Pamela Anderson says hepatitis C diagnosis was ‘death sentence’ in emotional Venice speech

Pamela Anderson described herself as a “victor” as she remembered being told she had about 10 years to live after being diagnosed with hepatitis C.

She said the news turned her life “inside out”.

Anderson first spoke publicly about the diagnosis in a July 2002 interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, saying she had been diagnosed “just over a year ago” after hepatitis C was detected during routine blood tests.

“Back in the late ’90s, when I was diagnosed with hepatitis C, there was no cure. It was a death sentence. That’s what my doctor told me – that I probably had around 10 years to live,” she said on Sunday, as she accepted amfAR’s Award of Courage at the organisation’s annual Venezia gala, held at the Hilton Molino Stucky during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

The event raises money for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, whose work focuses on HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and treatment education, while the organisation also supports hepatitis C research and advocacy.

The Naked Gun star said what frightened her most was the thought of her young sons, Brandon and Dylan, saying: “I’m sure that coloured and corrupted my decisions. It was not fear of death, but fear of what might happen to my young children. It turned my life inside out.”

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that can cause chronic liver infection, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Today, direct-acting antiviral medicines can cure more than 95 per cent of people with hepatitis C, usually after a short course of treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, the first interferon-free treatments were approved in 2013 and 2014.

In 2015, Anderson announced that she was free of hepatitis C after undergoing treatment.

“About 10 blurry years later, there was a cure,” she said in Venice, where she was awarded the Award of Courage. “I was lucky. I was offered it in its early stages, and it took everything I had in my bank to pay for it. It wasn’t covered by insurance yet, and I felt tremendous guilt that others weren’t granted the same access.”

She continued: “My experience of shame and guilt was also an unconscious journey.”

“It stays with me; it haunts me. And just like the sexual abuse that I endured as a child, it felt like it was carved into my forehead: Damaged goods. And I presented myself as such.”

Anderson said she had worked with organisations to raise awareness of hepatitis C, encouraged people to get tested and tried to reduce the stigma surrounding the infection, but her “words did not match my feelings”.

“I was angry. I was scared. I went into sabotage mode,” she said.

“My truth has come through my work, finding ways to express myself and heal through the arts,” Anderson said. “It gave me the ammunition I needed, a fertile life to use and play in.”

Anderson’s performance in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl earned her a Golden Globe nomination, while she also appeared alongside Liam Neeson in the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun.

Her recent film work includes Rosebush Pruning, and she is in Venice this year with Place to Be, directed by Kornél Mundruczó and co-starring Taika Waititi and Ellen Burstyn.

“I’m not a victim, I’m a victor,” she said at the end. “I am strong and capable, more now than I could ever dream of. I’m not the damsel in distress, no matter how easy that role is to play.”