‘It was a death sentence’

Pamela Anderson spoke openly about her battle with hepatitis C.

Speaking to the crowd at the 2026 AMFAR Gala Venezia in Italy on Sunday, the 59-year-old actress revealed that she had been told she had only 10 years left to live.

“It was a death sentence,” Pamela said. “That’s what my doctor told me — that I probably had around 10 years to live.”

“I’m sure that colored and corrupted my decisions. It was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children,” she continued, referring to her kids, Brandon Thomas, 30, and Dylan Jagger, 28.

The Baywatch alum added, “It turned my life inside out.”

Previously, Pamela revealed that she was diagnosed with hepatitis C when she and her ex-husband, Tommy Lee, shared a tattoo needle.

Medications for treating hepatitis C were approved in 2011, and by 2015, Pamela had recovered from the disease.

At that time, the Naked Gun star told Sunday’s crowd that it “took everything [she] had in [her] bank” to undergo treatment.

Pamela further shared that despite recovering from the disease, her “experience of shame and guilt was also an unconscious journey” that “haunts” her.

“And just like the sexual abuse that I endured as a child, it felt like it was carved into my forehead: Damaged goods,” the actress added. “And I presented myself as such.”