The true story behind Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s X-rated love story

The tape catapulted Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee into unparalleled levels of fame, but how did the couple’s private moments go viral?

Forget Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton, it was Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee who starred in the world’s most infamous celebrity sex tape.

Here’s the inside story on the couple’s X-rated video, from how it got released to how much money was made from it.

When they got together

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee’s paths first crossed on New Year’s Eve in 1994 at a club on Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

Tommy quickly fell for Pamela and pursued her relentlessly.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee married in the 90s. Picture: Evan Agostini/Liaison)

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The attraction was clearly mutual and in Motley Crue’s memoir, The Dirt, Tommy recalled that he received a voicemail from Pamela not long after they’d met.

“Tommy. Damn, you’re not there. It’s Pamela. I’ve got 24-hours to play, and I want to play with you,” she allegedly said in the voicemail.

Tommy responded by immediately hitting the shops and buying $500 worth of sex toys and outfits.

Unfortunately for Tommy, he didn’t see Pam again until over a month later. But he made the most of it, with the pair quickly tying the knot in a beach ceremony in Cancun.

The sex tape

A few weeks after the shotgun wedding, the couple made a sex tape while on holiday.

Tommy said: “We watched it once when we returned home, then put it in our safe, hidden underneath a carpet in my studio control room in the garage.”

Months later, the safe and the tape went missing.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in 1999.

According to Rolling Stone, it was an electrician named Rand Gauthier who stole the safe.

He had been hired by the couple to work on the renovation of their Malibu mansion.

Pam and Tommy felt his work was shoddy and they fired him and refused to pay him.

When Rand Gauthier returned to collect his tools, Tommy pointed a shotgun at him.

The electrician reacted by stealing the safe (which the couple didn’t realise) but at the time Gauthier was unaware it contained the X-rated video inside.

It just so happened that Gauthier also worked in the porn industry at the time. Once he discovered the tape, it’s alleged he sold the video.

How the tape spread

It wasn’t until a few months later that Pam and Tommy realised their intimate video had been stolen.

They filed a police report and hired a private investigator named Anthony Pellicano to find out what had happened.

Not long afterwards, Tommy received a phone call from a company called Internet Entertainment Group who had bought the rights to the tape.

They told him they were going to broadcast it on the internet.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape went viral Picture: Chris Pizzello/AP

The couple’s lawyers advised them the best way to minimise the damage was to sign a contract allowing a one-time webcast, so long as people didn’t sell, copy, trade or rebroadcast it.

They signed the contract – but couldn’t prevent the tape spreading like wildfire on the internet.

How much money was made from it

Pam and Tommy were unable to prevent the tape’s online distribution and the couple were forced to sign away their copyright in 1997.

Rolling Stone reports that the tape took two years to go viral and when it did, it made an estimated $98 million for the porn companies in less than 12 months through legitimate sales alone.

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Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in Las Vegas.

Pamela, Tommy and Gauthier didn’t see a cent.

The eight-minute long video has gone down in history as the first true celebrity sex tape, with radio legend Howard Stern once saying: “It’s the greatest tape I have ever seen in my life.”

The end of their relationship

The pair parented two kids together, Brandon (born in 1996) and Dylan (born in 1997). But their marriage came to an end in 1998 following an altercation at home that allegedly became physical.

Tommy Lee during his preliminary hearing. AP Photo/Nick Ut

Pamela called the police and Tommy was sentenced to six months in jail.

While the couple may not have managed to escape the shadow of the X-rated tape, both have done their best to move on.

A series about the sex tape saga is on the way

Their turbulent love story is now set to be told on the small screen. Hulu’s Pam & Tommy will star Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the star-crossed couple. Shooting has already begun on the miniseries, with many shocked by the uncanny resemblance James bares to Anderson.