- Darva Conger went from anonymity to being referred to as a “gold-digger” after successful the truth present Who Desires to Marry a Multi-Millionaire in 2000.
- The present was embroiled in scandal after it was revealed her groom Rick Rockwell had a restraining order in opposition to him, which he denied. A media blitz adopted, and Conger later posed for Playboy.
- She reveals what her “laid-back” life is like now, as a divorced mother and a nurse anesthetist, and the way the present rocked her world.
Darva Conger’s life now appears decidedly completely different than what it did 25 years in the past, when she was on the quilt of magazines and newspapers worldwide after successful the truth present Who Desires to Marry a Multi-Millionaire.
The 2-hour particular, which earned 23 million viewers, ended up in scandal when it was revealed the groom, actual property developer Rick Rockwell, had a restraining order out in opposition to him. Conger, now a mother of 1 and a nurse anesthetist, remembers these days intimately.
“I used to be working at a brand new hospital in Southern California and had not too long ago damaged up with a boyfriend,” Conger, a army veteran who was working as an ER nurse, tells ipromiseyoumedia. A health care provider talked about a producer pal was casting for the truth present, and the nurses have been all speaking about it.
“It’s best to do it!” one among them informed Conger, then 33.
“I checked out her and mentioned, ‘I am not doing that! It is the dumbest factor I’ve ever heard of!’ ” Conger, now 59, says. However after some cajoling, she agreed to present her quantity to the producers and was chosen to be a contestant.
“I used to be simply within the free week in Vegas,” she says with amusing. “I did not assume it was going to be actual. I assumed it could be a set-up. Individuals would chortle at it for a couple of minutes, and nothing would come of it.”
What occurred subsequent would throw Conger’s life right into a tailspin. Fifty contestants vied for Rockwell’s $35,000 diamond ring, and he selected Conger, marrying her on the spot in entrance of 1,000 viewers members for a taped particular that may air on Fox on Feb. 15, 2000.
“I used to be simply shell-shocked,” Conger says of successful, however notes that issues instantly obtained bizarre.
“Rick was simply odd from the start,” she says. “I assumed it was as a result of we would been thrown collectively on this unusual circumstance, and figured okay, I can repair this later, let’s simply undergo with it. However then they whisked us away to a resort and put us in a resort room collectively. And that man got here out of the toilet carrying nothing however a towel. All I can say is thank goodness it was me, a 33-year-old army veteran, and never a youthful, extra impressionable lady.” She provides, “It was so irresponsible of them.”
Conger says she needed an instantaneous annulment.
“I made it clear to producers, like, ‘Hey, I am not into this. I assumed it was going to be a foolish recreation present. My dangerous.’ ”
Conger agreed to go on a cruise with Rockwell for his or her “honeymoon,” so long as they despatched a chaperone and put them in separate bedrooms.
She says they did not work together in any respect on the boat.
“I attempted to be good, however … it was uncomfortable,” she says. “So there we’re on the ship, after which present aired. Within the morning, I noticed the quilt of the New York Occasions — 23 million folks watched this present. That is once I thought, ‘Oh this might get loopy.’ ”
She nonetheless did not notice how loopy.
“We taped an interview after the cruise saying that we have been simply associates, no romance was there, but it surely was an awesome expertise. Then, two days later, the stuff about him having a restraining order got here out. After I obtained house to my townhouse, there have been media vans and paparazzi so far as the attention might see. I used to be simply shocked.”
(In a February 2000 interview with Dateline, Rockwell dismissed the restraining order as the results of “two very passionate people that acted in a little bit of an immature, tit-for-tat method.”)
Everybody needed to speak to Conger about her expertise. The media hounded her day and night time. “They adopted me all over the place. I assumed, if I do not speak, perhaps they’re going to go away. They did not.”
She finally agreed to take a seat down with Diane Sawyer and share her story on Good Morning America, and remembers the 2 of them chatting and Sawyer saying, “Oh you are not a gold-digger in any respect!”
“And I wasn’t. I owned my own residence, I used to be a veteran, and had an excellent job,” she says. “However after that, I could not even return to work as a result of the media have been all around the hospital.”
Not sure of what to do subsequent, she acquired a proposal from Playboy.
“I might all the time cherished Playboy. I assumed it was cool,” she says. “I am not a fan of bizarre porn that objectifies ladies however I’ve zero points with the human physique. And I used to be truly actually flattered they needed me. And actually, it saved me financially. I obtained provided a number of different issues, like Superstar Boxing, which was enjoyable and simple and paid nicely. It let me put some cash apart, and pay for my actual wedding ceremony and honeymoon, however I knew I wasn’t going to be doing this endlessly.”
Conger finally moved to Northern California, obtained married and had a son, and put herself by means of a aggressive nurse anesthetist program.
“Now I am simply working, elevating my son, doing my woodworking on the facet, and residing a very comfortable, laid-back life,” she says of how various things at the moment are. “However it was loopy again then, having to defend myself in opposition to all of the names I used to be referred to as. A whore. A gold-digger.”
So, does she remorse happening the present?
“There’s not even some extent to questioning about that,” she says. “I did it, and I had some darkish instances, however I additionally had some actually enjoyable instances. I obtained to go to the Playboy mansion with my associates and it was so enjoyable. I would not have my son, who’s the sunshine of my life. I would not have among the experiences I had.”
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She provides, “The I solely remorse I’ve was that I wasn’t myself. I by no means took s— from anybody my complete life, however I used to be making an attempt to be good and prim and correct. If I needed to do it once more, I would not tolerate folks being abrasive to me.”
She continues, “I consider I’ve earned all the pieces I’ve, and I am worthy of it, however generally I really feel like I nonetheless need to show to the world that I am an excellent individual and I did not do something unsuitable. I journey all around the world. I like my son. I’ve saved so many individuals’s lives. Individuals belief me to care for them whereas they’re in surgical procedure. And I cannot let a dumb TV present I did as soon as get in the way in which of any of that.”