The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee Found Love in ’95
Liz and Richard. Madonna and Sean. Some celebrity love affairs kick up a perfect storm of chaos and passion that lingers in the collective consciousness long after the couple has gone their separate ways. Take Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, whose home movies found a life of their own on the illicit video market, and whose courtship serves as the basis for Hulu’s limited series Pam & Tommy, which premieres Feb. 2 and stars Lily James as the Playboy Playmate turned actress and Sebastian Stan as the Mötley Crüe drummer.
The two married in 1995 after having known each other just four days. The union lasted three years. But in that short time, they produced two sons, Brandon Thomas (now 25) and Dylan Jagger (now 24). The couple’s 54-minute homemade movie, which included eight minutes of sex, was stolen from their house in 1995 by electrician Rand Gauthier (played by Seth Rogen in the series) and distributed as a celebrity sex tape by Internet Entertainment Group. It made $77 million in 12 months. The Lees sued the company, ultimately settling for an undisclosed sum. (A judge in a prior case ruled the tape had been made in locations that “were not truly private,” THR reported Aug. 19, 1996.) They divorced in 1998, after Lee’s arrest for assaulting Anderson, which resulted in a six-month prison sentence. Anderson wed five more times: to Kid Rock in 1996; poker player Rick Salomon in 2006 and 2014 (each lasted a year); producer Jon Peters in 2020 (it was annulled 12 days later); and bodyguard Dan Hayhurst on Christmas Eve 2020 (they split Jan. 20, 2022).