ATLANTA -- Saying that his personal and private life was "virtually destroyed" by runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks' pre-wedding flight to New Mexico, former fiance John Mason filed a countersuit against her for emotional distress today.

The lawsuit says that Mason "today, carries the scars of (Wilbanks') bizarre behavior and is still the subject of national media attention, humiliation and embarrassment."

Mason also says in the countersuit that he is entitled to recover monetary damages as the result of being defrauded by Wilbanks not going through with their April 2005 wedding.

The countersuit also disputes sections of Wilbanks' lawsuit against Mason, filed last month. Wilbanks claimed he took advantage of her hospitalization to defraud her of her share of the proceeds from a book deal about their adventure.

Wilbanks' lawsuit follows a dispute in recent months over personal items, such as a new vacuum cleaner, a ladder, a gold-colored sofa and various wedding shower gifts, that she claimed Mason never returned.

Wilbanks, then 32, ran off four days before she was to be married in a lavish wedding in 2005. She turned up in New Mexico, claiming she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She later recanted, saying she fled because of personal issues, and pleaded no contest to telling police a phony story.

She was sentenced to two years' probation and performed community service that included mowing the lawns at public buildings.

Mason says in his lawsuit that Wilbanks' "actions were intentional, malicious and fraudulent" because he and his friends and family believed the April 30th, 2005 wedding would happen.