Multimillionaire bride calls on public to quit criticizing her

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 9:20 a.m.

"Whatever criticism I deserve I have taken, and have been through more than enough for the poor choice that I made," Darva Conger said on CNN's Larry King Live on Wednesday night. "On a large scale, on a continuum, was it that big a deal? I don't think so. ... No one was hurt, no one was killed. Worse things happen every day."

Conger's next goal is to unmarry a millionaire. She filed for an annulment Tuesday in Clark County, Nevada, saying her marriage to Rick Rockwell was a fraud and that he never mentioned having "a history of problems" with women.

Conger and Rockwell both signed an agreement before the show that they could annul the marriage.

Rockwell, 42, selected Conger from among 50 contestants on the Fox TV special "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire." They were wed on the spot in Las Vegas at the conclusion of the Feb. 15 show with more than 22 million viewers watching.

Despite the smash ratings, Fox canceled a rebroadcast of the show and swore off a sequel after it was disclosed that a former fiancee had taken out a restraining order against Rockwell in 1991 for allegedly hitting and threatening her. He denied the allegations.

Conger, 34, told King on Wednesday that although she regrets agreeing to become a contestant, the media attention and criticism of the show have been overblown.

"Most of what I did negatively impacted only me. I'm paying for it every single day of my life," she said.

She reiterated that she only went on the show as a lark, not really thinking about what might happen if Rockwell actually picked her.

"It was not what I wanted, not what I expected. I've never felt that trapped before," she said.

She knew from their first kiss, she said, that she had made a mistake.

But she went through with it out of a sense of obligation - and because the dress was "so big I couldn't run."

She said the attention has cost her her job as an emergency room nurse, her dignity, her privacy and time with her gravely ill brother who died in the days after the show aired.

Conger said in court papers filed Tuesday that the marriage was never consummated and she and Rockwell barely saw each other on their Caribbean honeymoon cruise.

"Neither the contestants nor the show's producers seriously contemplated creating a proper marriage," she said.

She also said in court papers that Fox misrepresented Rockwell's personality and background. Conger said she was unaware Rockwell "had a history of problems with his prior girlfriends and was the subject of at least one restraining order for threatening and dangerous behavior."

Fox declined to comment and attempts to reach Rockwell were unsuccessful. His home phone number was recently disconnected and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment that was left with his publicist.

Clark County, Nevada, where Conger filed her annulment petition, has no residency requirements for such an action, although it does takes four to six weeks on average for an annulment to be approved there..

But Conger said Wednesday she hopes the uncontested action can be completed by the end of the week.