paternity lawsuit against Echard, who was the star of “The Bachelor’s” 26th season. She said they had a brief fling that left her pregnant with twins, a claim Echard immediately disputed.
He said Owens “fabricated her pregnancy, a condition which cannot have resulted from the parties’ interactions, because according to [Echard] they never had sexual intercourse,” per court documents previously obtained by People. Owens went on to claim she suffered a miscarriage and dropped the suit before she was indicted in May 2025 on fraud charges.
It came after a year-long investigation, which revealed Owens altered an ultrasound photo, faked a pregnancy video, and lied several times under oath between May 2023 and June 2024 to bolster her lies. Investigators also determined she targeted a second man, Greg Gillespie, with similar false pregnancy claims.
Owens was initially hit with a total of 14 felony counts related to the pair of pregnancy schemes.