When Pamela Anderson was diagnosed with hepatitis C in the late ’90s, there was no cure.
“It was a death sentence. That’s what my doctor told me — that I probably had around 10 years to live,” the “Baywatch” star recalled in a moving speech at the amfAR Gala in Venice. “I’m sure that colored and corrupted my decisions. It was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children. It turned my life inside out.”
Fortunately, in 2011, a cure for the viral infection was found. By 2015, Anderson was “hep C free,” she said — though “it took everything I had in my bank” to pay for treatment — and on Sunday night, she was honored with amfAR’s Award of Courage. The nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has also worked on hepatitis C research and advocacy as it is a common co-infection for people living with HIV.
“But my experience of shame and guilt was also an unconscious journey. It stays with me; it haunts me,” she continued. “And just like the sexual abuse that I endured as a child, it felt like it was carved into my forehead: Damaged goods. And I presented myself as such.”
Though Anderson said she still hasn’t “fully recovered” from the news of her diagnosis, she has perhaps “finally come to terms” with it and has now used it to fuel her career resurgence, one that has seen her take on daring and critically acclaimed roles in films like “The Last Showgirl,” “The Naked Gun,” “Rosebush Pruning” and “Place to Be,” which premieres at Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.
