Fox scraps ‘Multimillionaire’ show

Ben Fox

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

ENCINITAS, Calif. - The honeymoon is over for "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?"

Fox had already canceled tonight's scheduled rebroadcast of last week's hit show after learning about abuse allegations against the bridegroom. A restraining order was issued in 1991 against Rick Rockwell because an ex-girlfriend accused him of hitting and threatening to kill her.

Fox has now scrapped the program.

"This is the end for this show. We are not doing another one," Mike Darnell, a Fox executive who devised the marry-a-millionaire concept, said in today's New York Times.

Rockwell, who returned to his house alone after his Caribbean honeymoon, angrily denied the abuse allegations.

"At no time have I ever struck any of my girlfriends, ever, for any reason," Rockwell, 42, told KGTV on Sunday night outside his home in Encinitas, a coastal city 25 miles north of San Diego.

"You know, relationships have ups and downs, but getting physical for me is not an option," he said.

Rockwell emerged again Monday evening with a considerably brighter demeanor, laughing with reporters as he passed out 10 large cheese and pepperoni pizzas.

"I would love to talk about all this stuff but I'm so busy. I have to feed all of you," a jovial Rockwell said.

He declined to say where his wife, Darva Conger, 34, was or what their situation was.

"She's doing great. We talked a couple of minutes ago," he said.

Asked about the future of their marriage, he replied: "I don't know what's going to happen about that, but I think she's a great person."

Conger could not be reached Monday. A phone message left at her home was not returned and a receptionist at the Thousand Oaks hospital where she worked as an emergency room nurse said she was no longer employed there.

More than 22 million people tuned in to "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" on Feb. 15. Fifty women competed as if they were in a combination of "The Dating Game" and a beauty pageant, parading in bathing suits and wedding gowns and answering questions about their tastes.

After the group was pared down to five finalists, Rockwell selected Conger, a Gulf War veteran, to be his wife. A Las Vegas judge married them on the spot.

In the ensuing week, critics have blasted the show as tasteless and demeaning.

Also, people who know Rockwell, a real estate investor and former standup comedian, have questioned just how rich he is and whether the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

Fox executives denied that the pair were acquainted before the program. Rockwell also denied to KGTV that he knew Conger and that the marriage was a stunt.

"False rumors," he said.

When Rockwell spoke with a reporter from KGTV, he read from a statement to address abuse allegations leveled in a 1991 restraining order application filed in Los Angeles County by Debbie Goyne.

She described herself as his former fiancee and said she lived with Rockwell for 18 months. Goyne accused Rockwell of shoving and slapping her, twice entering her home without permission and vandalizing her car after she broke off their engagement.

"Recently, he said he would find me and kill me," her court papers alleged.

A judge issued a restraining order prohibiting Rockwell from coming within 100 yards of Goyne for six months. It was unclear whether Rockwell was in court to defend himself when the order was issued.

Rockwell said that the relationship with Goyne "ended poorly" but that he would never hit a woman. He acknowledged that he didn't tell Fox about the restraining order.

"I considered it a closed chapter in my life," he said.

Darnell said the production company did a security check of Rockwell and "he came up clean."

"He was actually specifically asked if there was anything else we should know about his past," Darnell told the Times. "He signed an affidavit that everything he told us was true."