Donna D’Errico would “never say never” to a Baywatch revival, but she revealed in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife that she’d only want to take part if it was as good as Cobra Kai, the hit Netflix TV series that followed-up The Karate Kid film franchise. “I never say never. It’s not a good idea to say never, but I kind of already did that. And it was cool when it happened, but sometimes when you redo things, it just doesn’t work well. The only exception to the rule is Cobra Kai, which is amazing. If they could redo Baywatch, and it turns out like Cobra Kai, I’m all in. But, as I sit here right now my feeling is, I’ve already done that and it was cool, but let’s move on now. I mean, I never say never, but it’s not something I think about, ever.”
Donna, 54, who starred on the long-running series for two seasons, from 1996-1998, landed the high-profile job — and all the fame that came with it — a few months after moving to Los Angeles from her native Georgia. Not long after scoring the dream gig, Donna was set up on a blind date with Mötley Crü rocker Nikki Sixx, 64, and just three months later they were married. Their union lasted a decade, and during their time together Donna put her own career on hold — a choice she says she regrets. “I was raised in the South, and I was very inexperienced about the world and about all of it. And then suddenly I’m in Hollywood, working with David Hasselhoff, and Pamela Anderson and all of these people, and I think that the advice that I would give myself would be not to give up my career when I got married, which I did.”
When Donna and Nikki got together he already had three kids — sons Gunner, 31, and Decker, 27, and daughter Storm, 28, who he shares with ex-wife Brandi Brandt, 54. Donna also had a son, film and television composer, Rhyan, 29, from a previous relationship. Together the former couple went on to have daughter Frankie, 22, now a successful jewelry designer, and Donna “put her career on the back-burner” to focus on being a full-time mom. “Although I don’t regret raising my ex’s kids, so that he could focus on his career, I do regret giving up my career,” she shared. “I felt that I could sort of put my career on the back burner while he focused on putting his band back together and getting his career back on track. And then I thought, wrongly, that after that happened, I could sort of pick back up where my career left off. But I was naive, I didn’t know the ways of Hollywood at the time, I didn’t realize that once you’re out of the public eye, people forget about you. You know, two weeks later, they move on to the next person…Who knows what my career trajectory could have been, if I’d continued.”
Since her 2007 divorce, Donna has been steadily building back her career. She recently starred in the 2022 crime thriller Frank and Penelope — a role she loved because it went against type. “I really enjoyed playing that character, because it was something unexpected,” she explained. “I loved playing the villain and she was just not attractive, just a very cold blooded, horrible human being. I really love playing that type of character, someone I can really sink my teeth into. What doesn’t interest me is playing the pretty girl or the mom, that just doesn’t interest me. Because for me, it just isn’t something that I can explore, it’s just not a stretch.”
But, when it comes to her personal life, the former Playboy model is fine staying exactly as she is — happily single. “I’ve made some terrible, terrible choices in the past with relationships,” she admitted. “I’m an empath [highly attuned to other people’s feeling and emotions] and empaths kind of, or at least me, I kind of fall prey very easily to narcissistic people. One-hundred-percent of my past relationships have been narcissists. But you don’t see that in the beginning, or I didn’t, because they’re so good at fooling you. They’re saying all the right things and being so amazing and so personable and charming. All the outward appearances are that this is the greatest guy. And then, eventually, the mask slips, and you see them for who they really are. And it’s very ugly, and it’s not what you thought. And so long story short, I don’t trust my own judgment. I’m a little gun shy now, or a lot gun shy, of getting into another relationship. I don’t trust that I won’t fall for another narcissist. So that’s kind of why I choose to be single now. Because I just can’t go through that again. It’s too much, and I’d just much rather be single. I guess [if a man wanted to change my mind he] would have to prove to me that being with [him] would be better than being single. Because I am pretty comfy.”
Part of her now “comfy” life is her sensational success as one of the many celebrity creators on OnlyFans. A site she reveals she joined as a response to the haters telling her she shouldn’t be wearing bikinis anymore. “I thought I was gonna be on there a couple of weeks or a month and then you know, I would have made my point, that I can still wear a bikini. But now not that I’m on there I’m having a ball and making great money.”
“I’ve stayed on there because it turned into a second business, [the money] is no joke. And, unlike a lot of celebrities on there who have agencies that run their accounts and hired chatters impersonating them in the chats, it’s really me on there. I spend a few hours a day personally on there, chatting with people. And I keep it very clean. I can post the stuff that I’m selling on there, on Instagram. But I’m having fun because there’s no censorship. There’s nobody bullying me. Everybody’s complimentary, I’m having a ball. I should have done this years ago.”