US News

HONEYMOON’S OVER AS TV NEWLYWED$ ARE NOW LIVING SOLO

Money really can’t buy you love.

Newlyweds Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger — who got hitched on “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” — are just friends and living apart after their made-for-TV wedding and honeymoon.

“They went back to their individual homes in California and they remain unsure about their future together,” a source close to the Fox TV special told The Post yesterday.

The current state of the union, combined with disturbing revelations about the groom’s past, has prompted Fox to pull the plug on any new episodes or reruns of the show, which provided a ratings bonanza.

The network will “absolutely not air another one of these specials,” a Fox spokesman said.

Nearly 23 million viewers tuned in last Tuesday to see Rockwell, 43, choose Conger, 34, from a group of 50 strangers, and marry her on the spot.

The pair spent their honeymoon in the Caribbean and “became friends,” a show insider said. “They were given separate rooms with separate keys.”

When they returned Sunday, Rockwell went to his modest home in Encinitas, Calif., without his new wife. He refused to say why he was alone, but sources said the two “are currently living apart.”

Asked about the future of their marriage, Rockwell said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen about that, but I think she’s a great person.”

Rockwell, a standup comedian who made his money fixing up San Diego houses and reselling them, has been confronted with questions about a 1991 restraining order against him.

He was barred from approaching ex-fiancée Debbie Goyne after she accused him of roughing her up and threatening to kill her when she tried to break off their engagement.

Rockwell denied the allegations, saying: “At no time have I ever struck any of my girlfriends, ever, for any reason … Relationships have ups and downs, but getting physical, for me, is not an option.”

After the accusations surfaced, Fox canceled plans to rebroadcast the Rockwell-Conger wedding tonight.

The debacle was the result of “a [player-]screening process that was imperfect, versus any one individual who is culpable,” a network source said.

Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia, woman claims that Rockwell was “all-hands” during a date she arranged through an online personal ad just one week before he was married on the pre-taped show.

“He started rubbing my back,” Lori Taylor told the show “Extra.” “He went right back down toward … my bum and he was playing with my hair. He was trying to kiss me, trying very hard.”