The Life and Loves Of Heather Locklear Over The Years

She began her career while she was still in college, but over the years, it has not been a smooth ride for Heather. In fact, it has been a bumpy road ever seen her teenage days, and she is still struggling with her demons.

Heather formed a relationship with Richie Sambora soon after the breakdown of her first marriage to rockstar, Tommy Lee. Rather than taking time away from love to heal from the break-up, she started her relationship with Richie after they were introduced through a mutual friend in 1994. However, their relationship was rocky from the get-go and, perhaps, it was living on opposite coasts that made things more difficult. Locklear and Sambora began a long-distance relationship after meeting, and this was going to prove rather tough.

Having felt so betrayed by her husband, Locklear did not even call Sambora to let him know she wished to get a divorce. In fact, Sambora discovered the news just moments before his scheduled performance with Bon Jovi, through a news reporter! At the time, Richie dismissed this as yet another rumor by the media, having found it so absurd. People reported, “Richie told one friend that if his marriage was on the rocks, it looked like he was the last to know.”

Locklear’s problems may have started from an early date, but all became worse when her second marriage to Richie Sambora began to break down. Though the couple at the time insisted that their marriage was strong, rumors of problems between the pair were rife in the months during the end of 2005. However, while celebrities may put on a united front to the public before announcing any split, this was not the case for the married couple. Rather, Richie had no idea that Heather wanted a divorce.

Heather completely blindsided her husband with a divorce after she found an email from a mutual friend of the couple, which included inappropriate photos. Although Richie pleaded that it was nothing and that the woman sent the email without his request, Heather felt betrayed by her husband when finding this email. A friend of theirs told People, “She’s devastated. Absolutely devastated,” and this seemed to be the icing on the cake for the issues the couple faced over the years.

Since the email was the final straw for Heather, what were the problems growing between the pair beforehand? To begin with, after Locklear gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Ava, in 1997, Richie always made it known that he was not content with having just one child. In 2000, friends of the couple leaked to the press that this was an ongoing debate between the couple, although Sambora made Locklear’s feelings about the subject clear. He stated that his wife “didn’t want to go through that again.”

It seems Locklear had a type when it came to men, as both her marriages were to rock stars. She managed to steal their hearts and tame their rock’n’ roll lifestyles, especially with Richie Sambora. A friend of Richie claimed, “He’d sown some wild oats in his day,” but all changed when he met Locklear. The rockstar became heavily devoted to his wife and family, and would even fly home for just the day to be there for his young daughter. However, this was not enough for Locklear.

Except for their choice of career path, Locklear’s romantic partners could not have been more different. Locklear met Lee backstage at an REO Speedwagon concert, and Lee was automatically smitten. When they were romantically involved, Heather expressed, “Tommy doesn’t worship the devil, he worships me.” The two fell in love and, although it was not to work, at the time, a young Locklear stated, “I’ve only thought of getting married once. I plan for this one to last.”

After meeting for a brief moment backstage at the concert, Tommy Lee was determined to win Heather over. He would constantly call the actress’s manager to try and get in touch and admitted, “I had called like a million times. I wanted to send her flowers or invite her to something…anything just to talk to her.” Fortunately for Lee, his constant groveling was found flattering by the star, and he eventually got contact with Heather. She finally agreed to go on a date with the rock star.

This was not the first time Heather became romantically involved with a famous star. Since the early 80’s, she has been linked to some of Hollywood’s leading men such as Tom Cruise, Mark Harmon, and Scott Baio. In fact, when Locklear and Harmon broke up, he made an observation about the actress stating that she was an emotional cup of coffee.” Although this would be a very telling observation about her future struggles, Tommy Lee did not take notice of other peoples thoughts on Locklear.

At the time of their initial meeting, Locklear was considered the squeaky clean girl off of Dynasty. Meanwhile, Lee was so rock and roll that Heather admitted on their first date she “ran back upstairs to make my hair wilder.” While it may have been a simple move to change her image, it took a lot more to keep up with Lee’s hard-partying ways with his band Mötley Crüe. However, Heather was willing to do all she could for the man she loved.

