Inside the tumultuous relationship of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, who married just 4 days after meeting

According to Esquire, the Mötley Crüe drummer and the "Baywatch" star first crossed paths on the eve of 1995. Artist and friend Guerin Swing told The Sun that Lee met Anderson and licked her face "from chin to temple."

At that point, Lee had been married twice: first, to Elaine Starchuk, then to "Melrose Place" actress Heather Locklear from 1986 to 1993.

Anderson had never been married, or really even in a public relationship before.

According to Swing, Lee, 32 at the time, flew — uninvited — to surprise 27-year-old Anderson while she was at a photo shoot in Cancún. The drummer arrived, proposed marriage after three days (Anderson accepted), and the next day, the two tied the knot on the beach in front of onlookers.

"We gave blood, sniffed out a marriage license and were on the beach getting married before the day was over. Instead of wedding bands, we went for something more permanent: Tattoos of each other's names around our fingers," wrote Lee in the Mötley Crüe autobiography "The Dirt."

In 1998, when reflecting on their relationship, Anderson said, "Tommy and I started out having a very intense, fun, crazy relationship because we were two kids. We were madly in love. It wasn't like drugs or alcohol or anything like that. We were both just really passionate about life."

The newlyweds visited Lake Mead in the southwestern US for their honeymoon ... and Lee brought along his video camera. This vacation would later lead to the infamous sex tape that was stolen from their home and distributed against their will on the internet.

"We had taken a five-day houseboat trip on Lake Mead as a vacation," Lee said, according to Esquire. "As usual, I brought along my video camera. We weren't trying to make a porno, just to document our vacation. We watched it once when we returned home, then put it in our safe, a 500-pound monstrosity, hidden underneath a carpet in my studio control room in the garage."

Lee wrote about the situation in his book, "The Dirt."

"When Pamela collapsed and lost our first child due to a miscarriage (a Lee family curse, my mother said), the paparazzi were so intent on getting photos, they kept cutting off the ambulance on the way to the hospital ... I could deal with them trying to crash our parties, but trying to crash our ambulance was another story," he wrote.

To distract themselves a few months later, Anderson threw him a giant birthday party in October. Soon after, Anderson told Lee she was pregnant again. "Ten days after my birthday, Pamela told me that she was four weeks pregnant. I couldn't have been any happier, dude," he wrote.

The pregnancy was announced that month when Anderson was hospitalized with "flu-like symptoms," the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.

On November 4, the couple's former electrician Rand Gauthier decided to break into their home to steal the couple's giant safe — which, fatefully, contained their sex tape.

According to Rolling Stone, Lee and Anderson realized their safe was missing in January 1996, around two months after it had been stolen. They then filed a police report.

Gauthier and his partner Milton "Uncle Miltie" Ingley had created websites to sell the tape — once you landed on the site, you were able to purchase the tape and have it sent to you. It would go on to make $77 million in less than a year.

"The next thing I knew, there was a porn peddler from a company called the Internet Entertainment Group phoning me," Lee wrote in "The Dirt." "He said he had bought the tape and was going to broadcast it on the internet."

The couple tried to go to court to stop the tape from spreading, which Anderson hated.

"I couldn't handle it. It got to a point where I could not go to another deposition with these sweaty old guys asking me about my sex life," Anderson said in Lee's 2004 autobiography, "Tommyland."

Anderson starred in "Barb Wire," a superhero action film, in 1996. While the film got bad reviews (the film has a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes), it gave us two things: Anderson's iconic barbed-wire tattoo she had until recently, and the Lee song "Welcome to Planet Boom" from the soundtrack.

Anderson spoke about the stolen safe during press for the film.

"It's devastating," she told CNN at the time. "But I really do believe that if anyone were to print those pictures, because it is stolen property, I really think they are going to pay for that and I really strongly believe and have faith that's going to happen."

"The tears came flooding out when I saw this person come out of my wife, right in the master bedroom where we conceived him. I even got to help pull him out, dude. That was hands down the best day of my life, and half an hour later I sat down at the piano and the song 'Brandon' just came out of me," Lee wrote in "The Dirt."

According to a lengthy Rolling Stone history of the tape, Warshavsky, an early pioneer of internet commerce, got access to the tape and decided to broadcast it.

Lee and Anderson took him to court as well, but they were tired of the endless legal battles and decided to settle — they thought they could give Warshavsky permission to broadcast the tape once and then never again ... which didn't happen.

"I remember negotiating and thinking, 'There is no way they'll ever sign this,'" Warshavsky's lawyer said. But they did, on November 25, 1997.

"Our lawyers and managers advised us that the best way to minimize the damages was to sign a contract saying that, since the company had us by the balls, we would reluctantly allow a one-time Webcast so long as they didn't sell, copy, trade or rebroadcast it," Lee wrote in "The Dirt."

"We thought we had won: hardly anyone would see the video on the Internet, and we could recover the tape and start over," he continued.

But within a few months, the tape was all over the internet and Warshavsky made a deal to sell the tape in video stores.

