Heather Locklear: A rollercoaster ride through love and heartache

Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora

Just one year after her divorce, 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.

Amidst speculations about whether she had taken enough time to heal from her first failed marriage, 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.”

On the other hand, Sambora 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.”

According to Heather, 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’”.