The Tragic Truth About Pamela Anderson's Oldest Son Brandon

The following article discusses alcohol addiction.

Being the son of two of the most recognizable faces of the ’90s has its perks. Brandon Thomas Lee is making a living and thriving as an actor and producer, but a career in Hollywood isn’t all he inherited from Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson, who had a short-lived and controversial marriage. Brandon was born at the height of his parents’ notoriety,  just a year after the infamous sex tape was stolen, and interest in Anderson and the Mötley Crüe drummer’s marriage extended to their children. As such, Brandon’s path was inevitably shaped by his unique set of circumstances.

From growing up under the watchful lenses of paparazzi to navigating the complicated family dynamics that arose from Anderson and Lee’s contentious split, Brandon has had more than his fair share of lessons in resilience. But there were a lot of obstacles on the way. Even though he had ambitions, the Hollywood lifestyle took a toll on his personal and professional life until he found the tools to take back control. Brandon’s journey wasn’t a straight line, but he found his way.

After getting early recognition for his roles in “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser,” “Cosmic Sin,” and “The Hills: New Beginnings,” Brandon showed the true depth of his talents when he delved into the production side. The Emmy and Golden Globes nominations earned by “Pamela, a Love Story” and “The Last Showgirl” are a testament to that. Anderson and Tommy’s oldest son Brandon is doing quite well today, but the journey hasn’t always been easy.

Brandon Thomas Lee is carving a successful path in Hollywood, but he wasn’t immune to the industry’s vices earlier in his life. His struggles came to light in June 2018, when Tommy Lee took a jab at his son online and revealed he paid $130,000 for Brandon’s rehab.

It was a cheap shot, but Brandon used the opportunity to bring attention to his recovery. “I thank my Dad for paying for my treatment,” Brandon wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post (via Fox News). “It’s the best thing he has ever done for me.” While he started his response in a sarcastic tone, Brandon took a more serious approach as he delved into his accomplishment. “Today I am almost two years sober. Every day that goes by I feel ever more grateful. My clear mind has allowed me to do a lot with this time,” he wrote.

After becoming sober, he realized how the party lifestyle was incompatible with the life he had envisioned for himself. “I’m such an ambitious person. Usually, when anything gets in the way of my goals I just remove them from my life,” he told Australia’s Herald Sun in 2019. He nipped the addiction in the bud and never looked back. “I want people to take me seriously. I got sober for me,” he said.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

In March 2018, Brandon Thomas Lee and Tommy Lee got into a physical fight that ended in the courts. Tommy shared a photo of his busted lip to social media, claiming Brandon caused it. “My heart is broken. You can give your kids everything they could ever want in their entire lives and they can still turn against you,” he wrote alongside the picture (via TMZ). Los Angeles police opened a battery investigation after Tommy accused Brandon of punching him in the face.

Brandon, for his part, didn’t deny landing the punch but argued he acted in self-defense, telling authorities he reacted after his father charged at him. Tommy denied Brandon’s version of events. Instead, the rocker argued his son confronted him about his response to one of Pamela Anderson’s interviews in which she discussed their relationship. “When I stood up he pushed me into a wall. I didn’t want to hit my son,” he said (via E! News).

Brandon was cleared after the district attorney’s office dismissed the case. In his mind, the altercation was a consequence of his father’s alcohol addiction. “I’ve worked tirelessly organizing an intervention and it’s incredibly upsetting that it never came to fruition,” he told People in a statement. Pamela Anderson also blamed the situation on Tommy’s alcohol use, though he denied suffering from addiction. “No matter how much people wanna pin me as this deviant alcoholic abuser, that isn’t me,” he told TMZ.

All the drama came amid a very public feud between Tommy Lee and Brandon Thomas Lee in 2018. In their social media back-and-forths, father and son exposed the complicated dynamics that have marked their relationship. That June, Tommy lamented that Brandon and Dylan Lee had turned out to be so unlike him despite his best efforts. “Sometimes I feel like I failed as a father, because my kids don’t know the value of things,” he said in an Instagram post.

However, he quickly shifted the blame onto Pamela Anderson for spoiling their sons. “I know I’m not fully to blame, because their mom has a lot to do with it, enabling bad behavior and buying them things when they weren’t good,” he wrote. Brandon responded by accusing Tommy of being an absent father. “You gotta show up to be a Dad big guy,” he wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post (via The Wrap). “If you think we’re so bad (which I can assure you we are not) then you should have showed up to a few more BDays and baseball games.” 

Tommy and Brandon seemingly reconciled later that year. In December 2018, Tommy shared a photo of father and son locked in an affectionate embrace. “I love you son,” he captioned the Instagram post. In April 2024, the duo attended a golfing event organized by the George Lopez Foundation — and posed for photos with their arms around each other (seen above).

For most of his childhood, Brandon Thomas Lee believed his reality was just like that of his peers. Everyone got chased by photographers, his parents told him. “They tried to make me feel normal,” he said in a 2019 interview with KTLA 5. That doesn’t mean he liked it, but he assumed it was just another annoying thing adults imposed on kids. 

That lasted until he got a reality check from his buddies. “I remember going out to lunch with one of my friends one day and I was like, ‘Why does no one take photos of you guys?'” he recalled. That’s when his parents’ make-believe fell apart. “They said, ‘Let’s explain something to you real quick … that’s not normal,'” he continued. 

However, even though Lee believed the attention he received was expected, it still took a toll on him. “I had paparazzi jumping over my fence trying to take photos of me, all this stuff, and it was a lot for a kid. I could not handle it,” he told WWD in 2019.

That aspect of his relationship was so hard that Lee vowed never to work in the industry. “I never thought I would do anything like this. Because when I was a little baby…it’s different being born into my family,” he said, referring to his role in “The Hills.” But that’s where life took him — and he’s glad he’s able to tackle fame on his terms now.

Growing up being chased by paparazzi wasn’t the only side effect of being Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s son. Brandon Thomas Lee also had to come to terms with the scrutiny his parents, particularly his mother, were put under in the aftermath of their stolen sex tape. As he grew older, Brandon saw that Anderson’s reputation took an unfair hit. But the process wasn’t easy. “Over the years, as they learned about things in my past, both age-appropriate and not age-appropriate, unfortunately, they thought I was taken advantage of in some ways,” Anderson told Better Homes & Gardens in 2024.

As Brandon launched his producing career, he used his voice to remedy the injustice through “Pamela, a Love Story,” the 2023 Netflix documentary about her life. “I wasn’t necessarily out to make a film that made her look her best,” he told People. “I was just going to tell the truth.” The decades-long distortion of the truth entrapped Anderson into the blonde bombshell stereotype that prevented her from achieving her full potential. So Brandon made it his mission to change that. 

“The goal of those projects was to get people to understand and get to know Pamela because there was so much misconception around her and who she was,” he told Variety in 2024, referring to the documentary and “Pamela, with Love,” her 2023 memoir. “It was really holding her back in terms of the opportunity she was being presented.”