L.A. Law actor Harry Hamlin and Melrose Place and Real Housewives star Lisa Rinna have been married since 1997—a rare celebrity relationship success story. But their romance didn’t exactly have a storybook beginning, and they may never have gotten together were it not for an alleged affair. Hamlin and Rinna have claimed that his ex-wife Nicollette Sheridan cheated on him with pop singer Michael Bolton—something the Desperate Housewives actor denies. Read on to find out more.
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Hamlin and Rinna had already been together for more than two decades when she claimed during a 2019 episode of RHOBH that the couple only got together after Hamlin’s 1991 marriage to Sheridan fell apart due to her affair with Bolton.
In the episode, the reality star bonded with castmate Denise Richards, whose ex Aaron Phypers had also previously been married to Sheridan. While commiserating, she said that Hamlin divorced the actor after less than a year because she went home with Bolton after attending one of his concerts at the Hollywood Bowl while Hamlin was out of the country.
“I thank Michael Bolton to this day, are you kidding me?” Rinna said during the episode. “Let’s cheers Michael Bolton.”
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Hamlin and Sheridan first met in 1990 on the set of the made-for-Showtime erotic drama Deceptions. At the time, both were successful in their careers, starring on separate long-running TV series—he on L.A. Law; she on Knot’s Landing.
Hamlin had recently divorced his first wife, actor Laura Johnson (he also has a son from an earlier relationship with Bond girl Ursula Andress), while Sheridan’s ’80s flings included teen idols such as Leif Garrett and Scott Baio.
Their connection on set was apparently instant, as they were married in 1991. But the union would be just as short-lived—a year later, the couple divorced, though Bolton’s involvement didn’t come to light until years later—and remains disputed.
While it’s unclear how Sheridan came to know Bolton, she rebutted Rinna’s claim that an affair with him ended her marriage to Hamlin in a February 2019 tweet, calling it “fake news.” She also said that the singer had attended their wedding and was “a long time friend.” According to her, the decision to divorce was rather something she and Hamlin came to together, while “nose to nose.
Hamlin remembered things differently, backing up Rinna’s version of events. In his own rebuttal tweet, the actor wrote, “What’s it called when your wife of one year suddenly goes to bed with a pop singer? …two weeks after your mother dies?? I did a lotta stuff with my wife ‘nose to nose’ but ending our marriage was not one of them!”
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Oddly enough, Hamlin credits Sheridan for his meeting Rinna in the first place. According to People, Hamlin encountered her while out to dinner with Sheridan in 1992, when Rinna stopped by their table to say hello to Sheridan, as they knew each other.
“I was sitting with my wife at the time having dinner, the two of us, and this absolutely gorgeous girl walked by me—[she] might’ve said ‘hello,'” Hamlin told the magazine. Rinna agreed, adding, “I did say ‘hello’ because I knew your wife.” It was an inauspicious beginning, and Hamlin and Rinna didn’t start dating until 1993, after Hamlin’s marriage had ended, but they’ve been together ever since. Hamlin recalled even then being a bit smitten with his future bride.
“I was married, so I wasn’t thinking beyond that, but I recall being stricken by her beauty,” he told People.
For her part, though there’s some controversy about when their relationship became romantic, Sheridan spent years in an on-and-off relationship with Bolton. They dated from 1992-1995 and then again from 2005-2008. At one point they were even engaged, though they never married.
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