Pamela Anderson Calls Revisiting Old Journals to Write Memoir ‘Painful,’ Led to ‘Healing Experience'

Preparing her 2023 documentary and memoir made actress-model Pamela Anderson revisit her "painful" history.

Anderson, 57, was interviewed by Better Homes & Gardens to promote her first cookbook, I Love You: Recipes from the Heart, when she discussed writing her memoir, Love, Pamela, at her Canada property. Around the same time, Anderson and her son, Brandon Thomas, 28, were co-producing her Netflix documentary, Pamela: A Love Story. Anderson also shares a second son, Dylan Jagger, with ex-husband Tommy Lee.

"We were going through all my journals, which were in storage. That was painful to me," Anderson told the publication. "I didn’t plan on this whole healing experience, but as the days went on, it’s what happened."

She continued, "It was like I went back home to “face it and erase it,” as they say, to face things from back then that weren’t very comfortable. That brought everything rushing back."

But while gardening has mentally helped the former Baywatch star, with encouragement from her sons, Anderson began a Substack dedicated to journaling.

"I write all the time," she said. "I do a Substack newsletter called The Open Journal, which is nice because it gives me a way to empty my mind and not torture my children with my thoughts [laughs]. Dylan came up with the idea to get it out of my system. It’s helpful for me to write, and I do it every morning. I get up at 4 or 5 every day—that’s my time. I like to write with the sunrise."

Love, Pamela and Pamela: A Love Story allowed Anderson to tell her story on her own terms, decades after her infamous sex tape with Lee was released without their consent. The ex-spouses would later sue Internet Entertainment Group, which obtained and distributed the video, ultimately being awarded $1.5 million.