The Bachelor alum Clayton Echard is denying allegations made by a woman that he sired her twins, saying that 'the whole thing was a lie.'
Echard, 31, appeared Thursday on The Charlie Kirk Show, where he explained the situation he's been dealing with for the better part of a year, as he was named as the father of twins in a paternity suit he claims is baseless.
'Why I’m here today is - I guess fame comes with a side of madness,' the Eureka, Missouri native told Kirk. 'In this last year, I’ve been dealing with a false accusation from a woman who claims she was impregnated by me with twins - we are now a year into that and she never was pregnant.'
Echard, who was The Bachelor in the show's 26th season, said that 'the whole thing was a lie' and made a number of claims challenging the credibility of his accuser.
'She has done this previously to three other men that we're aware of - she’s been doing this for eight years now at least, and she claimed that she was impregnated by them with twins, as well,' Echard said.
The Eureka, Missouri native appeared on ABC's The Bachelor in early 2022 after appearing on The Bachelorette the previous year
Echard said that no medical records exist to justify the allegations made by his accuser.
'How do we know that she’s made all this up?' Echard said. 'Well, the doctors that she said she has seen - all seven of them - came back, said they have no record of her.
'We did a paternity test at one point that came back as little to no fetal DNA twice because she was never pregnant, and she also had sent me an ultrasound video at one point that she put online as well.'
Echard said online sleuths on Reddit figured out '24 hours later' that the ultrasound his accuser submit was from 'a video from YouTube six years ago.'
He continued, 'So everything has went back to - she’s made this entire thing up.
'She’s claimed that she was pregnant, which was a lie; she claimed that she had a miscarriage, which was a lie; she's claimed, with one of the previous victims, that she had ovarian cancer.'
Echard said that his accuser has also made allegations of sexual assault against him and other men.
'She’s claims she’s been raped,' Echard said. 'She said that I did that, as well, after we have evidence and everything’s been documented showing that she said we did was consensual, but we didn’t have sexual intercourse - I want to make that clear.'
The Bachelor's Clayton Echard reveals paternity test results
Echard added, 'So here we are, where she has lied, lied, lied and lied, we have a June 10 hearing coming up where we hope that justice will be served.
'We’re hoping that a ruling will be found that she lied. She probably won’t admit it herself, but the judge will hopefully find that.'
Echard said that he's previously dealt with a separate false allegation (from a separate party) that he was able to disprove using location services that proved he was geographically in another place.
'I got some bad juju or something, I don't know what happened,' Echard said with a chuckle.
Echard told Kirk that 11 days after a meeting with the woman, he had blocked her on his phone. She sent him a message from a separate number that she was pregnant, first with one child, then with twins.
Echard said the woman offered him the chance to date her for a week, after which she would have an abortion if they didn't get along; or if he chose not to date her, she would move ahead with her pregnancy.
Echard said that the woman went public with her story, and that he felt like he was 'guilty until proven innocent' in the court of public opinion.
Echard told Kirk that he immediately denied the allegations publicly and defended himself.
Echard said that a publicist told him that the scandal could be a good thing for him to keep his name in the headlines, but he was more interested in moving past it.
'I said, "I don't want to deal with this, I've been through enough, I've been struggling as is with my mental health ... I don't want this,"' Echard told Kirk.
Echard said once his accuser went public with the allegations against him, he received a number of tips that the woman was involved in similar issues with separate men previously, along with information about the specific court cases.
Echard told Kirk his accuser sent messages to his family, friends and business associates looking to injure his reputation.
Kirk compared the situation involving Echard to that of unsigned MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer, to which Echard said there were 'a lot of parallels.'
Echard told Kirk of his case, 'I'm wanting accountability to be had - I want her to face consequences for her actions.'
Echard said that two other men who were involved with the woman will be at their court hearing in his support.
Echard told Kirk that the woman was after 'validation from others' by claiming to be a victim of different circumstances.
'The reality is, she's the aggressor,' Echard said.
Echard said he did make mistakes in the situation, but thinks he can help others falsely accused in certain scenarios. He said he is not looking to discredit women, but for people not to jump to conclusions in similar scenarios until all of the facts have been revealed.
In March, US Weekly reported that the woman (who has not publicly been named) who is accusing Echard said in a statement, 'My pregnancy was definitively confirmed on June 1st, 2023, by an urgent care facility.'
Echard, who played college football at the University of Missouri and was invited to an NFL practice camp in 2016, appeared on ABC's The Bachelor in early 2022 after appearing on The Bachelorette the previous year.
