Lyle Menendez, wife Rebecca Sneed’s relationship timeline before release

Lyle Menendez has wife Rebecca Sneed by his side as he serves his life sentence for first-degree murder.

Before Lyle found love with Sneed, he made headlines after becoming a person of interest in the murder of his parents. Lyle and his brother, Erik Menendezwere indicted in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder.

Lyle began corresponding with the former model Anna Eriksson shortly after his arrest. Their whirlwind romance almost saw the couple get married a day before Erik and Lyle’s sentencing. Ultimately, court and prison officials prevented the ceremony from taking place.

Two subsequent trials resulted in the conviction of Erik and Lyle and a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Erik and Lyle, meanwhile, have maintained that their father and mother were physically, emotionally and sexually abusive and that their actions were in self-defense.

Related: Who did the Menendez brothers marry while in prison?

Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez both found partners while serving their individual life sentences after a high-profile murder case. The Menéndez brothers 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. Two […]

On the day of his conviction in 1996, Lyle secretly married Eriksson via telephone conference. The New York Times reported at the time that Lyle and Erik — who served as his brother’s best man — called the wedding while their attorney Leslie Abramson placed the ring on Eriksson’s finger for Lyle.

However, the California Department of Corrections did not consider Lyle and Eriksson’s marriage legal. After five years of marriage, Eriksson filed for divorce in 2001 after discovering that Lyle was seeing other women.

Sneed was one of the people Lyle wrote to after his arrest. They stayed in touch and by 2003, Lyle and Sneed were a married couple. Unlike Erik’s wife, Tammi MenendezSneed has remained completely out of the public eye.

“People are judgmental and she has to put up with a lot,” Lyle said People in 2017. “But she has the courage to face the obstacles. It would be easier to leave, but I’m extremely grateful she doesn’t.

Sneed and Lyle now have a chance to reunite in person after the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office recommended in October 2024 that a judge sentence Erik and Lyle to 50 years, which could make them eligible for parole and prison time.

Keep scrolling to relive Lyle and Sneed’s relationship:

1993

When Lyle first came into contact with her, Sneed was a magazine journalist writing to him in prison. The pair became pen pals – and stayed in touch for a decade – before starting dating and eventually exchanging vows.

2003

Lyle and Sneed married two years after his divorce from Eriksson. Lyle was 35 and Sneed was 33 at the time of their wedding at Mule Creek State Prison. Over the years, Sneed switched from journalism to law. She is currently an attorney who lives in California and visits Lyle weekly.

2017

“Our interactions are usually distraction-free and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses, who are distracted by life events,” Lyle said. People at the time about the lack of conjugal visits between him and Sneed. (California prisons allow conjugal visits, but inmates serving a life sentence without parole are not allowed such privileges. The law was changed in 2016, but since Erik and Lyle committed a violent crime against a family member, they are still coming becoming ineligible for family visits.)

For her part, Sneed has not done any interviews, preferring to support Lyle while staying out of the public eye.

Related: Erik and Lyle Menendez’s family guide: who supports them and who doesn’t?

Most of Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez’s family members have stuck by their side after their high-profile murder case — but not everyone. Erik and Lyle’s parents, José Menéndez and Kitty Menéndez, were found dead in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. After Lyle called the police, authorities discovered that José had been shot six times and Kitty […]

2017

While thinking about his bond with Sneed, Lyle explained ABC News how they manage to keep their marriage together, saying, “One thing I’ve learned is that your physical comfort is far less important than your connection with the people around you. I have discovered that I can have a healthy marriage that is complex and built around conversations and finding creative ways to communicate and share, without all the props that normally come with marriage, like going out to dinner and just as much intimate having time together and so on.”

2024

Although Erik and Lyle’s previous attempts to appeal their life sentences were rejected, projects such as Ryan Murphy‘s controversial series Monsters, The Menéndez brothers and more have given the brothers another chance at possible revenge.

A month after the release of MonstersLos Angeles district attorney George Gascon announced in October 2024 that a new hearing had been scheduled due to new evidence in Lyle and Erik’s murder case. Gascón offered an update late that same month recommending that Erik and Lyle’s sentences be reduced to 50 years, which would allow them to be released on parole if the judge approved.