Laura's Emails | BONUS

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See at feeps.com or the Weeps app. Aigo, Otra is your host for the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live at South by Southwest. Hello, is anybody there? Race by a single mom. Aigo may have a few father-related issues.

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I'm Clayton Eckard. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor.

“But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him.”

If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract.

Agreed to date me, but I'm also suing you.

This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to the love trapped on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast doubt, the case of Lucy Letby. We unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023.

But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment the whole picture of the case collapsed? What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my god, I think she might be innocent. Listen to doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Stephanie, back with the bonus episode. We talked in episode three about the many emails Clayton received from Laura Owens, during the summer of 2023. He compiled the emails into a Google Drive that he calls the L.O. file.

There was so much more about the L.O. file and these emails that we didn't have time to get to in episode three. So I sat down with Clayton to hear a bit more. We're going to start with their back and forth about the paternity test. Laura claimed that Clayton was refusing to take one.

He says that wasn't the case, and the emails seemed to corroborate his account. In the last episode, we talked about the paternity testing and who was paying for it. Now, the whole conversation gets messy as the months drag on, but I mention that you agreed to pay for the whole thing yourself. So let's get into that a little bit deeper.

In the email from Laura to you on June 24th, about three weeks after she told you she was pregnant. She says, "I wanted to let you know that I will not be paying for the paternity test." It's of no use to me because I know I wasn't physically involved with anyone else, and therefore no one else could be the father.

I promised that if it came back any other way, I will fully reimburse you, but trust me, it won't. I haven't lied to you yet, and I don't need to pay several hundred or a thousand dollars for information that I already have. Okay, so what was your response to that email?

So my response to her was, "I will pay for a hundred percent of it." You have my word, let this message serve as the proof. Just schedule it, and let me know where you scheduled, and I'll pay. Throughout this entire LO file, I don't see one email of you refusing to take a paternity test. I know you really wanted to take the paternity test based on what I was seeing in the emails.

So I found something in the emails that might explain why Laura said you were refusing to take it. Can you read that for me? So she had sent me an email saying, "Just confirming that you are refusing a paternity test." No answer equals refusing it. Okay, so it's my understanding, and I came to this conclusion by reading the emails

and you telling me about how no response equals a response that that's what's happening here. You weren't responding to her emails, and she was taking your lack of response as a no. Yeah, it's ridiculous in nature, but I mean, you've heard even from a societal standpoint

“people say silence speaks volumes, and I think that's what she was trying to lean into.”

And I know you're reading this because I have the mail trackers, and if you're choosing not to respond, that is still a response. I obviously didn't agree with that. I just didn't want to communicate with her, but she was just looking for ways

You just mentioned something that I want to talk about.

“You mentioned the mail trackers, which we do talk about in the episode with the emails.”

How did you know that she had those trackers on? Eventually, she had told me, but I also just knew because whenever I had opened them and I had read them, she had sent over another one right away, but if I was ever just busy and I couldn't get around to my emails, then yeah, nothing would come through. Then she eventually told you that she had a tracker on.

Yeah, and she eventually then told me that she had the trackers. I'm like, okay, this makes sense to me why she continues to send them. I thought I was able to trick her by not responding into thinking that like I had her in a block folder. I wasn't paying attention again. What I wanted her to believe was that I wasn't looking at these emails.

I had way better things to do. She had no power over me and eventually she would just give up. All right, let's move on to another one. Here's another email.

This one's dated July 5th.

So this is about a month after she told you she was pregnant, but she had already hinted to you that she might be pregnant with twins. This is the email. I had an idea.

“What do you think about hanging out tonight and seeing if this is something you want to try out for a couple of weeks before we make a decision about what to do?”

If either of us decide that we don't want to explore something more serious, then at least we will know and we will both have clarity. With you not responding about the possibility of twins, or me giving you the chance to make a different decision about the abortion pills because of that new prospect, things feel unresolved and my anxiety is through the roof.

I'm sure yours is as well. With my stress levels being where they are at now, if the baby or babies are born with any issues, I would blame you for not trying to help me reduce those by supporting me as you said you would. If you just pursued something romantic for a night,

you have no idea how much it would help me emotionally. And I definitely would not blame you for any problems the child or children would have. This was still pretty early on when I believe you still thought that there might be that 0.01% chance that she could actually be pregnant. So how did this email make you feel and were you concerned for her mental health at the time? Yeah, so of course I was concerned for her mental health reading these messages,

but I had my guard up and I was like, there's no way that I can explore intimacy. It has to be off the table. I can date her quote unquote for a week and give her attention. At the end of it, I was going to say,

"Oh, you know, I just don't think it's going to work between us. But we gave it a fair go. All right, I guess this is the end of it, right?" Like that's essentially where I was going to head with it. But she obviously was like, "No, we have to be intimate if we do do this." And of course I wasn't willing to go there.

