|
Pamela Anderson is one of the
sexiest women in century. Pamela has been on the cover page of the
Playboy magazine for Six times, which itself is a record in the
history of the magazine.
Pamelaone.com
 |
|
|
|
|
In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Anderson said
the column is her unedited "ramblings" about personal
experiences. She also discussed some of her struggles and
hopes for the future. The following is an edited transcript
of the interview.
KING: Why are you going to [write the column for Jane]?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, it kind of came out of I was upset a
little bit about this article that came out. And so [editor
Jane Pratt and I] were e-mailing each other back and forth,
and she liked what we were saying. And ... she said, "What
can I do to rectify this? We love you, everyone loves you,
my readers love you." And I said, "You know what, I want my
own column. I don't want to be taken out of context
anymore."
KING: What did they write about you that ticked you off?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, it just came off very harsh. It came
off very harsh. It was about some of the custody things that
were going on at the time.
KING: So, in your column -- is it your column? Are you
answering letters?
PAMELA ANDERSON: It's rambling. I'm rambling. It's my own
words, and it's just -- we're talking about different
subjects, and I'm just drawing from experience and personal
history.
KING: A new phase of your life?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I think so. This is definitely a new phase
of my life. I'm going through a good, healthy transition.
KING: Did you want to be an actress?
PAMELA ANDERSON: No, no, and I still don't. And I'm not an
actress. I don't think I am an actress. I think I've created
a brand and a business.
KING: What do you want to be when you grow up, Pam?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I just keep saying I want to grow up and be
a stripper. But that's probably not very good.
KING: You have a business though, right?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes. I have a business that I've -- just
exploiting a brand that I've created worldwide.
KING: I see. And that's your prime interest?
PAMELA ANDERSON: And that is my prime interest -- besides my
obviously dating Bob [musician Robert Ritchie, better known
as Kid Rock].
KING: And we're going to get to motherhood. You never wanted
to be an actress?
PAMELA ANDERSON: No, I didn't.
KING: So the "Baywatch" thing was for laughs?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, you know, it just fell into my lap
really. It was a lot of hard work, and once I got into it, I
liked really building a character and a persona. And I
started having fun with it, and I realized this is really a
business and the joke isn't on me anymore. The joke is kind
of, ha-ha, on you. And that's how "VIP" came about, just
poking fun at the image.
KING: How long were you on that show?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I did five seasons of "Baywatch," and I did
four seasons of "VIP." I've been around awhile.'I'm still
scared to death'
KING: How serious is [your relationship] with Kid Rock?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I could say right now we're in the
trenches, right. We're just working on things.
KING: You care for each other a lot?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Oh, yes. We love each other very much. But
it's a difficult life, a difficult life. And I want what's
best for my kids. And he has a son.
KING: Did your first experience, maybe, with Tommy Lee scare
you off others?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm still scared to
death. Are you kidding? And I need to resolve a lot of
issues with that, I think, before I can really move on and
have another serious commitment.
KING: Why do you think, Pamela, you were -- tend to be and
have been victimized?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, you know, I grew up in a very -- in
an alcoholic home, and there was violence in my household.
And I think it's just my model of a relationship. And when
I've gotten into any kind of relationships, it just seems to
-- you re-create the pattern even though you say you're
never, ever going to do that, you're never going to have the
same relationship.
My poor mom is -- she's still with my father. My father is a
great grandfather. He's a wonderful grandfather, but he's a
terrible husband. And my mom still suffers because she's --
it is verbal abuse. It used to be physical abuse. And it's
just sad to see.
I came from that, and I've just somehow been re-creating
that in my life but to a lesser degree. I think I'm doing
better. I think there are issues obviously I need to resolve
in myself before I can, you know, move into a real healthy
...
KING: How many relationships have you been in, would you
say, where you have been abused?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, one -- well, I mean, a couple. My
first relationship was very violent.
KING: Why don't -- men don't understand this, so I'm going
to ask it simply. The first time you're struck, why aren't
you gone?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, I think the first thing you lose in
an abusive relationship is your self-worth. And I think it
is really difficult to leave a relationship when you feel
like nothing and you've already been so belittled because it
starts with verbal abuse. It starts with really demeaning
somebody.
And by the time it gets to physical abuse, you really have
no strength to leave. You feel like this is the only person
that's going to be with you because they keep telling you
that you're ugly, you're not -- you're stupid. You're all
these different things.
KING: Yes, but you can't look in the mirror and believe
that?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes, you can. Of course you can.
The only person you want to be admired by really is the
person that you're in love with. I mean, you want admiration
from other people, but, you know, it is so important and so
destructive when you lose your self-esteem.
I eventually have gotten out of it. I have gotten out of it.
KING: But it's not easy.
PAMELA ANDERSON: It's not easy. No. The hardest thing I ever
had to do was go through [what] I went through. What gave me
the strength really is my children.
Dealing with disease
KING: OK: hepatitis C. When were you diagnosed -- how do you
deal with it?
PAMELA ANDERSON: How do you deal with it? Well, when I first
was diagnosed, I thought obviously I was dying. When I first
-- well, actually, my doctor told me, "You know this little
glitch in your blood work? You have hepatitis C." And I
said, "OK, how do I get rid of it?" And he said, "You
can't."
KING: How long ago was this?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Just over a year ago.
KING: What symptoms did you have?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I didn't really have any symptoms. That's
the whole problem.
