Pamela Anderson has lived quite the life in the spotlight.
Teaming up with Netflix for the release of her new documentary Pamela, A Love Story, Anderson has shared unheard stories from her early life and rise to fame.
Here are seven things we learned from the documentary.
Watch the official trailer for Pamela, A Love Story. Post continues below.
1. Pamela Anderson's tough childhood.
"My dad drank a lot. We fought quite a lot. There was name calling and physical abuse too," Anderson said in the documentary.
"My mum was vacuuming during a hockey game, and my dad picked up the vacuum and threw it over her head. I just kind of knew when to take my brother out. We had to wait for them to stop screaming and then they'd be up against the wall or on top of the table, kissing, throwing themselves in the room and slamming the door."
The family ended up leaving Anderson's dad a few times, and Anderson's mum had to go on welfare assistance as a result.
"He then came and got us and moved back home. I realised no one has a perfect childhood."
2. Pamela Anderson opened up about the sexual abuse she experienced as a young girl.
Anderson said that as a young girl, she was abused at the hands of her babysitter.
"My parents thought she was a great babysitter because she brought presents all the time. But she was molesting me. It was like three or four years of abuse. And she always told me not to tell my parents. I tried to protect my brother from her."
Anderson then alleged that she tried to kill her babysitter as a child by "stabbing her in the heart" with a pen. She also told the babysitter that she wanted her dead. The next day, the babysitter died in a car accident.
"I was sure I did it - I had wished her dead. I lived with that my whole young life. When those traumatic moments happen, I would leave my body and float away in my own little world."
Anderson also alleged that she raped by a 25-year-old male at 12 years old.
It was for these reasons that Anderson decided to move away from her hometown on Vancouver Island, Canada, and start a new chapter elsewhere.
3. Anderson reflected on her first time at the Playboy Mansion.
Arriving to Los Angeles to pose for Playboy in her early adult years, Anderson said she felt completely out of her depth.
"The girls were wearing silk gowns and robes. They're sipping champagne. I felt very average at this point, wearing acid wash jeans and my Nirvana t-shirt. When I was young, I was painfully shy and hated my body. The things I went through as a kid, I had so much shame with my body," she explained.
Soon after arriving at the Playboy Mansion, Anderson was taken to the hair salon by the magazine's team and her hair was dyed blonder. She was given a spray tan, and then whisked off to her first photoshoot.
"I was so freaking paralysed by the shyness. For the first snap of the picture, I felt like I was throwing myself off a bridge and falling. Then it felt like I had broken free. By the end of the week you had to stop me from running out the door naked. Now I was going to take the power of my own sexuality and take my power back."
Soon after, Anderson decided to get a breast augmentation. And it appeared to be the only thing journalists and late night TV hosts would ask her about.
"I was pretty naïve. It was annoying [to have that be the only thing people asked about]. Like really? Are we talking about this again? You roll with it. I don't see how it's so interesting. There has to be some line that people don't cross. I always hoped I would do something that people would find more interesting than my body."
4. Pamela Anderson said slow motion running was "really hard to learn" for Baywatch.
While modelling for Playboy, Anderson was scouted for a new TV show - Baywatch.
After being asked to join the show 11 times, Anderson eventually agreed to be a part of the series.
"I didn't know what I was doing. The notes from the director would say, 'Pretend it's real. ACTION!'. We were having a ball, working on the beach every day and being paid for it," she said in the documentary.
"The slow motion running is really hard to learn," she added.
5. Pamela Anderson reflected on her relationships in the spotlight.
In the documentary, Anderson listed some of the famous boyfriends she had over the years, including actors Mario Van Peebles, Scott Baio, Dean Cain, surfer Kelly Slater, and musician Kid Rock.
She also reflected on her marriage to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, who she met in 1994 on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. The pair married just 96 hours after they met in Cancun, Mexico.
"We had champagne and put ecstasy in my champagne, which I had never had before. The rest is all a big blur. We felt invincible. It ended up being one of the wildest, most beautiful love affairs ever. He is love, sex, rock n roll."
The pair were married from 1995 to 1998, and welcomed two sons Brandon Thomas and Dylan Jagger.
But she also noted the "red flags" that appeared throughout their relationship.
She said Lee was "jealous" and once trashed her trailer on the set of Baywatch when she had to film a scene kissing one of her male co-stars. She also detailed the time that Lee kicked her while she was holding one of their infant sons. Lee was later arrested on charges of spousal abuse and served six months' jail. They split soon afterwards.
During their relationship, a sex tape of Anderson and Lee was famously stolen from their home and widely distributed online. Anderson later sued the video distribution company behind the leak.
6. Pamela Anderson reflects on the ordeal of that sex tape.
"After that stolen tape came out, we were under a lot of stress. Both of us didn't know how to handle any of it," Anderson said, adding that the leak "broke" her heart.
"The lawyers [for the defence] basically said, 'You were in Playboy. You have no right to privacy.' That was a little bit shocking," she added, reflecting on the lawsuit.
"They would ask about my sex life. And I kept thinking, 'How am I getting questioned about my sexuality when it's stolen property?' It made me feel like I was such a horrible woman, like I was a piece of meat, that this should mean nothing to me because I'm such a 'whore' basically."
She also noted that while posing for Playboy was on her own terms, the home video was leaked without her consent.
"The deposition was so brutal. It was years of fighting. I was pregnant, I didn't want this to affect the baby. It was tearing me apart. It absolutely devastated me, but I closed my eyes and signed the papers [dropping their lawsuit against the company who distributed the video]."
Anderson said the sex tape "solidified the cartoon image" of her in the public eye.
"I knew at that moment my career was over. It was different for [Tommy Lee]. Tommy was a rockstar, [the sex tape] added to the image. Then everything kind of blew up after that."
Anderson said she focused on parenting her two sons to get through the difficult time.
7. Nowadays, Pamela Anderson's life looks very different.
Anderson lives with her mum in Ladysmith, her hometown on Vancouver Island, after making the decision to stay there amid the pandemic. She lives in the home she bought from her grandparents 25 years ago.
She box dyes her own hair for $5. And she spends a lot of her time with her two sons.
Anderson also said that using her image towards activism for the environment is something she is really proud of, especially given how her body and sexuality has been used against her for some time.
Recently, she married her bodyguard Dan Hayhurst. The ceremony took place at Anderson's home on Vancouver Island on Christmas Eve in 2021.
"He's a good Canadian guy - normal. I figured maybe I need to try that," she reflected in the documentary.
"I always felt guilty because [for] my kids, I wanted to show them traditional relationships, a marriage, a man that's consistent and giving them good examples."
In 2022, Anderson announced she had separated from Hayhurst, but that the pair remain friends. That same year, she made her Broadway debut on stage as Roxie Hart in the acclaimed musical Chicago.
"I'm not a victim. I survived," she said in the documentary "I am grateful for all the experiences I had."
Feature Image: Netflix.
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