Okay, so I'm going to jump into another document that I found in the LO file. This one is from August 13th, so this was just a few days after that dating contract that you received.

“Do you remember getting another contract like document after the dating contract?”

So many emails came in that maybe she did say much another contract in there, but I don't recall off the top of the ad. Okay, well, I'm going to read it to you. It appears to be sent through DocuSign, and the title of the document is,

"A agreement between Laura Owens and Clayton Eckerd." It begins, "We, Laura Owens and Clayton Eckerd, agreed to meet up tonight, August 13th, 2023, for the court mandated good faith consultation."

And I'll pause here for a second.

I'm mentioning a good faith consultation because this document came through two weeks after she filed in court to establish paternity. So a good faith consultation is basically, like a formal requirement for opposing parties to attempt to resolve a dispute that was brought to court,

and you kind of handle it. Sincerely, honestly, it's like a good faith attempt to resolving it before you seek further intervention from the court. Okay, so back to the document. In addition, Laura Owens will alert the court

to the fact that there is no longer a need to take action against Clayton Eckerd for his refusal to participate in the good faith consultation. Laura Owens agrees to take and pay for both her and Clayton Eckerd to take the prenatal paternity test at Ravgen to be taken at the earliest possible date,

and promises not to cancel. Clayton Eckerd agrees to unblock Laura Owens and not block her again. Now, Laura signed this document, but I don't see a signature for me on that document.

Yeah, because it just wasn't a fair trade-off. I mean, I was willing to negotiate with her. I was working at every moment to try to find that little common ground where she would say, "Yeah, this could work." But as far as this contract went,

I'm like, "You're not going to do what you say you're going to do anyways." And, no, I don't want to unblock you, because it doesn't accomplish anything. You're just going to send me another barrage of emails in text.

is that she really wanted you to unblock her phone number.

Now, she could still get in touch with you via email it seemed, even though you had her block, they were still kind of getting through. But why do you think that the unblocking of her phone number was such a priority for her?

To me, it's completely stemming from a hurt ego. I feel that she felt less than if she was blocked. Therefore, if I unblock her, there wasn't as much hostility because it's like, "Okay, now we have an open chain of communication like two people that respect one another would have."

I mean, who do you block, typically? You block people that are individuals that you don't want to talk to. People that you don't want to have access to your life. People that are extremely rude. You don't block just the average person, right?

You're blocking people that you do not want to have any interactions with. So, there's a negative connotation around being blocked,

“and I believe Laura just wanted to remove that.”

A lot of your correspondence with Laura happened almost three years ago now. What has it been like for you going back reading these messages and reliving this time of your life? It's been very agitating. Anger has been the main emotion that I feel arise

whenever I have to reopen this box that I've compartmentalized. As much as possible, because I still have a life to live beyond this matter. But Laura makes it really hard.

I mean, she's always reopening the box.

And so, for me, this is still ongoing matter. And I am hoping to have a outcome where we can close this completely, because it's tiring. I am so tired of talking about this, feeling this, dealing with this, in my eyes,

and what I would have thought would have occurred, was like this would have been done over the course of six months at max. And here we are on your three, and we're still going. Thanks so much for listening.

“If you want to see the emails we mentioned,”

you can read them for yourself at our Instagram at Glass Podcasts and stay tuned for new episodes and bonus episodes on the LoveTract feed. Next Monday, our 2021 six-eye-hard podcast awards

are happening live in South by Southwest.

This is the biggest night in the podcast thing. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is... Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display.

Thank you so much. I heart rate you all. Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern 5 p.m. Pacific free.

Itfeeps.com or the Veeps app. Aigo Woda is your host for the 26-eye-hard podcast awards live at South by Southwest. Aigo may have a few father-related issues. Her podcast, thanks dad, is full of funny, heartfelt conversations with actors, including fellow SNL at Lums, comedians, musicians, and more.

About life and their wonderfully complicated relationships with their fathers. I think it'll help that's a good thing. Get to know Aigo. Follow thanks dad with Aigo Woda and start listening on the free-eye-hard radio app today.

I'm Clayton Nackard. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would.

That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agreed to date me, but I'm also suing you.

This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to the love trapped on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox.

And in the new podcast "Doubt," the case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? How did this been made to fit?

The moment you look at the whole picture of the case, Colach.

“What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe?”

Oh my god, I think she might be innocent. Listen to doubt the case of Lucy Letby on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.