Tommy Lee, 59, and Pamela Anderson, 54, will forever be the poster couple for rockstar (rocky) relationships. The former couple famously tied the knot in 1995, just 4 days after their first date. They even had each other's names tattooed on their ring fingers. But as predicted, the premature marriage attracted all sorts of mess. After returning from Mexico where they got married and had their honeymoon, the Baywatch actress immediately moved into the Mötley Crüe drummer's Malibu home which was being renovated. The two abruptly fired several unpaid employees because they weren't satisfied with their work.
Little did they know, it would be the start of their marriage's end. A disgruntled laid-off electrician named Rand Gauthier, 64, made copies of the newlyweds' honeymoon sex tape and destroyed the original. He made a whopping $77 million profit from the distributed copies. After suing over their invaded privacy, Lee and Anderson would face a series of marital problems that would lead to a nasty divorce and custody fight over their two sons. Here's how much the rocker had spent throughout his relationship with the Playboy centerfold.
Tommy Lee Once Spent $400 On Sex Toys To Woo Pamela Anderson
Before their whirlwind romance began, Lee wooed Anderson with sex toys. And yes, you read that right; he did spend $400 on those. Before he "drove to the Pleasure Chest," the drummer had met the blonde bombshell at a New Year's Eve party weeks before. High on ecstasy and drunk on champagne, he admitted on Mötley Crüe's autobiography, The Dirt that he licked her face from "chin to temple" and that she didn't mind. "She f--king laughed," he wrote. "And without missing a beat, turned away and licked the face of the girl next to her. Everyone started passing licks around the table." And that's how he fell for her.
Lee even said that he just stared at Anderson the entire time. They had their first kiss much later that night. He kept asking the actress out but her work schedule made it tough to arrange a date. "Instead of buying new clothes and shaving and trying to look all fresh like Pamela," the rocker said of his plan to get his future third wife. "I put on my dirtiest f--king leather pants, slipped into an old T-shirt that stank of B.O. and didn't shave or shower. I did, however, brush my teeth. I drove to the Pleasure Chest and picked up $400 worth of sex toys and outfits."
He added that he "was ready to rock her world." Obviously, it worked. They got hitched four days after he tracked down her hotel in Mexico, turned up uninvited, and managed to take the sex symbol for drinks and in bed that same night. Anderson's family found out about the wedding on the tabloids.
The $10 Million Lawsuit Over Their Infamous Sex Tape
"It was ridiculous. It was a total invasion of our privacy. This is, like, sacred, you know," said Lee of their leaked sex tape during a 20/20 tell-all. "Not being able to do anything … about it was adding so much frustration and stress to our relationship. It was just consuming us." Their intimate honeymoon footage was in a safe that was stolen by Gauthier from their garage. The electrician did it as a way of getting back at the rocker who fired him by pointing a gun to him and the staff while yelling, "Get the f--- off my property."
He thought he was just getting Lee's guns and his then-wife's jewelry. So when he discovered the sex tape, he didn't hesitate to make copies that spread like wildfire in 1996. It definitely damaged the controversial couple's image. They immediately filed a $10 million civil lawsuit against everyone they suspected of owning a copy. The court issued an injunction against Gauthier's team in 1997, ordering them to stop producing and selling copies of the video. By that time, they'd already made $77 million off the tape.
Lee and Anderson eventually got tired of trying to stop the video from going viral. There were even reports that they sold it to adult website owner, Seth Warshavsky, 48. But to this day, the ex-couple still claim that they made "not one dollar" from what Anderson calls "a compilation of vacations that we were naked on," instead of how people see it — "the best-selling porn title in history," priced $15 per downloadable copy.
Another $10 Million: A Negligence Suit Against Tommy Lee
The cost of Lee and Anderson's 1998 divorce and bitter custody trial from 2001 to 2002 was never disclosed publicly. However, that difficult period in the rocker's life certainly cost him a lot money. Following a physical altercation at their home that caused the Barb Wire star to file for divorce, Lee was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail for felony spousal battery. As part of his sentence, he attended counseling, did 200 hours of community service, and donated money to anti-domestic violence initiatives.
The exes briefly reunited in 2001, calling it quits as the custody trial ensued. Aside from marriage-related legal drama, Lee also got caught in a $10 million negligence suit that year. It was for the death of five-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres who was at the birthday party of the drummer's son, Brandon. The boy drowned after his male nanny had left him to another child's nanny because he was going to a concert. The jury didn't hold Lee accountable for the tragic event.
Seven years later, Lee got back with Anderson but finally called it quits after two years (possibly breaking the curse of dealing with one lawsuit after another).
