Pamela Anderson has opened up about the three different experiences where she was sexually abused in her new memoir Love, Pamela.
The 55-year-old actor reflected on her previous relationships and the men she dated during a recent interview with Variety. The publication notes that the Anderson wrote in her memoir about three incidents of sexual assault, all of which occured before she turned 18.
One experience she shared was that she was allegedly molested, multiple times, by her childhood babysitter. She also wrote that an unnamed 25-year-old man raped her when she was 12, and that her high school boyfriend and his friends sexually assaulted her.
Of abuse she suffered, Anderson also wrote about how her first boyfriend in high school kicked her out of a moving car.
“He pushed me with his foot so hard, I had no choice but to open the door when the car was moving and rolled straight into a ditch,” she wrote in the memoir, according to Variety. “Mind you, I landed a perfect gymnast dismount — at high speed.”
She also shared that as she got older, “I noticed most of my boyfriends were bad — and progressively got worse.”
Anderson told Variety how years after facing sexual abuse, she’s now “dealing with” and processing these incidents.
“Predators look for somebody to do things to that are so humiliating you’d be embarrassed to tell somebody,” the Baywatch alum said. “Those kinds of things really colour the rest of your life. You block things out or you’re gonna deal with it later — and I’m dealing with it now.”
She went on to say her experiences have ultimately helped her grow as a person, including bettering her relationship with Tommy Lee, who went to jail for six months for kicking Anderson while she was holding their baby son in 1998. Anderson filed for divorce from the musician that same year.
“I’m not a victim, and I’m not the damsel in distress,” she said. “I’ve made my choices in my life. Some obviously were made for me, but I’ve always been able to find myself again. And it’s created a strong person and a strong parent.”
This isn’t Anderson’s first time speaking out about her experiences with sexual assault. During an event at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 to launch The Pamela Anderson Foundation, she first revealed the multiple incidents of sexual abuse.
“I feel now might be the time to reveal a few of my most painful memories. At the risk of over-exposing myself, again, or being inappropriate, again, I thought I might share with you why I am doing this,” she said at the time, via Daily Mail. “I did not have an easy childhood. Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6 by a female babysitter.”
She also spoke about being raped at age 12 by the 25-year-old, explaining: “I went to a friend’s boyfriend’s house and his older brother decided to teach me backgammon, which led into a back massage, which led into rape.”
Variety also noted that after its conversation with Anderson, she sent the publication a story about being sexually harassed at one of her first jobs as a swimsuit model. She recalled how she was sitting on a plane to Hawaii next to a photographer and he kept putting his hand on her leg.
“He was much older and ruddy, drooly, lecherous,” she said. “Then he whispered to me that I’d be the only girl, that he chose me … that it would be intimate, no need for hair or makeup people or photography assistants. Just him and me. I was sick to my stomach. I knew it was not good.”
Anderson noted that she then reached out to a flight attendant, who hid her in an office, until she could get on a flight back to Los Angeles by herself.
She also encouraged people to ask for help when they need it, adding: “I hope anyone in danger understands they can go to people for help if they are in an unsafe or uncomfortable situation, especially around a lot of people. You can get to a safe place.”
If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.
