Entrepreneur Spending $2 Million to Reverse Aging Left Fiancée After Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Lawsuit

A wealthy entrepreneur, who's spending millions to reverse the aging process and have the body of an 18-year-old, has been accused by his former fiancée of leaving her after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had given up a lucrative career to focus on his pursuits and their relationship, according to a lawsuit.

Software entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, 45, and actress and content creator Taryn Southern, 36, had a whirlwind romance, according to a suit she filed in October 2021 and obtained by PEOPLE.

Southern recalls in the document how her former fiancé swept her off her feet, taking her on lavish vacations, planning a forever future, and even dubbing her "Mrs. Johnson" within weeks of their meeting in 2016.

By March 2018, the pair were living together in Venice, Calif., and engaged to be married. Johnson promised to "take care of her, financially and medically, for the rest of her life," she claims.

However, "a lifelong partnership with ... Johnson came with a steep price," Southern's attorneys allege in the complaint, which was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

"While repeatedly telling Ms. Southern to stop worrying about money and promising to take care of her for the rest of her life," reads the document, "Johnson demanded Ms. Southern's devotion of her time and creative energy to his personal needs and professional aspirations."

This, Southern's attorneys claim, left her "financially dependent" on her former fiancé when she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer.

In October 2019 while Southern underwent chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments, Johnson demanded that she move out of the home they had shared for three years, according to the lawsuit.

By that point, Southern allegedly had "no independent source of steady income" to pay her growing medical bills, the filing states. She claims in the suit that Johnson pressured her to give up her career and instead devote her time to working for him, for free, on branding, business development, speech-writing, and film production.

"Johnson then took advantage of Ms. Southern's weakened and vulnerable state and repeatedly leveraged his power and financial control over Ms. Southern to try to get her to give up her rights and the promises she was entitled to: financial security and stability in the future and,
specifically, to share in the anticipated success of his start-up company," reads the complaint.

Southern has requested a jury trial and seeks millions in damages for emotional distress and financial losses, court records show.

When reached by PEOPLE, David Grimes, one of Southern's lawyers, did not comment due to the ongoing litigation.

Johnson — whose "Project Blueprint" aims to reverse the aging process in every organ in his body, reportedly with the help of more than 30 doctors and at a cost of at least $2 million this year — responded to his former fiancée's lawsuit on Monday.

In the document, also reviewed by PEOPLE, Johnson alleges that Southern's "threadbare" claims are baseless, and that he doesn't owe her a dime.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In the response to his ex's myriad allegations, Johnson says Southern's claims are not only entirely false, but that she missed the two-year statute of limitations to file her claims.

He also claims she isn't owed any damages whatsoever and that she continued to maintain a relationship with him for "several months" after all the alleged events in Southern's suit took place.

"Throughout this time, she never raised any concerns," Johnson's attorneys state in the response. After their relationship ended, Southern "re-initiated contact with Mr. Johnson to request money, but again did not allege that he had any legal obligations to her," the response continues.

Johnson has asked the court to dismiss Southern's complaint and to compel her to pay his legal fees.

PEOPLE also reached out to Johnson's legal team but did not immediately receive a response.