"I'm just horrified," Anderson said, Entertainment Weekly reported. "I don't know why I bother to put on clothes when I go out anymore."

Anderson once again gave birth at home surrounded by her husband and two midwives.

Lee went into detail on his side of the story in "The Dirt." According to him, the two were both involved in a physical altercation with both of their sons nearby. Anderson eventually called the police after he grabbed the phone from her and slammed it down while she was holding their son, Dylan.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Lee was arrested "for spousal abuse, child abuse, and unlawful possession of a firearm," which he denied.

Anderson filed for divorce not long after and requested custody of their two sons.

Lee was sentenced to six months in prison, with the possibility of it becoming three years if he violated the terms of his probation. He had pleaded no contest to the charges.

"What I see here is a very clear — very disturbing, in my judgment — pattern of conduct in which otherwise resolvable matters are handled by violence. You do it whether it's a family member or a third party. That's intolerable in any kind of civilized society," said Judge Lawrence J. Mira.

Lee later wrote, "I couldn't understand why Pamela had followed through with pressing charges. She was probably scared and thought I was some crazy, violent monster; she probably thought she was doing the right thing for the kids; and she probably wanted an easy way out of a difficult situation. As much as I loved Pamela, she had a problem dealing with things."

Their divorce was finalized in 1998.

Their relationship wasn't quite finished yet. After Lee was released from jail, the ex-spouses tried to make it work again.

"I picture Tommy and me … old, toothless, on a bench somewhere with our tattoos," Anderson said at the time, according to Entertainment Weekly.

During a May 1999 appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Anderson spoke about their relationship.

"Tommy and I are back together, working our family out. We're doing really well and our children are happy," she said. "It's been a long, hard year ... and I want my family together."

By 2000, the two were back in court battling for custody, Entertainment Weekly reported. Anderson told the court that Lee had drank champagne with her, violating his parole, and led to him spending another five days in jail.

Rock and Anderson began dating in April 2001 after meeting backstage at a VH1 event. The "All Summer Long" singer proposed to Anderson a year later, in April 2002. They split in 2003.

Anderson revealed her diagnosis in March 2002.

"I contracted hepatitis C while sharing a tattoo needle with my ex-husband Tommy Lee," Anderson said in the statement. "Tommy has the disease and never disclosed it to me during our marriage."

At the time, Lee claimed he didn't have the disease.

Lee and Anderson were each awarded $740,000 in a default judgment against IEG, as the reps failed to show up in court ... because the company didn't exist anymore.

So, while the couple never actually collected their money, it was a symbolic win after years of pain and embarrassment.

Paving the way for friendly exes Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Lee appeared at Anderson's roast years after their split.

While going around the dais, Lee joked that Dennis Rodman was the "only guy on Earth with more rebounds than me and Pam," said that "Pam and I shared one of history's greatest romances," and also called her the "sweetest person alive."

He concluded his roast by saying, "You've always been there for me, and your spirit and kindness is an inspiration to me. Like I said 500,000 times, and on that damn sex tape, I f---ing love you, baby."

The two got back together earlier that month, with Anderson calling Rock a "miracle" on her blog.

"I've raised my kids alone in hope of a miracle," she wrote, according to ABC News. "Well my miracle came and went. And came back and back because he knew that I'd wake up one day and realize that I was waiting for nothing."

On July 29, the two tied the knot in France, and then again in August in California to make it legal.

They each filed for divorce on the same day. Anderson's publicist told People, "It wasn't a happy Thanksgiving," Reuters reported.

Anderson told Black Book Magazine that she sleeps "with him a lot, but we aren't together. How does it go? If you can't be with the one you love, then f--- the one you're with."

Anderson gave the impression that she spoke with Lee frequently. Once, while emailing her ex-husband Rock, Lee grabbed the phone and went off on him.

"And so Tommy sends something back to him like, 'What are these p---- emails you're sending to my ex-wife? She's with me now. Daddy's back! Happy New Year, b----,'" she recounted.

But when point-blank asked if they were together, Anderson said, "No! God, no! Hallelujah!"

During this interview, Anderson confirmed that her ex-husband Rock had broken into a Las Vegas hotel room in order to beat up Lee ... but he broke into the wrong room.

This wasn't even their first or second altercation, as Anderson also told Black Book Mag that Rock "had some guy hit Tommy in New York, and it just escalated. So now I have these emails between them that seem more like Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, it's so funny. It's like a 'Saturday Night Live' skit, this back and forth of 'You're going down, man!' All on my phone."

Rock confirmed this, saying the last time he'd communicated with Lee was when "he picked up her BlackBerry and started e-mailing me a lot of horrendous things. It was extremely disrespectful."

But things reached fever pitch at the VMAs, when Rock punched Lee during Alicia Keys' performance. "Tommy Lee was sitting by Diddy," and Rock "just walked up and decked him," said an MTV VJ at the time.

Lee was kicked out of the ceremony, and Rock was later cited for misdemeanor battery.

For his part, Rock said that the fight had "absolutely zero" to do with their shared ex.

