Multimillionaire’s bride: It was a mistake

David Bauder

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

NEW YORK - The woman who married a multimillionaire on national TV has something in common with other Las Vegas brides: She woke up shortly after her wedding wondering, "what was I thinking?"

Darva Conger of Thousand Oaks, Calif., described her odyssey on "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" as a vacation spun out of control. Now she wants her life back.

"I don't think I was thinking clearly," Conger, a nurse and Gulf War veteran, said on "Good Morning America" Wednesday, a week after marrying a stranger in a television spectacle. "I committed an error in judgment."

A few hours later, her new husband, Rick Rockwell of Encinitas, Calif., taped an interview across town with ABC's Diane Sawyer to air Thursday morning.

The Fox special Feb. 15 was a ratings sensation that quickly backfired after criticism by women's groups and revelations that Rockwell had been accused of threatening an ex-girlfriend. He denies the accusations.

Conger, 34, said Rockwell wasn't abusive toward her, but she said they didn't spend much time together. They barely spoke on their one-week "honeymoon" cruise to Barbados.

"The honest truth is I was very uncomfortable around him, and I spent most of the time with the girl that chaperoned me," she said. "He's just not a person ... that I would ordinarily have even a friendly relationship with."

She said she was taken aback when Rockwell, 42, kissed her on the lips after his television proposal was accepted. Conger said she was terrified but went along with the wedding because she didn't want to disappoint the show's producers.

She said she only got involved because she wanted a Las Vegas vacation and a chance to wave to her family on TV. Rockwell chose her from among 50 women vying for his nod in bathing suits and wedding gowns.

"Never in a million years did I ever think that I was going to be selected," Conger said. "And somewhere in the back of my mind I thought, OK, if I am selected by the man to be his bride, he's got to take it in the same way that I do. It's a TV show.

"Maybe we'll like each other and get along. Maybe we'll even date, but I never in a million years ever thought of it as an actual marriage."

Within 36 hours, she said she told Rockwell she wasn't attracted to him and that the marriage wouldn't work out.

Conger, who gets to keep her diamond wedding ring and was given an Isuzu Trooper and the Caribbean cruise by Fox, said she just wants a normal life again.

"I have worked my whole life to be a credible person, a person of integrity," she said. "Unfortunately, in two hours I destroyed much of that credibility. And that's one of the reasons that I'm here. I'd like it back."

Conger also found herself enmeshed in a spat between two morning television programs Wednesday.

While she was appearing on "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show advertised that Conger would be interviewed after 8 a.m. "Today" had a car waiting by ABC's studio to whisk her away to NBC, but Conger instead stayed with Sawyer and continued the interview, bypassing "Today."

NBC believes ABC intentionally tried to derail its interview.

"I'm surprised that they would do something like that, but that's OK, because we don't play that way," said "Today" executive producer Jeff Zucker. "In this business, what goes around comes around."

But "Good Morning America" executive producer Shelley Ross said ABC planned all along to keep Conger past 8 a.m. "Good Morning America" believes NBC was attempting to blunt ABC's exclusive story after ABC paid for Conger's trip.

"Competition is very healthy," Ross said, "but you never want to put your guest in the middle of it."

Conger is scheduled to appear on "Today" Thursday.