From Tommy Lee to Jon Peters: A Look Back at Newylwed Pamela Anderson's Storied Love Life

The actress and activist secretly tied the knot with movie mogul Jon Peters on Jan. 20 in Malibu — 30 years after he first proposed. In the decades they spent apart, Anderson, 52, was married four times, to three different husbands. Here, a look back at her history of on-and-off relationships with some of Hollywood’s biggest names, and how they led her back to the man who has “been there all along.”

After knowing each other for just 96 hours, Home Improvement and Baywatch star Anderson and Mötley Crüe rocker Lee eloped on the beach in Mexico in 1995 (her parents had never even heard of him).

He’d previously been married to Heather Locklear; she’d been linked to Baywatch costar David Charvet, TV Superman Dean Cain, MTV veejay Eric Nies, Australian-born surfer Kelly Slater and Sylvester Stallone.

“I don’t know if they were in love with each other,” witness and local club manager Marcos Corminas told PEOPLE at the time, “but they really liked each other a lot and were having a lot of fun.” 

Their tumultuous marriage lasted for three years — during which time they weathered scandals ranging from a leaked sex tape to a domestic dispute that led to Lee’s 6-month stint in jail for spousal abuse — and saw them welcome sons Brandon Thomas Lee, now 23, and Dylan Jagger Lee, now 22, before the pair divorced in 1998.

Anderson reportedly moved on from Lee with Swedish Calvin Klein model Schenkenberg, to whom she became engaged. However, the two split in 2001.

The animal activist and “All Summer Long” rocker began dating in the spring of 2001. They became engaged on April 11, 2002, in the Las Vegas desert, but split the following year. They rekindled their romance in July 2006 when they ran into each other in St. Tropez on a yacht owned by a mutual friend. “It was like we’d never been apart,” Rock told PEOPLE afterward.

They married in front of famous friends that month — also aboard a yacht in St. Tropez — but Anderson filed for divorce that November after reportedly suffering a miscarriage, writing on her blog that the split was “unfortunately impossible.”

In 2007, Kid Rock came to blows with fellow Anderson ex Lee at the MTV VMAs, though denied the squabble was about the actress.

Anderson’s third marriage was to longtime friend (and Shannen Doherty ex) Salomon, at a Las Vegas hotel in October of 2007. “They are head over heels in love,” a source told PEOPLE. But she filed for divorce that December, and while the two appeared to reconcile for a brief time, they were granted an annulment in March 2008, both citing fraud as the reason to end the marriage.

By late 2008, Anderson and Lee were supposedly back together again, with Lee telling Rolling Stone, “We’ve only given it a try 800 times — 801, here we go. Pamela and the kids have moved in with me. It’s awesome. It’s definitely working.” Though they never remarried, in 2015, Anderson told PEOPLE, “He was the love of my life. There was Tommy and then there was nobody else.”

In January 2014, news broke that Anderson and Salomon had wed a second time, after Anderson told Ellen DeGeneres that she and her ex were “best friends with benefits.” Following the wedding, Anderson spoke to E! News, saying, “We’re very happy. Our families are very happy and that’s all that matters.” In July of 2014, though, the actress filed for divorce again, citing irreconcilable differences.

In October of 2016, Anderson began paying visits to the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had claimed political asylum.

“My relationship with Julian — It’s no secret,” she wrote on her blog in March 2017. “He is one of my favorite people.” She went on to call him sexy and say she loved him for the way he’s trying to “free the world by educating it.”

At the time, Assange was staying in the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid facing extradition to Sweden over a rape allegation he has long refuted. Assange has said he fears being sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges in relation to WikiLeaks. He is currently in jail in London. 

“I walked in and saw this little angel sitting at the bar. It was Pammy. She was like 19. I knew she would be a big star,” Peters told THR in 2017 of how the pair first met at the Playboy mansion in the mid-80s. “We ended up living together.” He told the outlet that he helped launch her career and proposed at the time, but she turned him down, citing their 22-year age difference. 

The pair reunited in late 2019, and secretly wed in Malibu on Jan. 20. Anderson a shared a poem with THR that expressed her love for her new husband: 

“Jon is the original ‘bad boy’ of Hollywood – no one compares –
I love him deeply like family.
His life used to scare me.
So much for a girl like me. Now I’ve seen more of life and realize ..
He’s been there all along. Never failed me –
I’m ready now and
he’s ready too – We
understand
and respect each other – We love each other without conditions. –
I’m a lucky woman. – Proof
God has a plan.”