When was Alexandra Paul on Baywatch? Actress details terrifying stalker experience that cost $60k in legal fees

Alexandra Paul, known to the public for her role in the show Baywatch, which ran from 1989 to 2001, recently wrote about her experience of being stalked by a fan for 13 years. On March 26, 2025, the actress published an essay on The Ankler, divulging how she was stalked by an unnamed woman.

While sharing her experience of being stalked, Paul wrote,

“I’ve spent more than $60,000 in legal fees, hiring private investigators and installing security systems to try and protect my house.”

Paul, who became a part of the main cast of the lifeguard drama in its third season, played the character of Lieutenant Stephanie Holden. Starting from the third season, which aired in 1992, Alexandra Paul starred alongside Pamela Anderson and continued to appear on Baywatch till its seventh season, which aired in 1997.

In the seventh season of Baywatch, Stephanie Holden, the character played by Paul, dies. Holden is killed while she is on a rescue mission, succumbing to a head injury after being hit by the mast of a ship.

According to Distractify, Alexandra Paul, who has always upheld how progressive Baywatch was, also appeared in the supernatural spinoff of Baywatch, called Baywatch Nights in 1997. In Baywatch Nights, Paul played the character of Stephanie Holden’s ghost, reprising her role in the original series. As per Distractify, Paul also played a character who is lookalike of Stephanie in Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding. The movie aired in 2003.

About the stalker who pursued Alexandra Paul for 13 years

In a candid tell-all published by The Ankler, Alexandra Paul went into the details of how a woman 20 years her junior chased her incessantly, often risking Paul and her husband, Ian Murray’s lives.

The woman of German-origin first had an encounter with Paul when the former rang the actress’ doorbell at her Los Angeles home asking if her alleged younger brother, who was accompanying her, could use the bathroom since their home was far away.

At the time, in December 2011, Paul made small talk with the woman while her brother used the restroom. Afterwards, Paul received three notes at various points of time thanking her, and it was only after her husband told the unidentified woman to leave them alone that she did not contact Paul for nine months.

However, soon, the stalker moved into a house close to Paul’s residence. Paul, while detailing her terrifying experience, said,

“It was slow, at first, nearly imperceptible. She found me at the community pool and made small talk. Wanting to be polite, I responded. She’d appear on the trail outside my house when I was hiking, so I stopped walking alone.”

Continuing, Paul also spoke about the impact of stalking on the victims. Paul revealed that she could never be sure about her instincts in such a situation, thinking that perhaps everything was all in her head. Paul eventually stopped going to the gym, where the stalker would always follow her and take up the equipment closest to her.

According to Paul, she also faced the stalker’s wrath, who, in due course, branded her as an antisemite and a criminal in flyers posted all along Paul and Murray’s neighborhood. The actress added that the stalker even sent a letter to Paul’s mother in another state, claiming that Paul was in love with the woman and that Murray was an abusive husband.

Paul and her husband reportedly got relief from the stalker for a little while when she was arrested. Describing the incident, Paul wrote,

“Finally, several years after she’d launched her harassment campaign, law enforcement arrested her outside her home. Since she was in the country illegally with an arrest record for theft and now with a warrant for harassment, she was jailed and then deported back to Germany. She would be unable to legally return for at least a decade.”

The actress added that the stalker succeeded in tormenting Paul from abroad, filing a false lawsuit against the actress for attempting to drive her off a road.

According to Paul, the woman also succeeded in impacting Murray’s career by allegedly launching a calculated campaign on social media from fake accounts, claiming Murray, who is a triathlon coach, was a p*dophile.

As per Paul, she and Murray desperately sought respite from the stalker, who had re-entered the U.S. illegally. Paul also wrote,

“In 2022, 11 years after our nightmare began, Ian and I slipped out of Los Angeles in hopes of finally living in peace. We quietly sold our Pacific Palisades home, got special new IDs that protected our identities and rented a house under an LLC.”

Paul added, in six weeks, however, the woman had located them, pasting flyers identifying the couple across their new neighbourhood. Alexandra Paul wrote that the FBI launched an investigation into the woman as she had crossed state borders.

The authorities finally succeeded in arresting the stalker after nine months. About how the 13-year-long ordeal ended, Paul writes,

“In the fifth month of her incarceration, the L.A. prosecutor’s office asked if we would agree to her release so she could spend her last days at home. We said yes. My stalker died at the age of 41 on July 29, 2024. Which is, bizarrely, my birthday.”

Alexandra Paul’s act of recounting the terrifying trauma of dealing with a stalker for 13 years is undoubtedly brave. Paul, who included a list of do’s and don’t’s at the end of her essay for the benefit of those who might be dealing with stalking situation themselves indicates that she is attempting to use her experience to help others.