Many TV audience saw Heather as a ‘nice girl’ – almost bordering on boring. But all of this was to change with her first marriage. Because the person she tied the knot with was anything but ordinary.
Dating Mark Harmon
NCIS star Mark Harmon hasn’t always been married to his beloved Pam Dawber. Before their wedding, Mark was one of Hollywood’s most sought-after bachelors.
People magazine even voted him the sexiest man alive in 1986. At the time, Mark was making waves as Dr. Robert Caldwell on St. Elsewhere and could have had his pick of single women in Hollywood, though he might not have fully realized his own popularity. His co-star, Cristina Pickles, who played nurse Helen Rosenthal on St. Elsewhere, once remarked on how women reacted to seeing Harmon.
“Mark’s sensitivity shows through that handsome face, and women love that,” she told People in 1986. “I don’t think he is fully aware of his effect on women.”
“Forget Mel Gibson,” actor Donna Mills said. “Whenever I see Mark, I think to myself, ‘Your place or mine?’”
Of course, Heather Locklear had also noticed Mark Harmon, and they had a brief fling in 1984. They would probably have made a great couple, but fate had other plans. Their romance was short-lived, according to the NCIS star.
“It began around Christmas [1984] but was over by New Year’s,” Mark recalled and said that Heather was “just an emotional cup of coffee to me.”
First marriage
Heather Locklear started dating the fast-living Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in 1985. The couple first met at an REO Speedwagon concert.
”He was a bad boy, and that image was exciting to me. Maybe it was my way of rebelling,” she said.
Sadly, the marriage began to falter quite quickly. Despite this, the couple stayed married for almost eight years.
”I really loved Tommy – well, for a brief time”, she said. ”I gave it my best”.
Their original plan was to stay together for life, and Heather often spoke about only getting married once.
“I think we’ll be the coolest grandma and grandpa in the world,” Tommy Lee excitedly said in an interview with People shortly after their union. “We’ll be like 85 or 90; I’ll still be a rock pig, and Heather will still be gorgeous.”
The couple went their separate ways in 1993, but Heather would soon find love again.
Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora
Heather Locklear found love again, this time with rock star Richie Sambora, lead guitarist for Bon Jovi. Their paths crossed in New York during one of Heather’s Melrose Place PR trips.
Heather and Richie faced initial challenges, living on opposite coasts of the USA — he in New Jersey and she in California. However, despite the distance, the couple seemed to make it work.
In 1994, they tied the knot in a New Jersey civil service. Not content with just one celebration, the newlyweds jetted off to Paris for another ceremony shortly after.
Having been previously married to the wild Tommy Lee, the then-33-year-old Dynasty/T.J. Hooker/Melrose Place star expressed that she found something different and special in Richie Sambora.
”He’s really grounded, really family oriented, and very close to his parents,” she noted of Sambora in 1998. ”Who I am as a person is really who Richie is as a person…. We mirror each other.”
Sambora, on the other hand, had also lived a hard rock ‘n’ roll life; there were rumors of him dating Cher, among others. But when he saw Heather, his life changed.
”I had a great time dating women,” he recalled. ”But the minute I met my wife, I knew I was done. That was it. I think the same thing happened to her.”
Heather shared that her second marriage was very different compared to the first time she walked down the aisle.
”I handled it so differently from my first marriage,” she said in 1996 and continued:
”I told him, ‘This is who I am and this is what I want’”.
The two spent their weekends at their mountain home in Lake Arrowhead, outside of Los Angeles.
”We are very boring. We go out to dinner to the same three restaurants and eat the same things. We like to sit around and talk,” Heather said.
In many ways, Heather and Richie appeared to live like any ordinary married couple, despite their celebrity status.
”By all accounts, they were a perfect couple,” Jamie Bufalino, senior editor at People magazine, said. “Many of their friends envied their relationship.”
In 1997, they welcomed their only child, daughter Ava. When she was a little kid, Ava was often seen on-stage during concerts with Jon Bon Jovi. Sometimes, she introduced them to the audience and even danced with the band members.
Being the daughter of two big stars, her not-so-average upbringing could easily have been a nightmare. But instead, it looks like she turned out fine –Ava is a very smart and highly-educated woman today (check here).
Unfortunately, her parents’ marriage didn’t fare as well.
Breakup with Sambora
Rumors of the two’s impending breakup swirled, with some tabloids claiming that their disputes revolved around whether to have a second child.
The speculation reached a point where Heather and Richie eventually were forced to address the reports.
”The real story is that there is no story. The truth is that after 11 years together, we are still happily married. Boring but true,” the couple said in a joint statement to the New York Daily News, in December 2005.
Some months later, the situation took a different turn.
