Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez The two found partners while serving their individual life sentences following a high-profile murder case.
The Menendez brothers were arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder after their parents, José and Kitty, were found shot to death in their home. In two trials, Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life in prison without parole; Both maintained that their mother and father were physically, emotionally and sexually abusive.
After initially staying at the same penitentiary, Folsom State Prison, Erik and Lyle were transferred after their sentencing. Lyle was taken to Mule Creek State Prison, while Erik was moved to Nice Valley State Prison, all located in California. They were reunited in 2018 when they were moved to the same housing unit at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center.
Erik previously addressed rumors about his personal life amid speculation about his sexuality.
Erik and Lyle Menendez's murder case returned to the spotlight with Ryan Murphy's Monsters, and now there's a chance their life without parole sentences could be reduced. The Menendez brothers' parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, were found dead in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. After Lyle called the police, they […]
“No [I am not gay]. “The prosecutor brought that up because I was sexually abused and he felt in his own thinking that if my father sodomized me, I must have enjoyed it and therefore I must be desviado,” he said in an interview with Barbara Walters from 1996. “And people who are desviado must be sexually abused or they wouldn't be. It was disturbing to hear, but I'm not gay. But many homosexuals write and feel connected to me.”
Erik finally found love with Tammi Ruth Saccomanwhom she married in 1999. The couple does not have conjugal visits because, under California law, inmates serving life sentences are prohibited from such privileges.
“Tammi is what keeps me going,” Erik said. People in 2005. “I can't think about the sentence. When I do it, I do it with great sadness and primal fear. I start to break out in a cold sweat. It's so scary that I haven't come to terms with it.”
Ramey Photo/Mega Agency; Miles Crist/Netflix's Monsters Ryan Murphy came under fire for a multitude of inaccuracies about the Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez murder case, but what did the show get right? Season 2 of the hit Netflix series, which premiered on September 19, featured a star-studded cast that included Nicholas Chavez, Cooper Koch, Javier […]
Erik credited Tammi's support for helping him, adding, “Tammi's love was an important step in my life choice. Having someone who loves you unconditionally, with whom you can be completely open, is good for anyone: knowing that that person loves me just the way I am.”
Meanwhile, Lyle married Rebecca Sneed in 2003. “People judge her and she has to put up with a lot,” Lyle shared with People in 2017 about how he “feels guilty” about what his wife endures in public. “But she has the courage to face obstacles. It would be easier to leave, but I am deeply grateful that he does not.”
Continue scrolling to take a look at Erik and Lyle's personal life:
Erik Menendez
Erik Menendez
Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty PicturesErik married Tammi in 1999 after she began writing him letters in prison. She has remained by his side while he serves his sentence. Tammi has a daughter from a previous marriage, Talia, who has shown her support for Erik and Lyle on her social media account.
During an interview with Walters in 2005, Tammi called her relationship with Erik something she's “dreamed about for a long time,” adding, “It's something very special that I never thought I'd have.”
Tammi clarified that she does not have a physical relationship with Erik. They are allowed to greet and kiss goodbye during their visits.
“Not having sex in my life is difficult, but it is not a problem for me. “I have to be emotionally attached and I am emotionally attached to Erik,” Tammi said. People in 2005. “My family doesn't understand. “When it started to get serious, some of them just gave up.”
The couple could have a chance to reunite after the Los Angeles district attorney's office recommended in October 2024 that Erik and Lyle be resentenced.
Lyle Menendez
Lyle Menendez
Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty PicturesAfter his arrest, Lyle met Anna Eriksson by mail and they married in 1996 at a wedding attended by their lawyer Leslie Abramson and his aunt Marta Menendez. The California Department of Corrections, however, did not consider the marriage justo, according to a report from Los Angeles Instances in 1997.
The couple broke up in 2001 after she discovered Lyle was writing letters to other women. Two years later, Lyle married Rebecca after knowing her for nearly a decade through postal correspondence.
“Our interaction tends to be free of distractions, and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses, who are distracted by life events,” Lyle said. People in 2017. “We try to talk on the phone every day, sometimes several times a day. I have a very stable and committed marriage and that helps sustain me and brings me a lot of peace and joy. “It is a contradiction to the unpredictable and very stressful environment here.”
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