Runaway bride: 'I cannot fully explain what happened'

<p>Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks apologized Thursday for her three-day flight that came just before her scheduled wedding last week, scaring her family and friends and prompting a nationwide search.</p><p>"At this time I cannot fully explain what happened to me last week. I had a host of compelling issues that seemed out of control," Wilbanks said in the statement read by her father's pastor, the Rev. Tom Smiley.</p><p>In the statement, Wilbanks said her escape on a bus to Las Vegas and eventually Albuquerque, N.M., was not in response to her pending wedding, which had been scheduled four days after she disappeared without a clue that she had fled.</p><p>"Please let me assure you that running away had nothing to do with cold feet or anything to do with leaving John. ... I could not wait to be called Mrs. John Mason," she said.</p><p>"In my mind, it was never about timing, however unfortunate. I was simply running away from myself and certain fears in my life," she said.</p><p>Smiley, who has been counseling Wilbanks, said she "poured her heart and her soul into this statement. These are her words sand these are her feelings."</p><p>Wilbanks' attorney Lydia Sartain has said her client is seeking professional help for her problems and is in no condition to speak at this time. Wilbanks has been in seclusion with her family since her return to Georgia late Saturday.</p>