Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson: The Celebrity Rock N’ Roll Relationship Gone Awry

The whirlwind relationship of iconic celebrity couple Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe and Baywatch bombshell Pamela Anderson remains one of the most talked about relationships in Hollywood’s pop culture history after three decades. Their relationship was anything but a breeze. Following their divorce in 1998, the pair remains captivating in the eyes of the public with the recent popularity of Hulu’s new series Pam & Tommy, starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan that follows the couple around their infamous engagement, sex tape saga and eventual divorce.

Dubbed as the greatest love story ever told, Lee and Anderson tied the knot after knowing each other for four days, but their carefree romance quickly turned sour after their notorious sex tape leak in 1995. The two started their journey in 1994 and their romance was ignited on vacation in Cancun where the couple got married four days into knowing each other. 

Anderson was reportedly captivated by Lee, that upon their first time seeing each other, she sent him a shot of Goldschläger. Afterwards the rockstar charmed his way over to Anderson’s table and stayed for the rest of the night. "He came up, grabbed me and licked my face," the actress said in a 1995 interview for Movieline magazine. "I thought he was a cool, friendly, nice guy. I gave him my number."

In 1995, electrician Rand Gauthier, stole and leaked the sex tape from Lee’s home which was viewed by thousands. Anderson and Lee filed a $10 million lawsuit to prevent the tape from circulating further. It was later revealed that Gauthier was seeking revenge for “mistreatment” from Lee by firing Gauthier from his job. The electrician snuck into the couple’s home and stole a safe from their garage. Gauthier was clothed in a white Tibetan yank fur rug and crawled on his hands and knees to pass as the couple’s dog walking on the property.

The 54 minute tape featured intimate vacation moments and their new life together as a married couple, including eight minutes of intimate, homemade sex scenes. Alongside bootleg copies and sex websites displaying the viral tape, Rolling Stone reported that the tape made over $77 million in less than a year.

The couple took further action in 1996 by filing a lawsuit against Penthouse Magazine which obtained a copy of the tape alongside published photos, and claimed it was already in the public, meaning they have the rights to publish it. 

The drama and public infatuation placed restraints on their relationship. 

In a 2015 interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Anderson said she has not made one dollar from the stolen tape. “It was stolen property. We made a deal to stop all the shenanigans.” Several years later, Anderson said to Cohen that it wasn’t a sex tape, instead a “compilation of vacations that we were naked on.” 

The sex tape scandal and the slut shaming that Anderson faced wasn’t anything new to women. Consensual or not, women are still degraded for displaying nudity as misogyny runs widespread. Despite Anderson’s Baywatch success, the star was quickly scrutinized and put to shame in the public’s eyes, yet she faced the public and press gracefully and with an unforgettable, bright smile. Seven months pregnant at the time of the sex tape release, Anderson faced degrading interrogations from lawyers, rampant misogyny and celebrity tabloid journalism.

“I was seven months pregnant with Dylan and thinking it was affecting the pregnancy with the stress,” Anderson said. “I’m not going to court anymore. I’m not being deposed anymore by these horny, weird lawyer men. I don’t want to talk about my vagina anymore or my public sex — anything.”

Tensions rose between the couple in 1998 as Lee was arrested following a domestic violence altercation with Lee and was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading no contest to felony spousal battery. Anderson faced a broken nail and visible red marks on her neck. The couple divorced shortly following the incident, but in 2001 Lee wrote “I couldn’t understand why Pamela had followed through with pressing charges,” in Mötley Crüe’s 2001 memoir, “The Dirt.”

In a November 1998 article with Interview magazine, Anderson talked about the intensity and passionate start of their relationship. “Tommy and I started out having a very intense, fun, crazy relationship because we were two kids,” Anderson said. “We were madly in love. It wasn’t like drugs or alcohol or anything like that. We were both just really passionate about life.”

Anderson and Lee attempted to reignite their romance in 2008 after having two sons, but the second try at the relationship ended shortly after the duo officially called it quits for good in 2010.

The hottest and most talked about series on Hulu, Pam & Tommy, gives viewers a deeper insight into the relationship and Anderson’s side of the story with the rock star. Their story is now being introduced to a new generation, filled with twists and turns of the couple’s dynamic and darker perspectives of the sex tape leak. Anderson has spoken out about the series, and said she’s felt “violated” by the unauthorized retelling of her trauma. Without Anderson’s approval, her close friends that included Courtney Love, quickly came to the star’s defense and have said the show had uprooted complex trauma in the name of entertainment.

Once viewed as the hottest rock n’ roll couple through the glamorization of the public’s eyes, Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson were the farthest example of  “relationship goals.” Despite Lee calling Anderson his soulmate, let’s learn not to romanticize every Hollywood relationship trending in the public’s eyes.