Married On TV, Split On TV

Rick Rockwell, the "multi-millionaire" comic who married a contestant he had never seen before at the end of Fox TV special Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire last week, acknowledged Tuesday that he had become better known than he had wanted to be.

Rockwell, whose career as a comedian and B-movie actor (Killer Tomatoes Strike Back) had never gone anywhere, said during an interview on Dateline NBC: "There's a little bit of 'Be careful what you wish for because you might get it' in this." Asked why he did not tell the producers of the program that a former girlfriend had once obtained a restraining order against him after accusing him of assaulting her and threatening to kill her, Rockwell, who denied the charges, said: "I didn't even know how those things worked. I thought that all records like that were null and void after seven years. To me, it was ancient history and actually somewhat of a non-event when it occurred."

Rockwell also said that he and his bride never slept together and that the marriage will probably be annulled. Asked whether he had learned anything from the experience, he replied, "Don't screw up on a slow news day."

Meanwhile, Darva Conger, who married Rockwell on the show, confessed this morning (Wednesday) that she "committed an error in judgment" and never expected to be selected on the Multi-millionaire show. Appearing on Good Morning America, Conger told Diane Sawyer that when she "was saying those vows, I didn't know where to go, I didn't know how to escape." She added, "I wish I had had the intestinal fortitude to just walk away, but there was incredible pressure." At the conclusion of the interview, Conger commented that she did not want to be perceived as a gold-digger, to which Sawyer observed, "I should point ... that you were offered fortunes to tell your story and you decided to come here for no money."