They were divorced back in 1998 and she’s been married five times since, but Pamela Anderson says she’s never got over her divorce from Mötley Crüe rocker Tommy Lee.
The relationship was responsible for her two sons, one of the first global celebrity sex tapes and even a Disney+ drama series.
In a new documentary, the former Baywatch actress lies in the bath and records a voice memo.
She says: “I think what it all comes down to is that I never got over not being able to make it work with the father of my kids.
"And even though I thought I could recreate a family or fall in love with somebody else, it’s just not me.
“It’s impossible to be with anybody else. But I don’t think I could be with Tommy either.”
In the documentary for Netflix, Anderson also gives access to her home videos and personal diaries to chart her extraordinary life.
She claims she was raped aged 12. And she says she was molested by her babysitter, who she claims she tried to kill aged eight.
Her life changed overnight when she was spotted at a BC Lions Canadian Football League game wearing a Labatt’s Beer T-shirt in 1989.
The company hired her and she became a model.
She was invited to the Playboy mansion and moved to LA.
TV casting bosses for Baywatch came calling in 1991 and her role as CJ Parker from 1992 to 1997 made her a global star.
But she was at her happiest during the early years of her love with Tommy Lee.
They met on New Year’s Eve 1994 at a party. The drummer licked her face just minutes after meeting her, which made her laugh.
He got her number but just when they were due to meet up she had to fly to Cancun, Mexico, for a photoshoot.
Obsessed Tommy flew to Mexico too and continued to call her.
She explains: “Finally I went ‘what could possibly go wrong… let’s call him’.”
Pam says she met Tommy at a nightspot, where she tried the drug ecstasy for the first time.
She says: “The pupils in my eyes… I thought I looked so cool. The rest is all a big blur. A big happy blur.
“Later on that night, he said ‘do you wanna get married?’ I was like, ‘Yeah’. He took his friend’s skull ring off and put it on my finger.”
They married on a beach just four days after meeting.
Throughout the early stages of their relationship they would film themselves on camcorders.
When a safe was stolen from their home it contained a number of tapes, including intimate moments together.
At first the film was leaked on VHS but then spread much faster online. Pamela says the release of the tapes caused untold misery and that she and Tommy were never compensated financially.
In June 1996, the pair welcomed their first son Brandon and another son, Dylan, the following year.
But by 1998 their relationship was starting to fall apart. Tommy had never liked his wife kissing other men in Baywatch.
But now he was also struggling to cope with not being her number one man as she cared for their two sons.
According to Pamela’s upcoming memoir, her husband “ripped” their oldest boy away from her and battered her as she held her seven-month-old son.
In the documentary she says: “It was a terrible night when Tommy was rocking on the floor and Brandon was crying in the playpen. I was holding Dylan. Tommy was going ‘I want my wife back’. I called 911.”
Tommy Lee pleaded no contest to felony spousal battery and was sentenced to six months. Anderson filed for divorce.
She says: “I still couldn’t believe that the person I loved the most was capable of what had happened that night.” The documentary also shows her reaction to Disney+ drama Pam & Tommy, about the sex tapes.
She explains: “It really gives me nightmares. I have no desire to watch it.”
Although Anderson says she never fell in love again, she remarried many times.
She married and divorced Kid Rock in 2006.
She wed producer Rick Solomon in 2007 for a year, and again for a year in 2014. She also married producer Jon Peters in 2020, before announcing their separation 12 days later.
She was most recently married to her bodyguard Dan Hayhurst. She filed for divorce after a year. But Pam ends the documentary by saying she has no regrets.
She says: “As much pain as we can endure in our lives is kind of like the catalyst to all the great stuff like poetry, music, art. I’m grateful for all the experiences I had and I don’t blame anybody for anything.
“I’m glad it happened.”
- Pamela, A Love Story is released on Netflix on January 31.
