On Friday, Pamela Anderson gave an absolutely heartbreaking speech at the launch of her animal rights charity, in which she revealed that she suffered sexual abuse throughout her childhood.
According to the transcript of the speech, which she has since posted on her blog, the abuse began when she was six years old:
At the risk of over exposing myself…again, possibly being inappropriate…again. I thought I might share with you events that, in surviving, drove me to this point right now. I did not have an easy childhood — Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6-10 by my female babysitter.
Two years later, she said, she was raped by a friend’s brother:
I went to a friend’s boyfriend’s house while she was busy. The boyfriend’s older brother decided he would teach me backgammon which led into a back massage which led into rape — my first heterosexual experience. He was 25 yrs old. I was 12.
And in 9th grade, she continued, her “first boyfriend… decided it would be funny to gang rape me with six of his friends.”
In the aftermath of all the horrific abuse she suffered, said Anderson, she had “a hard time trusting humans” and “just wanted off this earth.” It wasn’t until she discovered her love of animals that she found a sense of purpose: “My loyalty remained with the animal kingdom. I vowed to protect them and only them. I prayed to the whales with my feet in the ocean. My only real friends — till I had children.” And now she’s been advocating for animal rights for 20 years.
After the event, she tweeted “I want people to know – they can overcome and prosper with love.” I’m very in much in awe of her strength in overcoming all of this trauma and her courage in coming forward with her story. [CNN]
In much more trivial news, walking pair of aviator sunglasses Robin Thicke made a big deal about trying to win back his estranged wife Paula Patton at the Billboard Music Awards. He performed a song entitled “Get Her Back,” which he introduced by saying, “All right, y’all, help me get her back!” Go away, Robin. [E!]
The universe’s best friend Jennifer Lawrence and the universe’s irritating nephew Justin Bieber met at long last at the Vanity Fair Armani Cannes party: Jennifer exclaimed, “I want to meet Bieber!!” upon arrival, and the meeting was arranged — although it was sadly not photographed. [Vanity Fair]
- Kendall Jenner effed up while introducing 5 Seconds of Summer at the Billboard Music Awards. (She definitely started to call them One Direction and then got frazzled, which is understandable.) [Billboard]
- Cameron Diaz is dating aging pseudo-punk Benji Madden, if you can believe that. [Cosmo]
- This photo of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West exiting a Parisian Haagen Daz bearing ice cream cones is the absolute best. Kanye is wearing denim on denim. Kim is wearing a satisfied grin. [E!]
- Chrissy Teigen got bangs. [HuffPo]
- Brooklyn Beckham — spawn of Victoria and David — got a job at a coffee shop to learn the value of money. His previous qualifications include modeling on the cover of Man About Town magazine “in a satin bomber jacket emblazoned with the word ‘quiche’,” which I think counts as food handling experience? [Hello!]
- Justin Bieber is done with sizzurp because “he’s obsessed with working out and it’s just really hard to do when you’re high.” Fair enough. [TMZ]
- Beyoncé, Jay Z and Solange hung out in New Orleans, yielding one (1) friendly Instagram of Bey and Solange. Ok, we get it, you are all friends still. [TMZ]
- Pussy Riot was rumored to be in talks to star in the next Spring Breakers movie. It’s not true — they recently tweeted, “We don’t even have spring break in Russia – down here we get breaks from one prison term til the next one!” [HuffPo]
Images via Splash, Getty.