"I had to do what I had to do because this was a long time coming," he said. "You know, I came back from the bathroom and he was sitting right there. It was even more disrespectful after everything he's said, I was like that's enough, that's it."

Lee's side of the story included calling Rock "Kid Pebble" and claiming that Rock had "b---- slapped" him.

"Pamela and the kids have moved in with me," a "beaming" Lee told Rolling Stone. "It's awesome, man. It's definitely working. You can tell on the kids' faces — they're happy when we're together. We've only given it a try 800 times — 801, here we go."

This reconciliation came three months after Anderson's third marriage to Rick Salomon was annulled in March 2008.

It's unclear when, exactly, the two broke up for the third (and seemingly final) time. But most sources point to 2010 as the time of their last split.

"There was Tommy and then there was nobody else," Anderson told People. "He was the love of my life. We had a wild and crazy beginnings that was too much for both of us." She continued, "It really was love at first sight. I only knew him four days before I married him."

"I had beautiful children with him," Anderson said. "My kids are grateful to be born out of true love."

She said they were "good friends" who were working on co-parenting.

"He's such a supporter of mine and I'm really happy we're on such great terms," she said. "There's a connection there that will always be."

"I made not one dollar. It was stolen property. We made a deal to stop all the shenanigans," Anderson said on "Watch What Happens Live."

"I was seven months pregnant with Dylan and thinking it was affecting the pregnancy with the stress and said, 'I'm not going to court anymore. I'm not being deposed anymore by these horny, weird lawyer men,'" she said.

First, Anderson said that she had been cured. She followed up later that month saying that Lee had actually been cured before her, and he was the one who had told her about the treatment.

"You know, Tommy did it first, so he got cured first. He had a different kind of treatment because he did it a year earlier than me. And he was always pushing me, 'You got to do this,''" she told Entertainment Tonight.

The drummer, who had gotten engaged to girlfriend Brittany Furlan in February, took to social media to claim his son had punched him, leaving him with a fat lip, and fled from authorities.

"My fiancé and I were in bed when my son busted into the room and assaulted me. I asked him to leave the house and he knocked me unconscious. He ran away from the police. THAT'S the truth," he tweeted.

TMZ had reported earlier that Brandon alleged he was defending himself from his intoxicated father.

"I'm devastated at the events of the last several days that have been a result of my father's alcoholism," Brandon told People. "I've worked tirelessly organizing an intervention and it's incredibly upsetting that it never came to fruition. I wanted my dad's hopeful sobriety and recovery to be a private family matter but, as a result of his accusations on social media, I feel forced to speak out.

"I have and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as needed. I love my father and just want to see him sober, happy and healthy," he continued.

Lee claimed on Twitter that he was "happier than I've been in my entire life," and has "a few drinks here & there."

Brandon admitted to People that the argument between father and son was actually about Anderson, who had spoken about her relationship with Lee in an interview with Piers Morgan that day — and the conversation rubbed Lee the wrong way and led to a Twitter tirade by Lee.

"I will never talk to Tommy again before he is sober and in his right mind. Though he's made attempts to contact me. I have blocked him. It is impossible to reason with crazy," Anderson wrote on her website.

"I stand beside my son who acted out of self defense and was scared for his life. Nobody understands the lifetime of disappointment this man has brought our family. Consistently the centre of sadness, drama and confusion. Jealous of his sons talent and beauty from the day they were born. He is sick. The definition of narcissist/sociopath," she continued.

She added, "I pray Tommy gets the help he needs. His actions are desperate and humiliating. He is a disaster spinning out of control, and he is not acting like a father."

"Tommy feels humiliated — and is attempting to destroy his own son. This is the Devil — This is the disease of alcoholism," Anderson wrote.

Lee and his son eventually worked it out, and were photographed together in December 2018.

Deadline broke the news in December 2020 that "Mamma Mia" star Lily James was cast as Anderson, while the Winter Soldier himself Sebastian Stan would play Lee. Rounding out the cast was Seth Rogen as the couple's disgraced electrician who stole the tape.

The series was made without Lee's or Anderson's permission.

In May 2021, an unrecognizable James and Stan recreated an iconic photo of Anderson and Lee. Later, even Stan would say that he didn't recognize James after her Anderson transformation.

"It's really wild, with Lily, because the first time I saw her as herself was actually at the end of the shoot five months later," Stan told Entertainment Tonight. "I was like, 'Who are you?' That's when we actually formally met."

Anderson and Lee reunited to support their son Brandon at the launch of his new fashion project, Swingers Club, People reported.

In January 2022, a source close to Anderson told Entertainment Tonight that Anderson found the series "very painful."

"It is shocking that this series is allowed to happen without her approval," the source added. "She feels so violated to this day. It brings back a very painful time for her."

Lee, on the other hand, supports the show, according to the source.

"Tommy feels fine about the series coming out and is excited to see it," the source told ET. "He still doesn't understand how this incident impacts Pamela differently from himself."

Lee himself told ET that he knows "Sebastian, he's playing me. From what he's told me, really beautiful story." He added, "The story's actually cool, what actually happened wasn't."