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'Bachelor' Fiancee Faces Battery Charges

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 23, 2007

SEMINOLE - Almost three years to the day after professional bass fisherman Byron Velvick proposed to her on ABC's "The Bachelor," Mary Delgado was arrested on charges she punched him in mouth Tuesday night, causing his lip to bleed.

Mary Delgado

Delgado was taken into custody just after midnight Wednesday on a battery charge.

Jail affidavits say Delgado, 40 – who gave the name of Maribel Liliana Delgado – punched her live-in fiancé at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night on Park Boulevard, just east of Gulf Boulevard. She was under the influence of alcohol at the time, the affidavit says.

The affidavit does not name the fiancé, but says the pair have lived together "as a family" for the last three years.

Delgado gave as her address 4137 Bismark Palm Drive in Tampa, which is also Velvick's. When a reporter called the home telephone number she gave to authorities, a man identifying himself as Byron answered the phone and declined to comment.

It was on the Nov. 24, 2004 segment of "The Bachelor" that Velvick, then 42, proposed to the real estate agent and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader, then 37. Delgado beat out Tanya Michel, a 31-year-old special education teacher from Plano, Texas.

At the time, ABC billed it as the most romantic proposal and dramatic rejection in the series' six-season history.

Velvick went down on his knees to propose to a quivering, sobbing Delgado.

"We're going to be together forever," he whispered at the time. "You have my rose. You have my heart." He later announced he was moving from the Las Vegas area to Tampa where Delgado was living.

"Finally this is my fairy tale ending," she said.

On a live follow-up "After the Rose" special, Velvick proposed again and said he didn't want to spend another day of his life without her.

It was Delgado's second attempt at finding a soul mate on a TV reality show.

In 2003, she came close to winning the heart of Detroit stockbroker Bob Guiney on the show's fourth installment.

In 2004, Delgado said she had "fallen completely in love" with Velvick but had feared the worst. "I had my heart broken before, and I hoped I was not walking into the same situation," she said at the time.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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