KING: It was just a checkup?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes, it was just a checkup, the regular
checkup. And I had all my blood work done. It was, you know,
for a movie. And you had to get checkups when you do movies
for insurance reasons. And that's, I think, how it came
about.
And then I started reading about it and realized that
there's no cure and that, you know, there's liver
transplants, liver cancer, psoriasis, all this kind of stuff
going on and it just scared me. I thought -- you start
facing your own mortality, you start realizing that you
might die. Now I realize that there's actually a cure for
it.
KING: Which is?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Interferon with these other [drugs] ...
KING: That's a tough drug, though -- side effects.
PAMELA ANDERSON: There's lots of side effects. And I'm
thinking of doing it in December. It's going to be a year of
basically having the flu. Your hair falls out. It's a little
kind of chemotherapy kind of -- throwing up.
KING: You've got to do it though.
PAMELA ANDERSON: I want to do it for my kids because I don't
want to die basically.
But I did have a liver biopsy. And a liver is rated from
zero to four. Four is cirrhosis, cancer, you know, and liver
transplant. My liver is -- and a healthy liver is zero. So
I'm a one.
And they said it's a miracle that my liver is as healthy as
it is. And they said keep doing what you're doing, you're
taking good care of yourself. And I'm vegetarian. I look
after myself. I don't drink that much. And definitely now my
doctor said, "No drinking at all, as your doctor; but as
your friend, you can have a glass of red wine every once in
a while."
KING: Do you know what caused it?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I do know what caused it. I know that when
my doctor told me that when I was first married that we had
a full physical -- Tommy and I had a physical when we came
back from Cancun after we were married. And he had told
Tommy that he has hepatitis C, and he has to disclose this
to me. You know, it's the only thing he should do.
KING: He never told you?
PAMELA ANDERSON: And he never told me, even though he told
the doctor that he did tell me.
Then the only thing I can think of is when we shared a
needle getting a tattoo. And then when I came back from
there a while ago I talked to my doctor and my doctor said,
"Well, you have this in your blood work, and you know how
you got it."
And I said, no. And he goes, "Well, your husband didn't tell
you that he has hepatitis C?" And I said, "No, he didn't
tell me that." And he said, "Well, he told me that he told
you that." So he felt like he could talk to me about it. And
I said, "No, he never said it." So he never told me.
So that's how he believed that I got hepatitis C.
KING: Did you confront Tommy Lee about why he did not tell
you?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes.
KING: And what did he say?
PAMELA ANDERSON: "I don't have it." He was in denial about
it, even though my doctor tells me he does have it, and he
has told people when we had our evaluation done, that he
does have it. But it's just a public perception thing.
KING: So he's not being treated?
PAMELA ANDERSON: No, he will not admit that he even has it
hardly.
It's just -- you have to be treated. And the reason you have
to be treated, or the reason you should be tested if you
think you fall into any of the categories, any of the
reasons you can get it, is because we want to stop the
spread of the disease because there are simple things you
can do: You don't share razors; you don't share
toothbrushes; you don't share needles obviously.
KING: Are you writing about this?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes, we're writing about all this. And
there are simple ways that you cannot infect other people.
And people that are living in denial about it or are not
willing to get tested are spreading the disease. And it's
just one in four -- one in 20 Americans have hepatitis C
that we know about.
KING: Do you worry about future children?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Yes, I do, and that's why I want to make
sure that I've, you know, I've taken care of -- I'm going to
go through the treatment.
You know who I actually saw on your show was Naomi Judd. And
I called Naomi and I talked to her, and she's a wonderful
mentor for me, and she's been wonderful.
She's a great lady. She's got a great heart, and she's been
really helpful, and she's like, I can fight this now, and
I'll win and I won't have it anymore, and then I'll think of
other children. But I really do believe that it's not going
to take me down. I'm too healthy.
KING: The interferon starts when?
PAMELA ANDERSON: I think I'm going to start in December.
KING: Why not tomorrow?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, right now, I mean, I'm at home with
my kids, and I'm just me. I don't have a nanny. I don't have
any help in my home. And I like to just be hands-on with my
kids. And this is going to be a real blow. I need to really
set up my life so I have help and, you know, when they're
back in school, it's over the summer.
And I just want to figure out a way to make it easy on
everybody. But I have to -- it takes planning. It takes
planning.
KING: By the way, there is -- if you want information and a
free test of hepatitis, whether you might have it, call
1-888-4HEPUSA. That's [1-888-443-7872]. Pamela is involved
with that group, right?
Are you [a role model]?
PAMELA ANDERSON: Well, I think unfortunately celebrities get
thrown into role model situations, and you think about
marriage, how marriage is 58 percent divorce rate right now,
and we don't really have a lot of good family role models
anymore. I think that's what's most important is our family
and our parenting skills and keeping our families together.
That's where all of our problems start, and that's where all
the solutions start, too. And I think when you're looking at
a celebrity couple, when you're at -- I mean, it's even
higher divorce rate, when it comes to high-profile people,
because it's who knows, getting married for the wrong
reasons, whatever it is.
So I feel like I can be a good role model as a mother
because I love being a mom and I have great advice for
everybody when it comes to mothering. I have terrible advice
for relationships. I can't follow that myself.
But being a role model in that I'm a free spirit, and that
I've done what I've wanted. I'm self-made. I've created my
own career in my life, and I've had a lot of fun doing it. I
think that's good. |
|
|
