Life After Reality Romance

Zora ANDRICH

Joe Millionaire‘s chosen one is raising her daughter-and teaching yoga

On the finale of 2003’s Joe Millionaire, Zora Andrich (née Sabrina) learned that supposedly wealthy bachelor Evan Marriott was actually a blue-collar construction worker. She stuck by him anyway, only to face a new set of misconceptions when the couple (whose romance fizzled after the show) split a $1 million prize. “Everyone really thought I was a millionaire,” says Sabrina, 37, who pocketed $250,000 after taxes-and gave most of it away to family back in Serbia. Despite a few bumps in the road, Sabrina says she’s happy being a “regular person,” teaching yoga at a Princeton, N.J., studio, and raising daughter Zarina, 5 (Sabrina split with Zarina’s father, Todd Michael, in 2007). Says Sabrina: “She’s the love of my life!”

Darva CONGER

Ten years after marrying a multimillionaire, she’s in love with nursing-and her autistic son

“The only regret I have,” says Darva Conger of the night in 2000 she wed Rick Rockwell on Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? in front of 23 million viewers, “is that I did not have the guts up on that stage to just say, ‘No!'” After the marriage was annulled two months later, she parlayed her notoriety into a Playboy cover and a stint on Celebrity Boxing. Now 45, she’s enjoying a quiet life as a nurse anesthetist in Rocklin, Calif., and raising an autistic son, Cassius, 5, from her “real” marriage to physician’s assistant Jim Arellano. “Statistically, an autism diagnosis often brings divorce,” Conger says of their 2009 split. “So that’s what happened.” Even so, Conger, who has had a steady boyfriend for a year, says, “you realize there is life after reality television, and it’s a good life. I found much more joy, and feel a million times more beautiful now than I ever did back then.”

Amanda MARSH

In 2002, Alex Michel gave her his final rose on the first Bachelor season. Their love didn’t last-but a friendship did.

After splitting from Michel months after falling in love on ABC’s first-ever season of The Bachelor, Amanda Marsh-now Caldwell-worked at a Kansas City radio station, then disappeared from the public eye. “Not everyone liked my character on the show, and I had a hard time dealing with the criticism,” she says. “I’m not a real celebrity.” Today the registered nurse, 31, is married to a childhood friend, Jay Caldwell, and is enjoying life in Chanute, Kans., with their 6-month-old daughter Chloe. “It’s magical when you have a little girl,” she says. “I never thought I could be so content.” And while Caldwell no longer watches the dating show that made her famous, she does occasionally e-mail “really nice guy” Michel. “It’s great that I can say I had that wild time,” she says. “But everything has finally come full circle, and it’s wonderful.”

Updated by Lesley Messer