A year and a half after she left her husband and daughter to run away to Florida with her lover, "Runaway Mom" Tiffany Tehan and boyfriend Tre Hutcherson have a new baby and they're planning to get married. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
Tiffany Tehan became famous around the world as the "Runaway Mom," the woman who abandoned her husband and daughter to run off with her secret lover.
They hatched an elaborate plot to run away and start a new life together, only to have it backfire in a very big and very public way.
In April 2010, Tehan vanished from her home near Dayton, Ohio. Her car was later found abandoned, with the front tire slashed. Her father and her husband David Tehan, holding their one-year-old girl Alexis on his lap, appealed for her safe return on national TV.
Everyone thought she had been kidnapped. But then, surveillance video surfaced of Tehan at a convenience store with an unknown man. It soon became clear that she had not been abducted, and that the man, Tre Hutcherson, was actually her lover.
In an instant, the missing mom became the runaway mom.
Tehan and Hutcherson fled to Florida, staying at cheap motels, and hanging out on the beach until the FBI caught up with them in Miami and sent them back to Ohio.
Now, a year and a half later, Tehan and Hutcherson are still very much together.
"What do you say to people who thought you would never last?" INSIDE EDITION's Paul Boyd asked them.
"I just feel such a connection to Tre, even on the hard days that connection just keeps us going. I feel, a year and a half later, I love Tre more than ever," Tehan said.
She said it's been difficult trying to fit back into her community in Ohio. According to Tehan, to this day there are some people around town who will give her a dirty look or say something nasty about her being the runaway mom.
"What hurts the most?" Boyd asked her.
"People thinking that I'm a horrible mother probably hurts more than anything. That's just been really, really hard," Tehan said.
Hutcherson has also faced taunts and ridicule.
"Someone said to me one time that I was a bonehead and where's Tiffany now? They thought we had split up. They didn't know she was with me in the house and I just was walking the dog," he said.
Tiffany Tehan has now divorced David Tehan. A bitter custody battle over daughter Alexis ended only a month ago with a shared parenting agreement.
"He fought you hard for custody, he did not make it easy," said Boyd.
"It was hard but I also knew that I was the one who ran away and I kind of had to pay the price and jump through the hoops to get her back," said Tehan.
"You ran away from that little girl—can you believe you made the decision to do that?" asked Boyd.
"I didn't want to leave my girl. I cried the whole time we were gone, and in a way it was a relief to be found because I could come back," Tehan admitted.
Now, Tehan and Hutcherson are the proud parents of an eight-month-old baby boy, Nathaniel.
"I love being a father. Having a son is just the greatest thing in the world. We didn't need anything to solidify our relationship, but this definitely strengthens it," said Hutcherson.
Like many Americans, Tehan and Hutcherson have struggled financially over the past year. She is a stay-at-home mom while he works at a factory by day and delivers pizza at night to make ends meet. They're planning on getting married before the end of the year.
"I would like to say that we're still here and we are just like any other couple that's in love. I love Tiffany more and more every day, and I can't see myself being with anyone else," Hutcherson told Boyd.
"When we last spoke you said that you ran away because you were desperately unhappy. As you sit here today, are you finally happy now?" Boyd asked Tehan.
"All things considered, I'm very happy," she said. "I really, truly am happy."
