Jason Elia, a young man from Nashville, claimed his girlfriend dumped him for having cancer and then still insisted he hand over Superbowl tickets worth $8,000 he bought for her.
Now, the man whose story went viral on the Internet is facing claims from the woman in question that he made it all up.
Jason Elia told ESPN 97.5 radio in Houston that he was dumped because his girlfriend couldn’t handle the “stress” of having a partner with a chronic disease and when pushed for the ex-girlfriend’s identity, gave the Twitter handle of Sokhon Sen.
The story was quickly picked up by outlets across the country including Fox News, the blog Deadspin and the Huffington Post.
Jason Elia even launched a Twitter campaign to win the tickets, with the seats going to whoever brought him the most new followers.
However, Sokhon Sen said that her reputation has been falsely dragged through the mud by a man she only met once.
Sokhon Sen says there were no Superbowl tickets and there were no demands. Most importantly, the young woman says, there was no breakup because there was never a relationship.
She doesn’t even care about the Superbowl, Sokhon Sen says.
Sokhon Sen believes Jason Elia is making the entire story up to get attention.
“I wouldn’t call Jason someone I dated. More like some creepy person now that I met once in my whole life. I have no idea what this whole Super Bowl thing is nor did I know about it,” she said.
The tale Jason Elia told was truly an outrage – one that had “the villain” adding insult to injury.
The host asks: “She broke up with you why?”
“Because I have cancer… She said it was too much stress for her to handle to have a boyfriend with a chronic disease,” Jason Elia responded.
Jason Elia said he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and given an 87% chance of survival.
Several news outlets picked up on the interview and broadcast the story far and wide. On Fox News, two legal analysts angrily decried the woman’s alleged claim to the Superbowl tickets.
When Sokhon Sen found out about the allegations that Jason Elia was making, she confronted him in a series of e-mails.
“Hey crazy, I read the story all over the Internet,” Sokhon Sen says in a terse exchange where she accuses him of lying about her and making up his story.
Jason Elia, in his replies, doesn’t deny that he made up the story and doesn’t deny that he was talking about her – he only says that he never intended to identify her on air.
Sokhon Sen believes Jason Elia, who says he is a TV writer who splits his time between Nashville, Tennessee, and Los Angeles, told the story to gain attention.
Jason Elia is running a contest from his Twitter account claiming he will give away the Superbowl tickets to whomever brings him the most Twitter followers. He currently has more than 14,000.
Sokhon Sen said she feels betrayed after being thrust into the spotlight and was unaware of the accusations Jason Elia is making.
For his part, Jason Elia is standing by his story, but he said the woman he was referring as his ex-girlfriend was not Sokhon Sen.
However, he declined to name the woman who he accused of dumping him over cancer.
ummm . . . Section 126 is field level in left center end zone . . . media should be able to source out the mysterious father and ill son who received Jason’s Super Bowl tix
Also, not suspicious at all that the only media Jason did following a local ESPN radio interview was a podcast with his goofy comedy buddies . . . no, not suspicious at all Jason!