Burt Reynolds' 1990s Affair With A Cocktail Waitress Ruined His Second Marriage

Burt Reynolds' marriage to Loni Anderson was complicated from the start. Throughout their six-year courtship, Reynolds had expressed hesitancy to settle down with the "WKRP in Cincinnati" star. But they eventually tied the knot in April 1988, adopted a son a few months later, and started their life together. It didn't last long. By 1993, a stunned Anderson was holding divorce papers in her hands. His wife had cheated on him, Reynolds claimed. But that's not what really ruined his second marriage. It was actually Reynolds who had been having an affair with a cocktail waitress named Pam Seals.

When news of the contentious, multi-million dollar divorce surfaced, the '70s heartthrob showed he was ready to drag his estranged wife's name through the mud. "We'll ask her how many affairs she has had since we got married and ask me how many I had and ask the dates of hers and ask the dates of mine," he said on "Good Morning America: Evening Edition" (via UPI). Anderson denied ever stepping out on Reynolds. He, on the other hand, admitted he had been dating Seals since around 1991.

Even though he admitted to cheating on Anderson, Reynolds claimed the affair was justified. "My marriage with Loni has been an empty shell for 2 years," he told the Enquirer in 1993 (via Tampa Bay Times). "Now Pam and I don't want to hide in the shadows anymore." Showbiz history has no shortage of ugly divorces, and Reynolds and Anderson's is right up there. But the "Gunsmoke" actor's relationship with the waitress didn't prove much healthier. 

After his messy divorce from Loni Anderson, Burt Reynolds learned a lesson. "I should have known that you don't marry an actress. That was a really dumb move on my part," he told People in 2015, three years before Reynolds' death in September 2018. But getting with a former soccer cheerleader-turned-cocktail waitress didn't turn out to be a much smoother choice. After ending their relationship in 2004, Reynolds took Pam Seals (seen above) to court on claims she had been extorting him. 

It was an ugly ordeal. Reynolds contended Seals had threatened to falsely accuse him of physical and emotional abuse should he deny to pay her millions of dollars. "She wanted more and more and her demands were absolutely exorbitant," Reynolds' lawyer, Bob Montgomery, told Today. However, Seals' lawyer, Mark Maynor, argued she was after only what he had promised her, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Maynor contended Reynolds made a down payment on a house but stopped paying the mortgage, leaving her with debt she couldn't pay. "I'm really not out trying to hurt him," Seals said.

However, Seals later filed a countersuit, accusing Reynolds of failing to fulfill financial promises and of physically abusing her between 1998 and 2000. In mid-2005, they settled their legal dispute for an undisclosed amount. "Neither side admits the allegations in the other's lawsuit, but both parties are committed to putting this matter behind them and moving on to whatever the future holds," one of Reynolds' lawyers, John McGovern, told the Chicago Tribune.