Meanwhile, her relationship with Tom Cruise was extremely short-lived. When Locklear spoke of their brief romance, she admitted that their first date was such a disaster, that there were to not be anymore after that! The actress did not like Cruise’s dance moves, so much so, she was put off by the actor. Although many may be familiar with these moves having watched Risky Business, Locklear was not too sure what to do – “Do you dance around him?” she said. “It was weird. I just sat down.”

Locklear had the girl-next-door image with her curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. However, Locklear proved she was anything but the typical American sweetheart. In her first year at the University of California, Heather was required to recite a monologue in front of her classmates to pass the class. Even with her father as staff in the university, Heather refused to oblige and chose to take an F in the class, rather than give in and do as required.

Though Lee managed to charm over Locklear’s parents after their initial meeting, Tommy was originally worried about their reaction to his ink-covered body. He recalls the first time he met Locklear’s parents, stating, “I’m pulling earrings out, putting on a long-sleeve shirt, and when he comes in I’m sitting like a gentleman on the couch.” Locklear’s straight-laced father may have seemed hard to win over at first, but the tattoo covered rockstar had nothing to worry about.

When the pair were set to marry, Locklear’s bachelorette party was themed with naughty items, which included objects and clothing for ladies. While this may have been just another way to match up to Lee’s ridiculous antics, Lee made sure he had one up on his future bride. He surrounded himself with a mud wrestling display by women clad in bikinis. Locklear did not seem to mind and laughed it off at the time. However, at the young ages of 24 and 23, it seems things were only to worsen.

Locklear did not have it easy growing up, especially when she was in high school. She struggled to maintain female friendships, and when she tried to make it for the cheerleading squad, she was rejected. Fortunately, her talents pushed her to focus her sights elsewhere, and soon Heather was to become one of Hollywood’s famous actresses. It was her rejection from the cheerleading squad that led her in this direction but, while she may have had the last laugh, Hollywood was not going to be any kinder to Heather.

Having been dealing with her own demons while growing up in the limelight, it did not help that her relationship with Tommy Lee was revolved around helping him with his. Whenever he started to get out of control, Locklear wanted to play the supportive wife by reeling him back in, but there was only so much she could take before reaching a breaking point. Having completely disregarded Locklear’s emotions, Tommy Lee was the reason their marriage failed, due to his infidelity.

Heather and Tommy’s marriage was to last seven years before it became too much for Heather. While she managed to stay in the marriage for longer than her emotions could handle, she later explained that staying with her out of control husband was the right thing to do at the time. She confessed, “I gave it my best shot, but when it was hurting more to be in than out, I had to do something. I was losing myself. I had to stop. I had to find myself again.”

When it came to Locklear’s second divorce, things became harder during this time since she lost more than just her husband. Her best friend at the time was fellow actress Denise Richards, and her marital split occurred around the same time as their feud began. Heather felt betrayed by Richards after she was the only one of her friends that went to see Sambora play in a show with Bon Jovi. All of Heather’s other friends made a conscious decision not to go in support of the actress.

This time proved extremely tough for Locklear to handle, and she entered a downward spiral from then on. The emotional state the actress was in after losing her husband and her best friend at the same time was only helped with psychiatric medication. However, by 2008, Heather’s stability became so concerning that even her doctor dispatched an emergency team to her house for an evaluation. Although she was deemed to be severely destabilized around this time, when the team arrived, they stated that Heather was “fine.”

Locklear’s second divorce proved to be on another scale to her first. While she was ready to divorce Tommy Lee after suffering for too long in the relationship, she said she “was truly devastated” when divorcing Sambora. Believing she was completely undateable following her divorce from Lee, where she thought she had become damaged goods, Richie was to make her see otherwise. However, with a divorce and a friend’s betrayal occurring at the same time, Locklear was unable to cope with it all.

The real nail in the coffin came when it was revealed that Heather’s former best friend and ex-husband had begun dating. This was sure to be the biggest shock of all for Heather, but Denise Richards claimed that the two only became romantically linked following Heather’s divorce from Richie. Regardless, girl code was certainly broken, and if things were not bad already, this was sure to prove that the friendship between the actress’s had fully dissolved.

