What Really Happened To Pamela Anderson?

From Marilyn Monroe to Britney Spears, American popular culture has always been fascinated by iconic blonde bombshells. And between 1992 and 1997, no bombshell was more revered than Pamela Anderson. After being cast as the lead actress on the raunchy beach drama "Baywatch" alongside David Hasselhoff, she became one of the most famous women of the era. In their (now somewhat dated) list of the "Top 11 Blondes in Entertainment," the website UGO.com once asked: "How deeply has C.J. Parker worked herself into the male collective unconscious? Well, when you hear or read the words 'red bathing suit,' 99 out of 100 men automatically think of Pam Anderson running in slow motion along an empty beach."

Anderson has remained in the public eye since her original stint on "Baywatch," appearing regularly on TV and film, including two "Baywatch" reunion movies. But in recent years, she has changed her image, stepping out of the public eye in comparison to the 1990s. With that said, her career as an actress is far from over.

One of the biggest decisions of recent years in Pamela Anderson's life came in 2020, when she moved back to her native Canada. Anderson's previous home was not in the U.S. — she had long since relocated to France. The move distanced her from her Hollywood connections and her previous life in Los Angeles, though she kept a residence in the city where she first became a Playboy icon. 

In 2020, it was the perfect time to return to her homeland. March that year saw the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the entertainment industry and much of the rest of the world to an abrupt halt. Anderson's new home is her old home: The house she was born in on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She relocated back there with her two adult sons, Brandon and Dylan, with whom she spent much of the pandemic lockdowns. She also brought her elderly parents back home to live nearby in a renovated motel once owned by her grandmother.

Having been associated with Hugh Hefner's Playboy brand for a large part of her career, Pamela Anderson has also long been known for her party lifestyle. However, in her mid-50s as of this writing, her pace of life has changed. Nowadays, she is enjoying getting back to her roots and connecting with nature and activities associated with mindfulness and self-care.

She now spends a great deal of her time at home with her family and in her garden, where she grows fresh ingredients to use in her kitchen. Her two sons now help her run her business and develop new creative ideas, while Anderson is also connecting with her roots. "It comes from my grandfather Herman," she tells Better Homes & Gardens about how her love of gardening runs in the family. "He was really interesting and the closest person to me as a child. He was very much into mythology and fairy tales ... He would put little mirrors around in the garden, and he told me that was a way I could catch a glimpse of fairies and elves." According to Anderson, her home garden was "the first place [her] feet touched the actual soil."

In 1995, Pamela Anderson became notorious after a sex tape featuring her and her then-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, was leaked. Part of her return to Canada has included reassessing how she deals with her past. "I was not in a good space when I moved back to Canada," she admitted to Better Homes & Gardens. "I don't know what happened over the last few decades, but I feel now so far removed from the image of who I was." The actress described feeling depressed and lonely, dwelling on what she felt was a life of failures. "I was hard on myself, and I thought I put my family through a lot and put my kids through so much," she added.

Anderson's tumultuous marriage to Lee became a talking point once again in 2022 thanks to the release of the Hulu dramatized limited series "Pam & Tommy," which was made without her involvement or permission. Anderson found the dredging up of one of the most painful incidents of her life difficult to deal with. However, she also wanted to let her side of the story be told. In 2023, the Netflix documentary "Pamela: A Love Story" delved into her extensive archive of writing and home film. It was received warmly, as was her memoir, "Love, Pamela," released the same year.

Pamela Anderson's writing aspirations don't begin and end with her memoir. — she also released a cookbook,  "I Love You: Recipes from the Heart," at the tail end of 2024. It's unlikely that many Anderson fans from her career peak in the 1990s would be aware that she has enjoyed a lifelong passion for cooking. But she actually became known for her culinary skills within the industry, and it's also part of her identity within her own family. Anderson is known to bring homemade treats for film crews when she is on shoots and is responsible for the majority of cooking at home.

The cookbook, titled "I Love You: Recipes from the Heart," came about after Anderson gifted a box of family recipe cards to her sons, who were moving into a new home with their partners. The work also takes inspiration from her cultural heritage. Her grandfather was Finnish, and the book contains her take on traditional dishes such as cabbage rolls, pickles, and other recipes, all of which are plant-based.

Pamela Anderson no longer attempts to cultivate the image of the screen siren that brought her such an incredible amount of fame in the 1990s. However, she hasn't turned her back on acting altogether. In 2024, she starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in "The Last Showgirl," a movie by Gia Coppola, portraying a Vegas dancer whose career comes to an abrupt end. The movie won the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival, while Anderson herself was given the Zurich Film Festival's Golden Eye Award to celebrate her remarkable career. "I don't think I could have played this character [in 'The Last Showgirl'] if I wouldn't have the life that I had, so it was worth it," she said in Zurich (via Variety). "If I can continue working and using these struggles and challenges ... I'll feel blessed."

And Anderson continues to work, with fans hyped about her next project: A big name reboot of the classic comedy franchise "The Naked Gun." She's starring in the flick alongside Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson. "Liam is hysterical in it," she told Variety.