Jessica Vega Maybe Faked Cancer To Get Her Boyfriend To Marry Her

Jessica Vega of Newburgh, New York, (pictured above in the white dress), stands accused of lying to her boyfriend, Michael O'Connell, and everyone else, about having leukemia so that O'Connell would marry her and friends would pitch in for the honeymoon. The alleged lie worked until, three months later, noticing her disease wasn't getting any worse, O'Connell called Vega's doctor's office where they told O'Connell that Vega was never a patient there. Whoops.

Now O'Connell, who has an infant daughter with his wife, is filing for divorce saying he's been duped. While Vega's mother tells the press her daughter would "never be so manipulative," and Vega says the marriage fell apart because O'Connell was abusive, this April 26 article from their hometown paper The Times Herald-Record, says Vega was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was determined to marry by May because, she allegedly told O'Connell, she only had a year to live. The reporter on that story, Doyle Murphy, says Vega showed him the letter from her doctor giving the grim diagnosis.

The couple did marry in May. That's them in the above photo, getting their marriage license in April of 2010. The article resulted in an outpouring of donations from concerned readers. Vega also accepted money and gifts from friends and family; gifts like two tickets to Aruba for the couple's honeymoon along with a free stay in a friend of a friend's villa.

Murphy spoke to Vega who insisted she had not lied about her diagnosis or the letter, but said she now doubts their accuracy. She also told Murphy she has a new doctor in the Bronx and "is getting better away from O'Connell by eating fresh food, exercising and drinking nothing but water and tea." Though Vega promised to let Murphy tag along on her next doctor's visit, she didn't show up for the appointment.

O'Connell admitted to Doyle that he had a history of domestic disputes with Vega. One of them resulting in an arrest and a temporary restraining order against him.

Source: Times Herald-Record