Canadian actor Pamela Anderson is opening up about being diagnosed with hepatitis C in the late 1990s.
“It was a death sentence. That’s what my doctor told me — that I probably had around 10 years to live,” the 59-year-old actor said during a speech at the amfAR Gala in Venice. “I’m sure that coloured 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.”
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver swelling, called inflammation. Hepatitis C can lead to serious liver damage, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The hepatitis C virus spreads through contact with blood that has the virus in it, the organization notes. A cure for the viral infection was found in 2011 and the newer antiviral medicines often can cure chronic hepatitis C.
Anderson, who was honoured with amfAR’s Award of Courage on Sunday, said that she was “hep C free” by 2015 but added that “it took everything I had in my bank” to pay for treatment.
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“It wasn’t covered by insurance yet, and I felt tremendous guilt that others weren’t granted the same access,” she added.
“But my experience of shame and guilt was also an unconscious journey. It stays with me; it haunts me,” the Baywatch star said. “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.”
Anderson said that she still hasn’t “fully recovered” from the news of her diagnosis but she has “finally come to terms” with it.
“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,” Anderson concluded. “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.”
When Anderson first publicly revealed her diagnosis in 2002, she said she had contracted hepatitis C after sharing a tattoo needle with her now ex-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee.
“Tommy has the disease and never disclosed it to me during our marriage,” Anderson alleged.
The Mötley Crüe drummer denied the allegation and told Entertainment Tonight that he tested negative for the virus.
Long-term infection with hepatitis C virus is called chronic hepatitis C, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Chronic hepatitis C usually has no symptoms for many years and the symptoms can appear only after the virus damages the liver enough to cause them, the organization notes.
Symptoms can include bleeding easily, bruising easily, fatigue, not wanting to eat, jaundice, itchy skin, swelling in the legs, weight loss, confusion, drowsiness and slurred speech, called hepatic encephalopathy.
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