Carmen Electra Shares Surprising Details About Divorce From Dennis Rodman

Carmen Electra is looking back on her time married to former, oft-controversial NBA star Dennis Rodman. Specifically, she’s opening up about their divorce and the surprising things she had to deal with from him while trying to part ways.

The two began dating in 1988 and quickly fell head over heels for one another. They would later get married in November of that same year, per PEOPLE. However, in a shocking twist, the couple filed for an annulment just nine days after they said, “I do.” Their official divorce was finalized the following spring.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Electra is telling her side of the story. She sat down for a new interview on the “Legally Goff” podcast, in which she revealed that Rodman’s lifestyle, drinking habits, and friends had become too much for her, and it started to have a negative effect on her physical well-being.

“It was just too hard to continue to keep up with him and his friends. It was constant drinking. Looking at myself in the mirror, I was at home, and I didn’t recognize myself. I had bags under my eyes. My face was puffy. I’m in my 20s! I thought, ‘It’s got to stop. It has to stop. I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get away from him because what good is going to come out of this?’” she explained.

By the time she decided to let him know that she was ready to end their marriage, the former Chicago Bulls player allegedly didn’t take the news all that well and began vacillating between tears, sweet treatment, and gifts to get her to change her mind.

However, the sweet treatment soon turned into concerning behaviors after Rodman kept popping up on her and threatened various eccentricities in an effort to get her to stay with him.

Describing how she once had to move out and change her number to escape the harassment, Electra recalled one particular incident: “He would just come to my house and not leave. He’d threaten to get naked again outside. I just didn’t want the police [to come]. It didn’t want it to turn into a big thing.”

Still, at the end of the day, Electra maintained that the feelings they had for one another were authentic and weren’t a ploy for the media—despite what others think.

 “It was real love. It wasn’t a made-up story. It wasn’t a publicity stunt. It was real love. And you know, it’s sad, but it had to end,” she said.