“Joe Millionaire” star Evan Marriott is the prize hunk that 20 ladies competed for — but a woman who dated him says he’s a booby prize!
“He was just inept when it came to the ladies,” pretty Tanya Tyrrell told The ENQUIRER.
“He was trying — but he didn’t know what to do.”
Tanya met Marriott at a bar in his hometown of Virginia Beach, Va., a few years ago.
“We talked a couple of times. And after a little while he asked me out,” she said.
“Our first date was roasting weenies over the fireplace at my apartment!”
Tanya said Marriott was nervous and insecure around women.
“He was a big, sweet ogre. He didn’t have much money, and he always thought that was his problem with women. Money was the least of his problems, though.
“He was very eye-catching — when he walked into a bar he caught the eye of every woman. But after you’d spend some time with him and talk to him, it was like, ‘No thanks.’
“It wasn’t that he was dumb, though he certainly was no intellectual. He just always said off-the-wall things in the middle of a conversation. I’d say something, and he’d come from left field with something, and that was the end of the conversation.
“He was just like he is on the show: ‘What?’ ‘Huh?’
“He didn’t say a lot. He’s not a sparkling conversationalist. But anything he did say left me in a daze. He always left me feeling very empty inside.”
Tanya said she and the future “Joe” went out to dinner several times.
“He was always nice, but nervous and shy,” she said.
“He has a good heart and he means well. At the time, he was just very inexperienced with women — and from what I can see on the show that hasn’t changed.”
Tanya said Marriott would hug her and kiss her goodnight. “He gave me some nice hugs, but we did not consummate the relationship. There was no sex.”
After several dull nights with the hunk, Tanya said, she let things slide.
“He would call me to ask me out, but I was busy every time, and after a while he stopped calling. That was all right with me.
“I wish him the best. And ladies, if your idea of a big time is roasting weenies over a fireplace, then Evan’s your man!”
A source told The ENQUIRER that Marriott’s heart was broken when Tanya gave him the brush-off.
“Evan really liked Tanya.
“She’s smart as a whip. That probably spelled doom for Evan and Tanya from the beginning!”
