From the diagnosis experienced as a condemnation to the disease being overcome: the diva retraced one of the most difficult chapters of her life, describing the fear for the future and for her children, the weight of shame and guilt and the way in which that experience also ended up transforming into a creative drive
The Venice Film Festival was the place where Pamela Anderson chose to speak openly about a personal story that had profoundly marked her existence for years. During the amfAR gala evening hosted on Sunday 6 September 2026 at the Hilton Molino Stucky, the actress received the Award of Courage and told the audience about her experience with hepatitis C, diagnosed in the late nineties, when there was still no cure for that disease.
At the time, Anderson explained, the doctor told her she might only have about ten years to live. News that would not only have generated the fear of death, but above all the terror of what could have happened to his children, who were still young at the time. “It turned my life upside down,” he recalled.
When Pamela Anderson discovered she had hepatitis C, the outlook was very different than it is today. "It was a death sentence. That's what my doctor told me: I probably had about 10 years left to live," he said.
That diagnosis, he admitted, ended up influencing his choices too. "I'm sure this influenced and corrupted my decisions. It wasn't the fear of death, but the fear of what might happen to my young children."
However, in his Venetian speech, Anderson also spoke about a more intimate dimension of the disease: that of shame. A feeling which, according to the actress, was unconsciously intertwined with other wounds experienced during childhood.
"My experience of shame and guilt has also been an unconscious journey. It stays with me, it haunts me," Anderson said. And she linked that feeling to the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.
"Like the sexual abuse I suffered as a child, it seemed written on my forehead: 'Damaged Goods'. And I presented myself as such."
The actress's story therefore did not stop at the medical dimension of the disease. The diagnosis, in her experience, also had profound consequences on the perception she had of herself and the way she approached her life.
In 2011, however, a cure was found for the viral infection. Anderson said she was "free from hepatitis C" in 2015, after a course of treatment which, she explained, also had a very high economic cost: "It cost me everything I had in the bank".
Despite this milestone, the actress admitted that she has not yet completely overcome the trauma linked to the diagnosis. At the same time, she said she may have finally come to terms with that part of her story.
That experience today seems to coexist with a new phase in his career. Anderson has in fact indicated artistic work as one of the tools through which she has managed to give shape to her own truth.
In recent years the actress has undertaken a new professional phase, tackling roles considered daring and positively received by critics, including those in The Last Showgirl, The Naked Gun, Rosebush Pruning and Place to Be.
Place to Be would have debuted at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. For Anderson, cinema and the arts therefore also became a space to transform his personal experiences into something creative.
“My truth came through my work, finding ways to express myself through the arts,” she said. “It gave me the ammunition I needed, a fertile life to live and play in.”
Then the phrase that summarizes the meaning of her speech: "I am not a victim, I am a winner. I am strong and capable, more than I could have ever imagined. I am not the damsel in distress, as easy as it is to play that role."
