Pamela Anderson Opened Up About How Sex Tape "Trauma" Impacted Her Marriage

She said Hulu's 'Pam & Tommy' miniseries triggered old wounds.

Pamela Anderson is opening up about the end of her marriage with ex-husband Tommy Lee and the aftermath of her devastating sex tape scandal. In an interview with Glamour as part of its 2024 Women of the Year issue, the Baywatch icon detailed how the stolen tape still traumatizes her to this day and led to the unraveling of her relationship, career, and identity.

“The tape that was stolen property and exploited—it was a complete crime,” she said about the private recording, which she and the Mötley Crüe musician reportedly made during their 1995 honeymoon. Anderson also opened up about how Hulu’s Pam & Tommy miniseries—which was released in 2022—opened up old wounds and brought back memories of the negative attention she received after the tape’s release.

“It hit me a lot harder than I even imagined because it made me so nauseous to even think about it again when it came out, this Hulu thing,” she told the publication. “It really felt like another kick in the stomach that people might find that entertaining. And that was…I think I lost my husband, my sanity, my career.”

Anderson, who says that she wasn’t contacted by Hulu for any input on the series, revealed that in hindsight, it was painful reliving the damage the sex tape scandal had done to her self-esteem and image. The show’s creator, Robert Siegel, as well as Lily James, who plays Anderson, have claimed that they did not receive a response when they reached out.

“Even today, someone showed me something that Hulu’s doing, some kind of Baywatch [documentary] which I have nothing to do with,” Anderson told Glamour, revealing that the platform was planning to use an unreleased interview she’d previously recorded for footage. “They begged everybody around me. They tried to get my kids to talk me into it. They said they’d give them producer credits. I mean, they were trying everything. And I said, ‘No, I really don’t want to go backwards.’”

“In the moment I didn’t realize it,” the model said about the damaging after-effects of the scandal. “It’s like post-traumatic, and so then you just start acting out.”

While Anderson said she tried to deal with sexist jokes by attempting to initially “laugh it off,” she found herself becoming a caricature of herself, especially as her relationship with Lee began to unravel.

“I think when my marriage [to Tommy] fell apart, and I blame that a lot on this tape being stolen and exploited, I really felt like, ‘Oh, what am I going to do? What’s my career going to be?; And then people just offered me stuff that fed that character, so that’s what it became,” she said. “And I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad it’s put behind me.”

Anderson credited her sons Brandon Thomas Lee, 27, and Dylan Jagger Lee, 26, for helping her get through this dark time in her life, as well as convincing her to finally end her relationship with Lee for good amidst reports of abuse.

“What saved my life—and you never want to put this on your kids—were my boys,” she said. “I had to be strong for my boys. And I also had to leave Tommy for my boys. And even though I married other people and I did other things, my intention was to create a family for them.”

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