Carmen Electra has revealed why her 1998 marriage to Dennis Rodman ended.

The 54-year-old actress – who recently slipped into a Playboy bunny costume – and the former Chicago Bulls star, 65, were wed for five months after a spontaneous Las Vegas wedding.

And 28 years later Electra has admitted that her then-husband's wild lifestyle was not sustainable.

'It was just too hard to continue to keep up with him and his friends. It was constant drinking,' she said on the Legally Goff podcast this week.

The couple tied the knot at the Little Chapel of the Flowers in November 1998, but the NBA star sought an annulment nine days later, at his wife's request. 

However, they reconciled, and stayed married for nearly half a year.

The heavy partying took a toll on the model. 

She recalled, 'I just remember looking at myself in the mirror, I was at home, and I didn’t recognize myself.

'I had bags under my eyes. My face was puffy. I’m in my 20s! I thought, "It’s got to stop. It has to stop."'

Electra was gifted a self-help book by a friend, which helped her realize she needed to get out of the marriage.

She was inspired to continue reading: 'So I went to the store and I would just walk in a bookstore and kind of blindly go, okay guide me and take me [to] what I need now.'

'I just thought, "I’ve got to get away from him because what good is going to come out of this?"' she shared. 

However, she said her short-lived romance with Rodman 'was real love.'

'It wasn’t a made-up story. It wasn’t a publicity stunt. It was real love,' she emphasized to host Brooke Goff.

'It’s sad but it had to end.'

The rocky marriage came to an end when Electra filed for divorce in April 1999.

Electra said 'there were times' after the separation when Rodman was 'really sweet and cute' as he tried to reconcile the relationship.

'[He’d] want me back,' she detailed. 'I would just give everything [he gave me] back – not everything. I kept the things that he gave me from when we were together but after that, I gave everything back. It was hard.'

The former Baywatch star added that she ultimately had to 'move and change my number' to fully cut ties with Rodman.

'He would just come to my house and not leave,' she claimed. 'He’d threaten to get naked again outside. I just didn’t want the police [to come]. I didn’t want it to turn into a big thing.'

The beauty went on to marry music artist Dave Navarro in 2003.

For his part, Rodman had previously been married to Annie Bakes from 1992-1993, and he later was with third wife Michelle Moyer from 2003 to 2012.