Suit: Woman Spent $150K on Matchmaker, Got Mr. Awfuls

A retired corporate executive said in a lawsuit that she spent $150,000 on a matchmaking service that set her up with a string of highly incompatible suitors, including men who were married, mentally unstable, or felons, the AP reports. Darlene Daggett, former president for US commerce for the QVC home shopping channel, settled the lawsuit against Kelleher International hours after it was filed in federal court last week, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. Per the suit, the 62-year-old Daggett, a divorced mom of four, wanted someone to spend her retirement with and felt "social dating sites did not provide her with the degree of screening and privacy she was looking for." She said she paid $150,000 for a "CEO Level" membership with Kelleher International that guaranteed her matches from around the globe, but then endured a series of bad courtships that fell short of what the service promised.

Her attorneys described one match as a disgraced New York judge who was censured for sleeping with an attorney, court records show. Another said he was waiting for his terminally ill wife to die before he began dating again. Another claimed he suffered from trauma that caused him to lie uncontrollably. Daggett said she later pursued a stalking complaint when that relationship turned sour, and that suitor is now awaiting sentencing on a $10.5 million federal bank fraud case. Kelleher CEO Amber Kelleher-Andrews, a former actress who appeared on Baywatch and Melrose Place, said in a statement that her company is responsible for thousands of marriages over the years. "It doesn't always work out," Kelleher-Andrews said, adding her company works to end courtships "fairly and reasonably." (More lawsuit stories.)