Mom who Faked Hannah Montana Essay Contest Says "Sorry"

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Twenty-five-year-old mother Priscilla Ceballos says she "meant no disrespect" when she helped her six-year-old daughter Alexis write an essay to win a Hannah Montana ticket contest.

Nothing wrong with helping her daughter write an essay, right? Sure, unless you make up a story about the girl’s father being killed in Iraq just to get the attention of the judges.

The first sentence in the essay read, "My daddy died this year in Iraq."

"We did whatever we could do to win," said Ceballos originally, before the poop hit the fan, so to speak, about the fakery. She added later, "We never said anything like this was a true story, never. It was just an essay."

Right.

The made-up story of family tragedy did the trick. The judges from Club Libby Lu, the organization sponsoring the contest, were won over by the little girl’s sad story. Alexis won the contest, beating out 1,000 other contestants. The prize included a makeover, plus airfare for four people and four tickets to the insanely popular (and sold-out) Hannah Montana concert on January 9th in Albany, New York.

But the story began to unravel when reporters started asking the little girl about her Daddy, and Ceballos interrupted them, saying "She doesn’t want to talk about that." Further snooping revealed that the soldier Ceballos had claimed was the girl’s deceased father, Jonathan Menjivar, had never served in Iraq. In fact Menjivar is a real person, but has never been associated with the military.

Club Libby Lu CEO Mary Drolet told the press that when the deception was uncovered, the prize was rescinded and given to another contestant, who was not named. "With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special," said Drolet to reporters.

Facing a storm of negative publicity, the mother appeared on The Today Show to defend herself and apologize. "I sincerely apologize to those people who feel misled because of my bad judgment," said Ceballos to Today Show co-host Matt Lauer during an interview. "I helped my daughter write an essay that was not true. It was not my intention to mislead. I just wanted to help my daughter write a compelling story."

Ceballos told Lauer that she had received so much criticism for her actions that she’d been forced to move from her home and, even worse, had to close down her MySpace page.

"I have not been able to eat or sleep well. I have been very depressed," she added.

Ceballos’ lawyer, Frank Perez, told reporters, "She’s been constantly harassed…Priscilla made a mistake. [She] wanted her daughter, Alexis, to see Hannah Montana and didn’t have the means to do that. She used poor judgment in what she did."

Maybe the person she should apologize to is her own daughter, who at six years old, probably doesn’t understand what her Mommy did. Ceballos did, in fact, apologize to Alexis, and asked the public to not take her mistake out on her young child.

"I apologize to my daughter for getting her mixed up in this mess," said Ceballos on The Today Show. "I wanted to help my daughter realize her dream of seeing Hannah Montana. Instead, I brought so much negative attention to my family. Please accept my heartfelt apology, and please, do not punish my child for my mistake."