Meanwhile, Richards had claimed that Locklear’s actions following her divorce was a reason for their ruined friendship. It was reported that Locklear hired Charlie Sheen’s lawyer when she wanted to divorce Sambora. Considering the messy divorce battle Richards went through with the actor, she felt betrayed by Locklear. To an outsider, therefore, Richards subsequent romance with Locklear’s former husband was seen as a form of revenge, although she claimed it had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, she was the only friend to attend his concert…

Things took a turn for the worst in 2008. Heather didn’t have a single moment to focus on herself, having gone from one relationship to another, and there were devastating effects for her during this time. In July 2008, Locklear realized it was time to take control of her mental health and checked herself into an inpatient hospitalization program. At the time, many accused Tommy Lee and the impact their relationship had on the star for the demons Locklear was now facing and having to deal with.

In 2015, it was revealed that Heather Locklear had had another romantic encounter with a fellow actor. John Stomas revealed to Howard Stern that Locklear was one of the gorgeous Hollywood women that he’d had some involvement with. Although it came out that this was after meeting at a party and having consumed their fair share of alcohol, Stamos revealed that Heather offered for him to come to her room, and he was not going to say no. However, following this night, nothing more came of it.

Unfortunately, things did not suddenly improve for the star after her time in the treatment center. In fact, she faced a number of driving incidents since things turned bad in 2008, and after being discharged from the facility, she was pulled over for erratic driving. While at the time law enforcement officials thought the actress had been partying, her medical reports proved otherwise. Rather, Locklear’s irresponsible driving was due to the medication she was taking at the time to control her depression and anxiety.

Just as history would repeat itself, Heather jumped into yet another relationship, and this time it was with actor and comedian, David Spade. Her heartache was once again buried by becoming romantically involved with someone else, and she focused her attention on her new relationship. When TMZ asked Locklear in April 2017 how Spade managed to win over so many attractive women over the years, she was not shy in suggesting it was his humor, as well as his physical assets.

Following Heather’s request for a divorce, Richie filed for joint custody for their daughter, Ava Elizabeth Sambora. At this time, their prenuptial agreement was also enforced. While this would have been a difficult time for the couple and their family, the divorce procedure happened to go smoothly and became finalized in April 2007. Richie and Heather managed to maintain a healthy relationship for the sake of their daughter and her concerns. However, Heather’s divorce was not the end of things that were going wrong for the star.

Heather did not waste any time following her divorce being finalized and, that same month, she was in a new relationship with fellow actor Jack Wagner. The pair had worked together on Melrose Place, but Wagner is also known for his roles in General Hospital, Santa Barbara, and The Bold and the Beautiful. In August 2011, the pair became engaged, but having been together for over three years, they called off their engagement after a few months. Heather was once again unlucky in love.

A 911 call was made in March 2008, reporting disturbing behavior being displayed by Locklear. Allegedly, it was her doctor who made the call and suggested the actress was trying to inflict pain on herself. An emergency team was sent to Locklear’s home after the authorities became concerned. What exactly happened on this date, and was there reason to be concerned for the actresses wellbeing at the time? It seems only time would tell, and Locklear’s fate was completely unknown.

After emergency services made their visit to Locklear’s home, they found that Heather was, in fact, absolutely fine and there was no reason to be concerned. Heather had never even sought medical assistance, and Ventura County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that no action was taken on their visit. Although there was a good reason to be concerned for the actress, and believing the call was sincere considering her history, the emergency services left the star’s home when they saw no concern at the time.

While the concerning call may have proved to be nothing at the time, a few months later, Heather checked herself into an Arizona Medical facility, proving there was cause for concern. Upon her entrance into the facility, she requested an accurate diagnosis be made to find out what her condition was. Discovering her exact condition would also determine what the correct medication would be too. Her agent followed this with an official confirmation for what she was suffering from, but after four weeks, the actress was ready to leave.

Four years later, on January 12, 2012, yet another 911 call was made about Locklear, and this time it was from her sister. Her concerned sister believed the actress had taken too many of her prescription medication, and this resulted in the emergency services making another visit to Heather’s home. This time round, they believed Heather looked worse for wear and took her to Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California. However, she did not stay here long since she was released the next day.

Heather may have had her fair share of demons, and dark times during her life, however, not all has been bad for the actress. In regards to her career, she has had the fortune of being in hit shows such as Melrose Place and Spin City. Having played the ambitious boss Amanda Woodward in Melrose Place, Locklear won high acclaim for her role. The same was when she played Caitlin Moore in Spin City alongside Michael J. Fox and Charlie Sheen.

