In a candid admission at the Cannes Film Festival, Pamela Anderson said she wanted to die after a childhood of sexual abuse that culminated in a gang rape orchestrated by a school boyfriend.
The famed “Baywatch” babe stunned guests Friday at the launch of the Pamela Anderson Foundation, which coincided with the festival, when she revealed details of the abuse that started when she was only 6 years old.
“I did not have an easy childhood,” said Anderson, 46.
“Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6 by a female baby sitter.”
Then at age 12, she was raped by a 25-year-old male acquaintance, she said.
“I went to a friend’s boyfriend’s house and his older brother decided to teach me backgammon, which led into a back massage, which led into rape,” she said. “My first heterosexual experience.”
A school boyfriend later led a half-dozen buddies in an unspeakable assault against the Canadian girl who went on to become a model and actress, she said.
“[The boyfriend] decided it would be funny to gang-rape me with six friends,” Anderson said. “I wanted off this Earth.
“This meant I had a hard time trusting humans. My parents tried to keep me safe, but to me, the world was not a safe place. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom worked two jobs. My mom was always crying. Dad didn’t always come home.”
The sexual assaults, Anderson said, prompted her to trust animals and plants a lot more easily than humans.
“My affinity with animals saved me. It came to me naturally. The trees spoke to me,” said the star. “I wasn’t sure why I was alive. A burning question.”
Anderson shared her heartbreaking stories with 200 guests at the event, including hubby Rick Salomon and son Brandon, her eldest child from her marriage to rocker Tommy Lee.
Anderson said her pinup-girl fame has opened doors that might have been closed to other activists.
“I’ve had the ear of people like [Fidel] Castro and [Vladimir] Putin,” Anderson said, according to The Telegraph newspaper.
“Russia stopped the importation of harp-seal products, which closed 90 percent of the market.”
And when she meets with powerful people and world leaders, they always have one request of her.
“They always want a lot of pictures [to be taken],” Anderson said. “But whatever it takes.”
Anderson’s foundation will help groups dedicated to human rights, animal rights and the environment, the actress said.