With the release of her memoir, Love, Pamela, and the Netflix documentary, Pamela, a love story, Pamela Anderson is focused on telling her own story in her own words. And in a new interview with Variety ahead of the release of the new projects, she opened up about some of the more controversial aspects of her life, including her relationships with two extremely divisive figures: Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
It has been rumored in the past that the author and Baywatch star had relationships with both men that went beyond just friendship or business. Read on to see what the 55-year-old star had to say about what really happened between them.
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Anderson met with Putin regarding animal rights.
magicinfoto / ShutterstockAnderson, who is vegan and has long worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said that she met with Russian officials to lobby for banning the import of seal products.
"I’d be at the Kremlin, sitting at the table, and everybody would be there. And I would be rustling my papers with my dolphin pictures and my beluga whales getting hypothermia and pleading across the table to these people that actually did things in real time," Anderson told Variety.
She added of the Russian leader, "Putin was only in the room once, but he heard of everything. I would get messages from other people that he was pleased that I was there—he kind of got a kick out of me."
Variety notes that Anderson was quick to move on from the topic of Russia amid the war in Ukraine and made a point of saying that she voted for Joe Biden in the most recent election. "I don’t know what the right thing is to say right now, because it’s horrible," she added.
She says he asked a favor of her.
Shag 7799 / ShutterstockAnderson also spoke about her dealings with Putin during a 2018 interview with Piers Morgan.
"I wrote to him and asked him to stop the importation of seal products," she said, "because this was 95 percent of the market and that could potentially shut down the Canadian seal hunt, which is one of my big goals, so he did. He made it actually illegal to import seal products even into the country."
When Morgan asked if she had ever talked to him directly, Anderson smiled but stayed silent. She denied that their relationship had gone any further than her activism, but, the star added that "[Putin] wanted [her] to come to his inauguration and give him flowers," which she didn't do. "Obviously, we’ve been in the same place together sometimes," she continued.
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She formed a close friendship with Assange.
Andrea Raffin / ShutterstockAnderson has publicly spoken out on her friend Assange's behalf several times over the years. In her new interview, she told Variety that she sees an "interesting hypocrisy" in the fact that he is imprisoned to await trial, while others go free. (In December 2022, Assange filed another appeal to orders that he be extradited from Britain to the U.S. to face conspiracy and espionage charges.)
She was coy as to whether or not they ever dated, but she did reveal that they shared a "frisky" night when Assange was seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
"It was romantic because it was so inspirational,” she said of their connection. “He’s so passionate about life and about everything. There’s just nothing that he says that isn’t fascinating. So there was definitely a connection. We would just talk through the night and drink mezcal and laugh and tell stories."
She once said they talk about "everything."
John Gomez / ShutterstockAlso in 2018, The Hollywood Reporter noted in a profile of her that she "decline[d] to reveal the exact nature of [her and Assange's] relationship."
But she did give some details on how they spend their time together. "We talk about everything," Anderson said. "We talk about the Bible, we talk about what’s happening with my kids, what’s happening with his family. It’s not just about politics, even though I do take a lot of notes and it’s so overwhelming, the information he gives me."