Starring in Melrose Place and Spin City made Heather an award-nominated actress. Locklear received her first Golden Globe nomination in 1994, when she was nominated for Best Performance in a Television Series for her role for Melrose Place. This award nomination came only one year after Heather was cast to play Amanda Woodward in the hit series. During her career, the talented actress was nominated for the same category another five times, but unfortunately missed out on the win to other actresses every time.

Heather had actually received her first ever award nomination after her role in the movie, The Return of Swamp Thing. This time, however, it was for a Golden Raspberry Award, also known as a “Razzie,” for Worst Actress. Although this is no career highlight, Heather won the award for her role, along with the First American in the Arts award. Throughout her career, these are the only awards the actress has won for her acting performances. Not quite the Golden Globe standards, but an award nonetheless.

Although much of Heather’s career has been on the small screen, she has appeared on the silver screen during her career. She appeared in movies such as Wayne’s World 2 and Scary Movie 5, however, her success lies in her roles in TV shows. While winning great success and fortune after appearing on Melrose Place and Spin City, Locklear has also had a recurring role in the show Going Places. The series was short-lived, and Heather remains best-known for her roles in the shows above.

Heather’s last name – Locklear – is actually a Tuscarora word meaning “hold fast” and, although her looks may suggest otherwise, Locklear can trace her roots back to a Native American tribe. This may not be confirmed, but there is another evidence to suggest that Locklear has Native American ancestry. Many Tuscarora people can be found in North Carolina, New York, and Ontario, since they originally surrounded themselves around the Great Lakes and large communities. They are also known as the “shirt-wearing people.”

Although she eventually became a famous actress in Hollywood, Heather had attended higher education before setting her sights on TV. She attended UCLA after graduating from high school, and here she got involved with extra-curricular activities such as societies and sororities. Although she was never actually initiated into either, she pledged to both Chi Omega and Delta Delta Delta. While still a student, Heather also got model work and was cast to star in commercials during this time.

Although Heather was cast in recurring roles on hit sitcoms on TV, she also made guest appearances on other popular shows. Locklear appeared as a guest on Muppets Tonight in 1996, where she performed a muppet spoof of Melrose Place. She was also cast in a brief recurring role on Scrubs a few years later and, in 2003, she made a cameo in Two and a Half Men. Here she was reunited with her Spin City co-star, and former best-friends ex-husband, Charlie Sheen.

It seems that Locklear was not be left unlucky in love for too long following her split from fiance Jack Wagner. Her most recent love is plastic surgeon guru, Dr. Marc Mani, of who she has been in a relationship with for five years. Mani was ranked as one of the ten leading US surgeons according to Forbes in 2009. Mani is no stranger to TV either, but not as an actor. He appeared on Treasure Detectives, where he gave a man a facelift in exchange for an authentic Lichtenstein print.

While things may be looking up for the star, disaster struck once more when Heather was involved in a car accident on September 14th, 2017. Fans feared the worst when it was announced that the actress had been involved in a crash. However, after crashing her car into a ditch, she was taken to hospital where she was treated for minor injuries. She was sure to let fans know all was good via social media, where she wrote, “I’m home and good. Thank you for your concern!.”

In 2001, Locklear proclaimed she was just as sweet as reports made her seem. However, while this meant she did not have a bad word to say about anyone, it was reported that this was not the case when it came to her feud with Richards. Although they kept the feud to themselves, which allowed Heather to maintain her public image, behind the scenes, it was alleged that they were at each others throat. Heather also reportedly parked outside the actresses home to blast “Livin’ On A Prayer” on a boombox.

Although we would like to believe she was the girl next door who has been appearing on successful primetime soap operas since the 1980’s, it seems Locklear has failed to get a break when it comes to her personal life. At the end of 2016, Locklear once again entered a treatment center, and her downward spiral after her split from Sambora was never-ending. When she finally returned home following her treatment, she issued a statement to say she was taking some time off for herself.

Heather’s marriage to Tommy Lee sparked a change in Locklear’s lifestyle, and it seems she was never able to recover over the years. Her toxic relationships in the past made a repeat once again when it was reported that she got into a nasty fight with her current flame just before her September car crash. While it is unknown how stable her mood is at this current time, it can only be hoped that she on the path to recovery and that she faces no more heartbreak.