(Twitter via Daily Mail)The woman who was accused of dumping her cancer-stricken boyfriend and then demanding his Super Bowl tickets claims he made up the whole story to get attention.
It's your standard he said, she said, Deadspin said, Fox News said, British tabloid said drama.
Here's what we know for sure: Elia, a television writer who spends time in Nashville and Los Angeles, went on a Houston radio show to talk about a girlfriend who dumped him after she found out he had bladder cancer. He claims he had already spent $8,000 on tickets to the Super Bowl and planned to propose to her on Christmas day. Yet when she heard of his prognosis, she left him.
Elia says that even after she dumped him, the unidentified ex kept asking for the tickets. Her theory was that since the tickets were meant for her, she deserved them.
Rather than ignore her, Elia decided to fight crazy with crazy. He didn't do what most folks would do: find someone to go to the game with him or sell the tickets on StubHub. No, Elia decided that he was going to give away the tickets on Twitter to whoever brought him the most followers. Sure, because giving away something that cost $8,000 to a total stranger is a perfectly normal way to spite the woman who dumped you.
Elia went on a radio show to promote his Twitter giveaway. Initially, he refused to give the name of the ex. He ended up caving and revealed her Twitter handle.
The story was picked up by major news outlets like ABC, Deadspin and The Washington Post. Fox News brought in legal analysts to determine whether the girlfriend had a legitimate claim to the tickets. (She didn't.)
A British tabloid then found the woman, identified as Sokhon Sen, and, lo and behold, she says Elia is full of it.
"I wouldn't call Jason someone I dated," she wrote to the Daily Mail. "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 claims she didn't date Elia and that he made up the story for attention. The newspaper saw emails that Sen sent to Elia after she first heard of the story. In his response, Elia does not deny her claims.
Who to believe? Elia's story sounds ridiculous. What person from Nashville/Los Angeles spends $8,000 for Super Bowl tickets in December? That's a tag that's out of most people's price range, let alone a self-proclaimed television writer with no IMDB credits.
Then again, Sen's word doesn't automatically counter Elia's. What else was she going to say when contacted by the Daily Mail? "Oh, yeah, I'm the one who dumped my cancer-stricken boyfriend."
Jason Elia claims his tale is one of Super Bowl heartbreak. Sokhon Sen implies it's more like a Super Bowl version of the balloon boy.
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