Men can be real jerks sometimes, but this guy has got to be the worst of the lot – he actually faked his own death to get out of his wedding. 23-year-old Tucker Blandford, from Connecticut, didn’t have the guts to tell his fiancee the truth – that he wasn’t ready for marriage – so he just led her to believe that he had died. When bride-to-be Alex Lanchester found out the truth, she was livid and heartbroken.

“He has shattered my trust and I’m not sure I’ll ever be in a relationship again,” said Alex, also 23. “All I ever did was love him. I’m so sick of being messed around and I’m glad to be rid of him. Looking back, maybe I was naive. But I really loved him and never thought he would go to such extreme measures to dump me. I’ve cried until I felt numb but now I’m just really angry.”

So how exactly does one go about faking their own death? Well, conveniently for Tucker, Alex lives in another country, so he probably thought she wouldn’t be able to verify his story. He simply called her one day, a week before he was due to visit her, and pretended to be his own dad. “I picked up my phone and there was a man saying he was Tucker’s dad,” said Alex.

Photo: Alex Lanchester

“He told me Tucker had been deeply depressed and wanted to die, so had thrown himself in front of a car. The man explained that they had been trying to send Tucker off to a psychiatric unit for help. But it was too late. I couldn’t breathe. It was absolutely devastating.”

Naturally distraught, Alex immediately called Tucker’s mother for support. And that’s when she received the worst shock of her life – Mrs. Blandford had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. She told Alex that Tucker was alive and well. Alex recalled the phone conversation and then realised the chilling truth that the voice she heard was actually Tucker’s, and not his dad’s.

Alex and Tucker began their relationship in August 2012, when Alex, who is from the UK, was studying abroad in the US. She met him on the first day of her job at the campus cinema at the University of Connecticut. Their relationship blossomed – Tucker presented himself as a thorough gentleman and the perfect boyfriend.

Photo: Alex Lanchester

“He was always buying me dinner and beautiful vintage jewellery,” Alex recalled. “I’d never been in love like that before. Every Sunday, he would take me out for pancakes, it was so sweet. And to celebrate the day we got together, on the 10th of each month we would go out for a posh dinner.”

The young couple spent a year together, during which time Alex met Tucker’s parents as well. “I met his family and they treated me like a daughter. His mum and I became so close,” she added.

Once the year was up, Alex was to return to the UK, effectively ending their relationship. It was difficult for her, but to her greatest surprise, Tucker proposed to her just before she left – and she happily accepted. The couple subsequently spent several phone conversations planning their dream wedding. She bought a handmade dress from eBay and they had even set a date – August 15.

Photo: Alex Lanchester

Tucker was to visit Alex in the UK just before the wedding, so they could enjoy a nice vacation together and plan the wedding better. She’d paid for his tickets herself, even though she didn’t have a lot of money. She had also splurged on a wedding photographer, invitations and bridesmaids’ dresses.

“I went all out even though I had hardly any money,” she said ruefully. “In the weeks running up to his visit I was mad with excitement.”

A few days later, Tucker called Alex and told her he’d booked the venue for the wedding – on the same campus where they’d first met. “I couldn’t think of a more romantic place to tie the knot,” she admitted. Unfortunately, that was the last she heard from him, and one week before he was due to arrive in the UK, she received the ill-fated phone call informing her of his death.

Photo: Alex Lanchester

When Alex learned the truth, she also realised that Tucker’s parents didn’t even know about the engagement. “They thought we had broken up when I left America,” she said. “Then it hit me, that voice on the other end of the phone had sounded eerily familiar. I realised it was Tucker pretending to be his dad. My whole world crumbled.”

Days later, Alex plucked up the courage to call him and question him about his strange behaviour, but he’s simply been ignoring her calls. In his defence, he told reporters that he just wasn’t ready to get married. “I’m a terrible, awful person. I know I shouldn’t have told her I was dead, but I didn’t know what else to do,” he confessed.

“Alex is an amazing girl but I got scared and wanted to get out of the relationship. It was moving extremely fast and with us being in different countries, it was really hard. At the time I just felt like I couldn’t tell the truth and thought if I could just postpone everything it would be better.”

“He’s a liar and a coward,” Alex said in response. “He had put on a different voice on the phone and pretended to be his grieving father. What sort of sick person does that to his fiancee of two years? It’s sickening. He’s such a coward and wouldn’t pick up my calls. But he later sent me a text admitting he had lied.”

“In hindsight, all the warning signs were there and I should have known he wasn’t going to marry me,” she added. “But I was young, in love and naive.”

The couple were supposed to be married last Friday and would have been on their honeymoon this week. None of that has happened, of course, but Alex says she has now moved on. She traveled to the US anyway, even though the wedding was off. “I’ll be spending our would-be wedding day making new memories without him,” she said.

Ironically, Alex is now running a business making wedding favours. “At least one good thing has come out of this mess,” she said.

Sources: Daily Mail, Mirror.co.uk