Pamela Anderson Receives Award of Courage at amfAR Gala in Venice After Revealing a Secret She Kept for Decades

Pamela Anderson accepted a meaningful award in Venice and looked back on a private health battle that once left her fearing for her young children.

The actress said the news she received in the late 1990s changed her choices and sense of self for years. Decades later, she explained why its effects have never completely left her.

In June 1999, Anderson appeared at Caesars Palace to launch her makeup line and sign autographs at a benefit for PETA. The appearance came during the period when, as she revealed years later, she was living with a diagnosis that had dramatically changed how she viewed her future.

Anderson used a major honor at the amfAR Gala in Venice to reflect on an experience she said turned her life “inside out.”

The “Baywatch” star received amfAR’s Award of Courage on Sunday night, September 6, 2026, according to Variety. The organization is dedicated to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and has also worked on hepatitis C research and advocacy because the infection is a common co-infection among people living with HIV.

For Anderson, the evening was about more than receiving an award.

Anderson was photographed in New York in October 1994, several years before the diagnosis she would later describe as life-altering. At the time, she was already widely recognizable for “Baywatch,” the role that became closely associated with her public image.

Her speech also showed that the experience continued to affect how she saw herself. Anderson said the “shame and guilt” stayed with her and, even years later, “haunts” her.

Anderson also linked those feelings to the abuse she experienced as a child. She said both experiences left her feeling as though the words “Damaged goods” had been “carved into my forehead,” shaping how she viewed and presented herself to others.

The Diagnosis Came With a Terrifying Prediction

Anderson was diagnosed with hepatitis C in the late 1990s, when there was no cure for the viral infection. What her doctor told her made the diagnosis even more frightening.

This 1993 behind-the-scenes “Baywatch” event captures Anderson years before the private health crisis she discussed at the amfAR Gala. Her later account gives images from this period added context: the diagnosis that would leave her fearing for her children had not yet arrived.

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

The possibility of dying was not what frightened her most. “I’m sure that colored and corrupted my decisions,” she said. “It was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children. It turned my life inside out.”

Her medical outlook eventually changed. A cure became available in 2011, and Anderson said she was “hep C free” by 2015. Getting there came at a steep financial cost.

By December 2000, Anderson was living with the diagnosis she had received in the late 1990s, although that struggle is not apparent in this courtside close-up at a Los Angeles Lakers game. She later said the news “colored and corrupted” her decisions and turned her life “inside out.”

Anderson said the treatment took everything she had in her bank. But being cured did not erase the emotional effects of receiving the diagnosis. She told the gala audience that she still has not “fully recovered” from the news she received decades ago.

Anderson Says She May Finally Have Come to Terms With It

More than a decade after clearing the infection, Anderson said she may have “finally come to terms” with what she went through.

That perspective has emerged as she takes on a new stretch of film work. Variety noted that her recent projects include “The Last Showgirl,” “The Naked Gun,” and “Rosebush Pruning,” while “Place to Be” is scheduled to premiere Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival.

Anderson said her work has become a way to process her life experiences and express her personal truth. Rather than allowing difficult periods to define her, she has drawn on them as creative material for her acting and other artistic work.

Anderson smiled courtside at a Los Angeles Lakers game in March 2000, during the period in which she was living with hepatitis C. Decades later, she said the emotional effects went far beyond the illness itself, leaving her with feelings of shame and guilt that stayed with her.

Anderson ended her speech by focusing on the strength she has found since that difficult period. “I’m not a victim, I’m a victor. I am strong and capable, more now than I could ever dream of,” Anderson said.

Pamela Anderson closed with a rejection of a role she no longer accepts for herself: “I’m not the damsel in distress, no matter how easy that role is to play.”

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