"I'm Not a Victim, I'm a Victor": Pamela Anderson Opens Up About the Diagnosis Doctors Called a 'Death Sentence'

Pamela Anderson revealed this week that she was once told she had only "around 10 years to live" after being diagnosed with hepatitis C in the late 1990s - a diagnosis she says "turned her life inside out."

The 59-year-old actress shared the details while accepting amfAR's Award of Courage at the amfAR Gala in Venice on September 6. "Back in the late 90s, when I was diagnosed with hepatitis C, there was no cure. It was a death sentence," Anderson said. "That's what my doctor told me - that I probably had around 10 years to live."

Anderson has said she contracted the virus around 1999 through a shared tattoo needle with her then-husband, Tommy Lee. With no treatment available at the time, she said the diagnosis quietly shaped years of her life: "It was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children."

A cure finally arrived in 2011, and by 2015, Anderson announced online that she was completely hepatitis C-free - crediting the moment with hashtags of gratitude, family, and prayer. She said Sunday that treatment cost her "everything I had in my bank," and that the shame she carried "still haunts me."

Now headlining acclaimed films like The Last Showgirl and The Naked Gun, Anderson said she's chosen to reframe the ordeal entirely: "I'm not a victim, I'm a victor. I am strong and capable, more now than I could ever dream of."