Lyle’s first wife, Anna Eriksson, was born in Chicago and began modeling as a teen for Lord & Taylor before transitioning to modeling in Europe during the 1980s, as she told PEOPLE in 1996.
However, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Department of Corrections did not “recognize the wedding” and deemed it “not a legal marriage” since it took place over the phone. On April 1, 2001, it was announced that Lyle and Anna had filed for divorce. Eriksson reportedly decided to end their marriage after discovering Lyle’s romantic involvement with another woman — Rebecca Sneed.
Similar to Eriksson, Menendez and Sneed began their relationship through letters.
On November 20, 2003, Lyle married Rebecca, a former magazine editor who had transitioned into a defense attorney from Sacramento. They had been corresponding for nearly a decade before their wedding, which took place in the visiting area of California’s Mule Creek State Prison.
Despite the challenges of their unique situation, Lyle described his marriage to Sneed as “healthy” and “built around finding creative ways to communicate.” During ABC’s Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers, he shared, “I’ve found I can have a healthy marriage that is complicated and built around conversation and finding creative ways to communicate, sharing, without all the props that are normally there in marriage in terms of going out to dinner and having as much intimate time together and so on.”
He added, “One thing I’ve learned is that your physical comfort is much less important than your connection with the people around you.”
During an interview with PEOPLE, Lyle explained, “Our interaction tends to be very free of distractions, and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses do. We try and talk on the phone every day, sometimes several times a day. I have a very steady, involved marriage that helps sustain me and brings much peace and joy. It’s a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here.”
