Pamela Anderson has revealed that beating hepatitis C nearly wiped her out financially. Accepting amfAR‘s Award of Courage in Venice on Sunday, the 59-year-old actress said that when she was diagnosed in the late 1990s, there was no cure. She later said a doctor gave her about 10 years to live. “I’m sure that colored and corrupted my decisions,” she told the audience. “It was not fear of death but fear of what might happen to my young children.”
Anderson went public with her diagnosis in 2002 and said she contracted the virus by sharing a needle with her ex-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. Lee has denied that claim. Hepatitis C spreads mainly through blood-to-blood contact, and sharing needles remains the most common route for new infections, according to Dr. William Carey of Cleveland Clinic. The disease can stay quiet in the body for years, many people unaware they are infected until liver damage appears.
For Anderson, the wait for a cure lasted what she called ten blurry years. When a breakthrough finally came, it was neither cheap nor easy. “I was offered it in its early stages, and it took everything I had in my bank to pay for it,” she said. “It wasn’t covered by insurance yet, and I felt tremendous guilt that others weren’t granted the same access.” She completed a yearlong regimen approved by the FDA and announced in 2015 that she was free of hepatitis C. She later compared the treatment to a year of having the flu, with injections of the antiviral drug interferon. “Your hair falls out,” she told Larry King. “It’s a little kind of chemotherapy.”
Her speech at the amfAR gala, an organization that fights HIV/AIDS and supports hepatitis C research, soon turned to shame. Anderson said the diagnosis and the secrecy around it stayed with her long after her body cleared the virus. She spoke about the sexual abuse she endured as a child, saying it all felt “carved into my forehead: Damaged goods.” She described going into sabotage mode and presenting herself as damaged. “I don’t think I’ve ever fully recovered from that news,” she said.
Since declaring herself hep C free, Anderson has starred in The Last Showgirl, The Naked Gun and Rosebush Pruning. Her latest film, Place to Be, premieres Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival. In her speech, she framed her comeback as a form of rescue. “My truth has come through my work, finding ways to express myself through the arts,” she said. “I’m not a victim, I’m a victor.”
