Fans of Pamela Anderson probably know parts of her story already.
Whether reading her novels (that are inspired by her life), watching the Hulu series “Pam & Tommy” or picking up the 2015 book “Raw,” (that she co-wrote with Emma Dunalvey), Anderson, 55, has been sharing bits and pieces of her background for years.
But in her new, full-fledged memoir, “Love, Pamela,” she’s got even more to tell us — particularly when it comes to two important, juicy backstories: her cosmetic surgeries, which she calls a “vicious cycle,” and her maybe almost-romance with John F. Kennedy, Jr.
As she notes in the book, her looks — buxom, blonde and vivacious — have always served to define her, something she found problematic early on. She writes that she wanted to be recognized as an artist, and find “someone who understood that I was a far cry from what people thought of me.”
Dating was a problem, because people only knew her from her public image, and it tended to loom larger than everything else. “No matter how hard I tried,” she writes, “the image was bigger than me and always won.”
This was particularly true with one area of her body: her chest.
“I joked that my breasts had a career of their own, and I was just tagging along,” she writes. She agreed to “amplify my chest like everyone else,” and then had to put up with her size being the main thing that people focused on about her.
Even worse, she experienced complications after the enlargements, and "unexpected injuries that led to more surgery, a vicious cycle. ... It was an impetuous, shallow decision. Un-thought-through.”
Anderson has been married six times to five men (Lee; Kid Rock; Rick Salomon, twice; Jon Peters; and Dan Hayhurst). She’s also had access to some of the most eligible men out there — including John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in 1999 at age 38.
As Anderson recounts in the book, “I found out that John F. Kennedy Jr. wanted to meet me. He wanted me to pose for the first cover of George magazine,” the publication Kennedy Jr. ran from 1995-2001. “I wasn’t available, but he didn’t give up.”
Cindy Crawford ultimately appeared on that first cover dressed as George Washington, but as she notes, Kennedy kept asking. In 1997, Anderson became a George cover model. “A shot of me naked, hiding behind an American flag,” she recalls. Kennedy didn’t attend the photo shoot, but called her during it.
“I was embarrassingly giddy on the call, making noises I didn’t recognize,” she writes. “He was so charming, I was blushing, and I’m sure he could tell over the phone. I was out of my depth, in maybe my most embarrassing moment.”
Even the call didn’t put Kennedy off, she says. “He tried again to reach me after the shoot, but I was too shy to call him back. He was way out of my league.”
“Love, Pamela” publishes Jan. 31.