Tommy Lee's fight with son latest in long history of his parenting problems
Things got physical between Tommy Lee and one of his sons with Pamela Anderson, Brandon Thomas Lee, 21, on Monday. Police were called to the rock star’s Calabasas, Calif., home and he was transported to the hospital.
While police haven’t arrested Brandon, who has been named a person of interest in the investigation and is cooperating with police, Tommy took to social media to share a photo of his injury, a fat lip. “My heart is broken,” he captioned the post, which he deleted soon after. “You can give your kids everything they could ever want in their entire lives and they can still turn against you. Good job Brandon. Great son!” Tommy also made it clear that Brandon was behind his injury.
Hey @TMZ maybe get your facts straight before you go reporting bullshit. 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.
— T❍mmy L33 (@MrTommyLand) March 7, 2018
Brandon, a model and aspiring actor, was reportedly “defending himself” from his father, who was allegedly intoxicated, according to TMZ. A report on Wednesday stated that Tommy and Brandon were fighting over a tweet Tommy posted criticizing Anderson for bringing up Tommy’s 1998 arrest for spousal battery during a recent interview with Piers Morgan.
Brandon and Tommy aren’t officially commenting (we reached out to their reps), but they are using social media to needle each other. Tommy, who announced his engagement to Brittany Furlan on Valentine’s Day, posted an Instagram Story video of what he said was Brandon’s bedroom. It was messy, and the Mötley Crüe drummer basically warned women not to date his son because of it — with a few curse words in between. Brandon later spoke out on Instagram Story, “As I get older, I have started to realize that there are very few people you can trust … that’s my super depressing thought for tonight. Just thought I’d share it and be a d***.”
Anderson has yet to publicly comment on the drama with her ex-husband but showed support for both of her “beautiful” sons — also including Dylan Jagger, 20, with this post. (Her rep hasn’t responded to our request for comment either.)
@brandonthomaslee @dylanjaggerlee my #beautifulboys
A post shared by The Pamela Anderson Foundation (@pamelaanderson) on Mar 6, 2018 at 2:14pm PST
This domestic violence incident brings up Tommy Lee’s history of parenting problems…
February 1998: Lee and Anderson had a famously tumultuous union. (Some highlights: They married in 1995 just four days after meeting. They had their sex tape stolen. She filed for divorce a year after their wedding only to change her mind.) In early 1998, Anderson — who by then had had two sons with the wild rocker — filed for divorce again after Lee attacked her while she was holding their infant son Dylan.
April 1998: Lee pleaded no contest to a felony charge of spousal battery. In March, he was sentenced to six months in jail as well as counseling and rehabilitation, performing 200 hours of community service, and paying a $6,200 fine to a battered women’s shelter. Though the couple divorced, they got back together a year later and were on and off for several years.
July 2001: In 2001, the couple split again. That year at Brandon’s fifth birthday party at Lee’s Malibu manse, one of the child’s pre-K classmates drowned in the swimming pool. Authorities cleared Lee of any wrongdoing — the child was accompanied to the party by a nanny who left the party early, leaving the child in another nanny’s care — but Lee was sued by the family of the child.
December 2001: Anderson, who had moved on with Kid Rock, and Lee found themselves in a nasty custody battle. In legal documents filed in the Los Angeles Supreme Court, Anderson claimed that Lee subjected their children to physical and mental abuse. The Baywatch alum cited many incidents: (1) That Lee severely beat her as she breastfed Dylan when he was 7 months. (2) He allegedly dangled one son in front of his “temperamental” 130-pound Rottweiler. (3) He made their children watch disturbing television images of the World Trade Center attacks as well as other violent TV programs. (4) He took their “traumatized” sons on a boating holiday shortly after a young child drowned at Brandon’s birthday party. (5) He encouraged the boys to swear and call their mother a “freak” after he became jealous of her new relationship with Rock. The allegations were vigorously denied by Lee.
“Often when they come home they suffer from nightmares for days,” Anderson said in the court filing. “They typically scream, cry, and cling to me when they know they have to go to Tommy’s house and tell me they do not want to go. Brandon has told me that Tommy hurts him and pinches him and Dylan. Dylan has told me that he hates me for making him go to his father’s.”
March 2002: In an interview with CNN’s Larry King Live, Anderson said Lee was estranged from his children, who fear him, and is unable to take care of them without a court-appointed monitor. “They’ve never had a relationship with their father since they were born,” she said. “They’ve always been afraid of their father, and their father has had no contact, really, with them.”
January 2003: They resolved their custody dispute. Lee got partial custody of the boys.
April 2003: Lee is cleared in the drowning of Brandon’s classmate.
June 2008: After a brief marriage to Rock, Anderson reconciled with Lee, and the family is all under one roof again. Lee tells Rolling Stone the kids are so “happy” to have their parents together again. However, the two split again soon after. Anderson went on to marry two more times (to one person: Rick Salomon) and Lee, who already had two other marriages under his belt (including to Heather Locklear in the ’80s), has been engaged a total of five times, including the most recent one to Furlan.
July 2010: Lee threw Brandon an epic 14th birthday party with a rave theme and brought the Beastie Boys’ Mix Master Mike to spin. The police were called to the house three times, Lee was happy to report.
March 2016: In an interview with Wendy Williams, Anderson said Lee is a “good father.”
August 2016: In an interview with W, Brandon talked about his close relationship with his mom but makes it seem like things are fine with his dad too. He told a story about being backstage with his dad at Coachella and meeting Beyoncé.
March 2018: Lee said that while he was in bed with his fiancée, Brandon “busted into the room and assaulted me.” Father and son, who were reportedly fighting over a social media post Lee made dissing Anderson, claimed he told his son to “leave the house,” but instead the boy “knocked me unconscious” and then “ran away from the police.” However, according to TMZ, Brandon was merely defending his mom’s honor — and he’s fully cooperating with police.
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