She was the most recognizable sex symbol of the 1990s. Pamela Anderson first posed as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy Magazine in 1990, and then rocketed to mainstream fame as a lifeguard on the 1990s TV show Baywatch.
Today, the blonde beauty wants something different. from life than what Hollywood fame can offer. In recent interviews she said she wants to leave that lifestyle in the past. Calling her heavily made-up, buxom image during her heyday a “cartoon character” that she invented, Anderson said it was while it lasted, but that “I’m not that person anymore.”
She has gotten attention recently for appearing at publicity events with little or no makeup on, a look she also uses on her social media posts. She said stripping off the paint was the first step in “letting go” of the idea she had of who she was and what she wanted to present to the world.
Anderson is a dual American and Canadian citizen. She married Tommy Lee of the rock group Motley Crue in 1995, and the couple found themselves embroiled in scandal a year later when a hostile former coworker stole a tape depicting the two having adult relations and leaked it to the world. In the days of television and no Internet, the story was a sensation that lasted the better part of a year, rather than the approximately two-day Instagram cycle of the 21st century.
Today, Anderson said she hardly recognizes the person she used to be. Over the past 20 years she has felt increasingly alienated from the Hollywood star lifestyle and describes herself as having been “very sad and lonely.” Avoiding the self-pitying tone many stars adopt when their fame fades, Anderson said it was not that she was “misunderstood.” Instead, she said, she believes she had “really screwed up” and made a lot of mistaken choices.
She has regrets about those choices, and said she’s sorry for what she put her family and her children through. Anderson said she was as responsible for playing into her sex-pot image as were the producers and publicists who helped create it.
The 57-year old moved back to Canada a few years ago and now lives a much quieter life on Vancouver island.
