{"id":618583,"date":"2026-09-08T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618583\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:58:08","slug":"pamela-anderson-says-hepatitis-c-was-death-sentence-that-took-everything-i-had-in-my-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618583\/","title":{"rendered":"Pamela Anderson says hepatitis C was \u2018death sentence\u2019 that \u2018took everything I had in my bank\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pamela Anderson<\/a> said her doctor told her she had 10 years to live when she was diagnosed in the late 1990s with hepatitis C.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a death sentence,\u201d said Anderson.<\/p>\n

But on Sunday, the actress whose breakout role on \u201cBaywatch\u201d turned her into an international star, was honored with amfAR\u2019s Award of Courage at a gala in Venice, where she opened-up about the diagnosis that upended her life. amfAR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending HIV\/AIDS, and hepatitis C is frequently a co-infection with AIDS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time of her diagnosis, there was no cure for hepatitis C, which is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation and potential long-term damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that colored and corrupted my decisions,\u201d Anderson, 59, said. \u201cIt was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children. It turned my life inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Anderson publicly revealed in 2002 that she was infected with the virus, she said she contracted hepatitis C after sharing a tattoo needle <\/a>with her then-husband, M\u00f6tley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. <\/p>\n

\u201cTommy has the disease and never disclosed it to me during our marriage,\u201d said Anderson, who at the time was in a custody battle with Lee over their two children.<\/p>\n

Lee, however, has insisted repeatedly that he does not have hepatitis C.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Anderson said in her speech on Sunday she struggled with \u201cshame and guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stays with me; it haunts me,\u201d she said in her speech. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in 2011, a cure for the viral infection was found and four years later Anderson announced she was \u201chep C free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky,\u201d Anderson said in her speech before amfAR. \u201cI was offered it in its early stages, and it took everything I had in my bank to pay for it. It wasn\u2019t covered by insurance yet, and I felt tremendous guilt that others weren\u2019t granted the same access.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, said Anderson, she has \u201cfinally come to terms\u201d with the diagnosis. <\/p>\n

And in recent years Anderson\u2019s acting career has been revived, with roles in films like \u201cThe Last Showgirl,\u201d \u201cThe Naked Gun,\u201d \u201cRosebush Pruning\u201d and \u201cPlace to Be,\u201d which premieres Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy truth has come through my work, finding ways to express myself through the arts. It gave me the ammunition I needed, a fertile life to use and play in,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI\u2019m not a victim, I\u2019m a victor. I am strong and capable, more now than I could ever dream of \u2026 I\u2019m not the damsel in distress, no matter how easy that role is to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pamela Anderson said her doctor told her she had 10 years to live when she was diagnosed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-618583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}