Erik and Tammi Getty Images/Mega Erik Menéndez's prison life sentence didn't stop him from finding love with wife Tammi Menéndez. Erik and his brother, Lyle Menéndez, 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 August 1989. Two trials resulted in Erik and Lyle being sentenced to life without parole. Both have maintained that their mother and father were physically, emotionally and sexually abusive. After the trial, Erik's sexual orientation became a topic of conversation. "No [I am not gay]. The prosecutor brought that up because I was sexually molested and he felt in his own thinking that if I was sodomized by my father that I must have enjoyed it and therefore I must be gay," Erik said in a tell-all with Barbara Walters from 1996. "And people that are gay out there must be sexually molested or they wouldn't be. It was upsetting to hear, but I am not gay. But a lot of gay people write and feel connected to me." Who Are the Menendez Brothers Married to While They're in Prison? Tammi first reached out to Erik via mail in 1993, when he was in prison but not yet sentenced. At the time, she was still married to Chuck Saccoman. Her connection with Erik took a turn after Saccoman's death in 1996 which led to a year 1999 wedding ceremony in prison. Tammi was later asked whether she was initially "troubled" by Erik being responsible for his parents' death. "I know his soul, and I do know what happened that night," she told NBC News in 2005. "And I do understand. I believe that within everybody put in certain circumstances, you will, you know, be able to kill somebody. I mean, I do believe that Erik is a very good person." That same year, Tammi explained why she wasn't bothered by the lack of conjugal visits. (Prisons in California permit conjugal visits, but prisoners serving life sentences without parole are banned from such privileges. The law was changed in 2016 but since Erik and Lyle committed a violent offense against a family member, they still aren't eligible for the family visits.) "Not having sex in my life is difficult, but it's not a problem for me. I have to be physically detached, and I'm emotionally attached to Erik," she explained to People in 2005 while Erik added in a separate interview with the outlet, "It's not the sex you seek, but the emotional connection. There is no makeup sex, only a 15-minute phone call, so you really have to try to make things work." Erik's brother, Lyle, also found The One while incarcerated. After his arrest, Lyle met Anna Eriksson through mail correspondence and they exchanged vows in 1996 in a wedding attended by his attorney Leslie Abramson and his aunt Marta Menéndez. Lyle and Anna called it quits in 2001 and he has been married to Rebecca Sneed since 2003. Both Menéndez siblings now have a chance to reunite with their wives after the Los Angeles District Attorney recommended in October 2024 that a judge resentence Erik and Lyle to 50 years. Keep scrolling to relive Erik and Tammi's relationship: Inside the Menendez Brothers' Lives in Prison: Restrictions, No Conjugal Visits 1993 VINCE BUCCI / AFP) (Photo by VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Images Before Erik was sentenced in his high-profile murder case, he connected with Tammi when she wrote him a letter in prison. Tammi was still married to Chuck at the time and was living with him and her teenage daughter from a prior relationship when she started to follow the Menéndez trial. "I told [Chuck] that I was going to write to Erik," Tammi recalled to People in 2005. "He said to go ahead. I really didn't know if Erik would write back." As for Erik, he told the outlet that fate made him open Tammi's letter, adding, "I saw Tammi's letter and I felt something. I received thousands of letters, but I set this one aside. I got a feeling. And I wrote her back. Tammi and I continued to correspond. I enjoyed writing to her. It was a slow friendship. It was special to me because it was not associated with the trial and the media. Tammi was someone not in the craziness." 1996 Chris Morton/Getty Images) Three years into her correspondence with Erik, Tammi found out that Chuck allegedly started to rape her teenage daughter when she was 15 years old. Chuck, who shared a then-9-month-old daughter Talia with Tammi, turned himself into the police and died by suicide two days later. "I reached out to Erik. He comforted me," Tammi told People. "Our letters started taking on a more serious tone." Timeline of Erik, Lyle Menendez's Murder Case: From Arrest to Resentencing 1997 Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images Erik and Tammi met in-person after he was convicted of first-degree murder. Tammi recalled being "really nervous" to visit Erik in prison. "I'd only sent him a tiny, 1-by-1 [inch] picture," she recalled to People. "But when he walked into the room, he was so full of life, he hopped down the stairs. It was like I was meeting an old friend." Erik ca