Reunited Ga. Woman and Teen Husband Still in Love

March 13, 2008 — -- Lisa Lynette Clark spent nearly three years in jail after she married her son's 15-year-old friend and then helped her young groom flee the state.

Now 39 years old and out of prison, Clark and her teen lover, Adrian Gonzalez, have reunited and say their love is stronger than ever.

"I just approach things differently, but my feelings are just the same for Adrian," Clark said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."

"Some of the changes between us are just minor changes and there are some that have enhanced the relationship if anything," she said.

Gonzalez agreed that the relationship is actually better now and that they both have done some growing up.

"I went to a court-ordered associate boot camp and that got me on track pretty good. I learned a lot from that. I was also in group homes," said Gonzalez, who was on probation in 2006 for a burglary charge when he fled the state of Georgia with Clark's help.

The couple still face some huge challenges, including a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old son.

Clark gave birth to the baby in prison and handed over temporary custody to her ex-boss. Clark and Gonzalez say they were betrayed by the woman, who promised to return their son when Clark got out of jail but has refused to do so.

Being separated from her baby "was one of the worst experiences of my life," Clark said. "He grew inside of me and was a part of me and having to give him up was the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to me in my life."

Gonzalez, who has been living in Texas with his mother, said his grandmother and others were telling him "a lot of lies."

"She was trying to make me think Lisa was crazy, and they were trying to turn us against each other so we'd go our separate ways," said the 17-year-old. "But we didn't forget about each other, and we're still together."

Gonzalez also said that this grandmother and Clark's ex-boss tricked him into signing over his parental rights to the boy by "telling me that if I didn't sign my son would be placed in foster care, which wasn't true. Then they told me that what I was signing wasn't legal, because of my age, which wasn't true either."

Clark was pregnant with Gonzalez's baby when they married in 2005. Georgia state law at the time set the marrying age at 16, but allowed an exception for younger people if the bride was pregnant. The law has since been changed, and now 16- and 17-year-olds can wed only with the approval of a parent or guardian and a probate judge.

The couple know that many people see their relationship as at best bizarre, and at worst criminal. Gonzalez's grandmother Judy Hayes called Clark a pedophile in a 2005 interview on "Good Morning America."

Gonzalez says, though, that he was the one who pursued Clark.

"She didn't try to entice me, in fact she fought my advances for quite a while," Gonzalez said. "The first time I saw her I just felt a strong connection with her -- like I could love her. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen."

"And after getting to know her and we started a relationship I wanted to get her pregnant because I wanted her to be the mother of my child because I just couldn't ask for a better mother for my child. She's really good with her kids and spends time and supports them in everything they do," he said.

Adding fuel to the firestorm the relationship has created is a recently released book called "Betrayed: The True Life Story of Lisa Lynette Clark," written by a woman Clark met in jail.

The book paints a picture of Clark as a sex-crazed woman who bounced from man to man in search of love. Gonzalez is Clark's third husband and she has four children.

Clark says that characterization of her is simply not true, and she and Gonzalez are collaborating on a book that will set the record straight.

"That whole thing is so not true," Clark said. "Before I met Adrian I was married for seven years, then I was married again for 11 years, then I was with Adrian for three years. I married my first husband when I was 17. I haven't slept around."

For all the scrutiny and criticism they've endured, Clark and Gonzalez say they simply want to live a normal life. If they have any regrets, it is only that they didn't wait to have a baby.

"You know I could've had an abortion but I chose life for him," Clark said. "And I was looking at life in prison for keeping him and that was fine. I sacrificed my freedom and everything to have this child just to have her take him. I think we would wait on having a child."