Pamela Anderson to Appear on CBS SUNDAY MORNING

"Baywatch" icon and author-actress-model Pamela Anderson reveals details about the trauma she suffered as a child, her six marriages and the infamous sex tape in an exclusive interview with Jim Axelrod for CBS SUNDAY MORNING, to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 15 (9:00 AM ET) on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+.

Interviewed at her remote home on Vancouver Island, Anderson talks with Axelrod about watching her abusive father drown her kittens and punching him when he held her mother's head to the stove.

"These were pivotal moments for me," Anderson says.

Anderson says she's trying to put her past behind her. She's also talking about her past in a new book, Love, Pamela, and a Netflix documentary.

Anderson says her childhood was shaped by trauma. First from her abusive father - then she was sexually abused by a babysitter, someone she calls "a female predator so that was tough to understand." She also says she was raped at 12 and then again at 14.

"The whole point is not keeping those secrets, or those things buried," Anderson tells Axelrod.

Anderson survived those years and became a household name after 14 Playboy magazine covers, movies and the TV series "Baywatch," which became a phenomenon. She also gained international notoriety in 1996 when a sex tape she made with her then-husband, Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, was stolen and made public.

What does she want people to know about the tape?

"That it was stolen property, that it was two crazy naked people in love. I mean, we were naked all the time and filming each other and being silly, but those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see," Anderson says. "And I've not seen it to this day ... It was very hurtful."

She says it was focusing on her two young sons with Lee that helped her get through the tough times.

"I was a mother. That saved me," Anderson says. "You know, if I wasn't a mom, I DON'T think I would've survived."

Anderson talks with Axelrod about her career, healing and why she returned to Vancouver Island, far from Hollywood and the headlines that made her famous.

"I feel like I've left here, did something crazy and came back in one piece," Anderson says. "Like I said, I DON'T know what I'm capable of. I still DON'T know, but I think that was the beginning ... all the rest of it, it's, you know, behind me. I feel like I'm in a really good place."

CBS SUNDAY MORNING has been the #1 Sunday morning news program for 22 consecutive broadcast seasons. It is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

Follow CBS SUNDAY MORNING on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and at CBSNews.com. Listen to CBS SUNDAY MORNING podcasts on all podcast platforms. Stream CBS SUNDAY MORNING on Paramount+.

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