A former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader who was proposed to on the reality TV show “The Bachelor” was arrested on charges she punched a man she lived with in the mouth, Pinellas County authorities said.
Mary Delgado received a proposal on the show in 2004 from professional bass fisherman Byron Velvick. Delgado, 40, was taken into custody just after midnight Wednesday on a battery charge and was under the influence of alcohol when she was arrested, according to a police affidavit.
The affidavit does not name her fiance, but says the pair have lived together “as a family” for the last three years. According to sheriff officials, Delgado was released Wednesday afternoon.
She gave her name as Maribel Liliana Delgado. A telephone listing for the pair could not be found.
The two appeared together Tuesday in a special episode of “The Bachelor” called “After the Final Rose.”
During the show, Delgado told the audience she had taken up her fiance’s sport of fishing, that the pair was doing a lot of traveling and they planned to get married in November.
“I love this man so much that I have fallen in love with the sport that he loves,” Delgado said.
Delgado actually appeared on “The Bachelor” twice, the first time during the show’s fourth season in 2003. She returned the year after and met Velvick.
Seminole is about 10 miles northwest of St. Petersburg.