Runaway bride sues ex-fiance over kiss-and-tell

ATLANTA - A would-be bride who earned instant fame when she ran away from her fiance just before their wedding is suing him for half a million dollars for her share of the rights to their story.

Jennifer Wilbanks vanished from her home in Duluth, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, days before she was to marry John Mason in April, 2005, sparking a police hunt that only ended when she turned up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

She said she had been abducted while jogging and sexually assaulted but later changed her story, telling police she ran away because she got cold feet about the wedding.

Wilbanks pleaded no contest to a felony charge of making a false statement to the police but the case earned the "couple" instant tabloid celebrity and they sold their story.

Now she is arguing that Mason failed to turn over her share of the payment, according to a filing on September 13 before the superior court of Gwinnett, Georgia.

"In or about July 2005 Regan Media agreed to pay US$500,000 to Mason and Wilbanks to purchase the rights to the story of plaintiff's disappearance ... and subsequent events involved in the 'Runaway Bride' incident," said the complaint.

The filing says Mason was "wilful and malicious" and demands US$250,000 as her share of the money and the same amount in punitive damages as compensation for his "bad faith." It also describes him as "stubbornly litigious."

- REUTERS