After eleven years of living together, Heather Locklear filed for divorce. She cited irreconcilable differences, a typical reason in celebrity divorces. However, the fallout of Heather’s filing for divorce was anything but typical.
It all started in February 2006 when Heather’s publicist spread the news of the divorce. However, there was a problem – Richie Sambora had no idea that his wife wanted to split up.
The rocker was sh0cked by the news, because the message apparently didn’t reach the rocker, who had been on tour recently. And he fired back when reporters asked what had happened between the couple. Richie claimed that the reports of their divorce were ”completely untrue” and that he was in the midst of making plans for Valentine’s Day with his wife.
But in fact, Heather had indeed filed for divorce. And as the days went by, more and more dirty details began to emerge. Heather had stumbled upon an email sent to Richie Sambora from a woman they both knew, according to People. The email contained provocative pictures.
That discovery was the last straw, which left Heather ”absolutely devastated.” Sambora, however, vehemently denies any marital indiscretion.
Heather Locklear and Denise Richards, what happened?
The breakup also caused a rift between Heather and her close friend Denise Richards. Shortly after the divorce, Richie Sambora began dating Denise, who was also going through a highly publicized and tough split from Charlie Sheen. Charlie and Heather had become friends after working together on the TV show Spin City, so the two couples were well-acquainted.
The divorces brought Denise and Richie together, and they eventually fell in love. This naturally didn’t sit well with Heather. There was speculation that a possible affair between Richie and Denise was the real reason for Heather’s divorce, though Denise has denied this. What is clear, however, is that Richie and Denise’s relationship deeply hurt Heather.
“The thing with Heather, that’s been hard,” Denise Richards told Entertainment Tonight in 2006. “You can’t help who you fall for and that friendship, unfortunately, was done and wasn’t salvageable.”
Denise shared that she and Heather were never “best friends,” and she didn’t steal her friend’s husband, as some malicious rumors suggested. Getting together with Richie was the last thing she wanted, but it couldn’t be helped once they fell for each other.
”We (her and Sambora) were friends and we were both going through divorces, and that’s what drew us to each other … I did not steal someone’s husband. Did I date a former friend’s ex-husband? Yes. Did I break up a marriage? No,” Richards told Us Weekly.
The relationship between Denise Richards and Richie Sambora didn’t last long. They broke up in early 2007 but remained friends afterward. The couple gave it another try in 2011, but ultimately decided to stay friends.
Relationship today
Heather and Richie have managed to maintain a good relationship despite the tumultuous circumstances surrounding their divorce. Many years after their split, Richie Sambora spoke with People and revealed that he and Heather still love each other.
”Time does heal old wounds. I mean, I still love Heather and I know she loves me. She’s the mother of my child, man. What can you say?,” Richie explained.
Of course, Ava, their beloved daughter, plays an important role in maintaining healthy communication between them. Both of her parents are incredibly supportive, and when Ava Sambora walked the catwalk at the White Trash Beautiful Spring 2011 Fashion Show, Heather and Richie were there, standing side by side. They have also been together for several Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations.
”We’re very good. It’s actually even beyond for [our daughter’s] sake,” Richie told Access Hollywood in 2012. ”Heather and I really respect each other, and we’ve become better friends, I think, now that we’re not married.”
The past few years have been quite tough for Heather Locklear. She has been arrested multiple times and has struggled with alc0h0l and medication add:ction. The first worrying sign came in 2008, when someone who claimed to be Locklear’s doctor called 911 and said that the star was trying to end her life.
Though emergency responders rushed to her house and the police investigated the matter, afterward, Heather’s publicist said the alarm was false. However, the police believed the call was genuine.
Unfortunately, Heather’s decline continued, and she has received treatment for add#ction 20 times. Not long after that alarming call in 2008, the six-time Golden Globe nominee checked herself into an Arizona medical center for anxiety and depression treatment. In 2018, Richie Sambora revealed that he had hired a team of specialists to care for Locklear after she once again faced issues with alcohol and was arrested for domestic vi0l3nc3 and battery against a police officer.
Richie helped arrange and cover the costs so that Heather could remain at a long-term care residence, where some of the best doctors and psychiatrists could assist her.
”I will of course always be there for Heather and especially Ava. I am very proud of my daughter for her composure and strength during this difficult time,” Richie Sambora told Daily Mail.
In recent years, Heather appears to have been more stable, and she reportedly has been sober for many years now. Unfortunately, in 2023, some concerning images of her were published, sparking worries about her well-being once more.
The New York Post released photos showing Locklear behaving erratically and talking to herself in public, raising concerns that she might be struggling again.
We sincerely hope that Heather is doing well today.