TRENTON, N.J. -- Mike Tyson sued for a marriage annulment and divorce accusing Robin Givens of luring him to the altar with a fake pregnancy, but the boxer's estranged wife insisted that 'nobody can love Michael more than I.'
In a countersuit that puts an apparent end to any efforts to mend the stormy eight-month marriage between the television actress and the undefeated heavyweight champion, the 22-year-old Tyson filed for an annulment and a divorce in New Jersey Superior Court Friday, one week after Givens filed for divorce in California.
Givens, 23, crying during her first interview since her divorce suit, vowed her loyalty to Tyson on ABC's '20/20' with Barbara Walters Friday night.
'I mean nobody can love Michael more than I love Michael,' Givens said. 'And if I offended his fans, I apologize. No fan could love Michael more.'
Tyson seeks an annulment of the 'purported marriage' on the grounds of fraud, accusing Givens of tricking him into the Feb. 7 wedding with a claim of pregnancy and then manipulating the champ, maneuvering him from his closest advisers and conducting a 'campaign ... to publicly humiliate the plaintiff, strip him of his manhood and dignity and destroy his credibility as a public figure.'
Givens, who stars in ABC's 'Head of the Class,' tearfully insisted during the emotional half-hour interview that she did not tell Tyson she was pregnant to get him to marry her.
'That is completely against my nature, against my personality,' she told Walters. 'I'm extremely independent, I have a career of my own.'
Givens also denied Tyson was drugged before a previous '20/20' interview, as some of his friends alleged, but said she spoke with Tyson a week ago and his behavior was 'very erratic.'
'He was in the presence of (promoter) Don King and others that I think may have affected some decisions that he's made,' she said.
Tyson's suit cites extreme mental cruelty, charging Givens with 'intentional infliction of emotional distress.'
Because the marriage was short, Tyson's lawyers argued Givens has 'no legal or equitable right' to share in the champion's estimated $50 million fortune.
Givens' suit, filed under California's liberal community property laws, seeks half of whatever the couple acquired during marriage, including Tyson's share of the $21 million he earned June 27 in a 91-second knockout of Michael Spinks.
Givens' lawyer has said she preferred not to go to trial and was seeking an out-of-court settlement 'as soon as possible.' He said the couple's lawyers would meet Thursday in New York.
In the '20/20' interview Friday night, Givens said she and her mother, Ruth Roper, did not give Tyson prescription drugs before a Sept. 30 interview on '20/20.' Tyson's friends have suggested the champion was being made to appear docile and apathetic.
'Michael and I discussed what was going to be said, before we went on,' Givens said. 'The intent was to make him look good, and to make the world know him better, understand his actions better. He was extremely coherent, nothing but coherent, nothing but sober.'
Two days after the broadcast, Givens called police to the couple's home in Bernardsville, N.J., saying Tyson smashed furniture because he was upset by her televised comments. But she declined to sign a domestic violence complaint.
In the first ABC interview, with Tyson sitting beside her, Givens told Walters that life with him was 'torture ... pure hell ... worse than anything I could possible imagine.'
Tyson and Givens, who dated for about a year, were married at a Chicago church Feb. 7 and repeated their vows in a civil ceremony in New York Feb. 12. Almost immediately, the marriage was plagued by reports of bizarre behavior, mental illness, violence and power struggles.
