Pamela Anderson Gives Powerful Speech in Venice About Hepatitis C Diagnosis: 'It Was a Death Sentence' | Just Jared
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Pamela Anderson gave an emotional and powerful speech over the weekend while being honored with amfAR’s Award of Courage during the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
The Baywatch actress received the award during the amfAR Gala Venice on Sunday night (September 6) at Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice, Italy.
amfAR is an organization working to end the HIV and AIDs epidemic, but the charity also works on hepatitis C research. Pamela was diagnosed with Hep C in the 1990s and she says it was a “death sentence” at the time.
Pamela Anderson talks about her hepatitis C diagnosis
“It was a death sentence. 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. It turned my life inside out,” Pamela said during her speech (via Variety).
A cure for hepatitis C was found in 2011 and Pamela was free of the disease by 2015.
Pamela said that paying for treatment “took everything I had in my bank” and she has been working for the past decade to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to others.
She said, “But my experience of shame and guilt was also an unconscious journey. It stays with me; it haunts me. And just like the sexual abuse that I endured as a child, it felt like it was carved into my forehead: Damaged goods. And I presented myself as such.”
Pamela talked about putting her pain into her work.
“My truth has come through my work, finding ways to express myself through the arts. It gave me the ammunition I needed, a fertile life to use and play in,” she said. “I’m not a victim, I’m a victor. I am strong and capable, more now than I could ever dream of … I’m not the damsel in distress, no matter how easy that role is to play.”
FYI: Pamela is wearing a custom Calvin Klein Collection floor length column dress in clementine bonded satin featuring micro spaghetti straps, a straight front neckline and slight V on center back with a matching floor-length shawl.
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