Is Clayton Echard a Father?
In August 2023, Owens took Echard to court with a paternity petition alleging she was pregnant with twins. Echard responded to the petition claiming he could not be the father because he and Owens did not have intercourse. Both claimed that the other had refused a paternity test. Echard ultimately took one on September 26.
Throughout the legal process, Owens took other measures against Echard, such as filing a complaint with the Arizona Department of Real Estate and for an order of protection against him. Echard in turn acquired a competing injunction against harassment. In that court filing, Echard wrote that he was the third person with whom Owens had allegedly fabricated a pregnancy.
Days after Echard took the paternity test, he announced in an Instagram video that the result showed “little to no fetal DNA.” In a then-anonymous statement, Owens told Us Weekly she would provide the lab with another sample. She did, and it returned with the same result in December.
On October 24 and November 2, 2023, Owens made appearances at remote court hearings, where she affirmed she was 24 weeks into her pregnancy and due on February 14, 2024. She appeared on video to be visibly pregnant.
But on December 28, Owens told the court that she suffered a pregnancy loss. She asked to dismiss the petition because the question of paternity had been rendered moot.
However, Echard opposed the motion to dismiss Owens’ petition, asking the court to formally declare his non-paternity. Further, he accused Owens of fabricating the pregnancy.
In a win for Echard, the judge denied the motion to dismiss, asking the two sides to fulfill disclosure requirements before the case continued in June 2024.
Was Laura Owens Ever Pregnant?
In the months that followed, Owens’ initial allegations appeared to crumble.
Echard’s lawyers identified two men with whom Owens had previous relationships: Greg Gillespie and Michael Marraccini, the latter the subject of her 2021 Tedx talk. Owens obtained restraining orders against both of them in the past, and both were prepared to testify that Owens had also told each of them she was pregnant by them— with twins.
On June 17, 2024, the court ruled in Echard’s favor, given that no one could provide evidence that Owens was ever pregnant and that her petition was “not filed in good faith” and “made to incite communication, a relationship or both” with Echard.
The judge referred Owens’ case to Maricopa County prosecutors.
Laura Owens’ Pregnancy Claim Becomes a Crime
On May 20, 2025, exactly two years after Owens and Echard’s encounter, a grand jury indicted her on seven counts related to the alleged fabrication of her pregnancy. Prosecutors have charged her with making false statements under oath and altering medical documents to bolster her claims.
On November 6, a grand jury added another near-identical seven counts that accuse Owens of fabricating a different pregnancy with Gillespie in 2021 through similar methods and lying to prosecutors about it.
The criminal charges have brought up questions around the veracity of her Tedx talk, in which she claimed that an ex-boyfriend had verbally and physically abused her, allegedly leading to her hospitalization. Marraccini’s lawyer has denied the allegations to reporters, and Echard has supported Marraccini’s side of the story. YouTube comments under that video have been turned off.
Owens’ criminal trial is set to begin on July 29, 2026. She has yet to accept a plea deal.
