‘I didn’t think how embarrassing it would be’: Pamela Anderson reveals how her Playboy career shocked her children and left them in tears after being teased for their sex tape
Pamela Anderson has revealed how her glamorous modeling career impacted her sons Brandon and Dylan.
Speaking in her new Netflix documentary, Pamela: A Love Story, the 55-year-old TV personality confessed that she wasn’t thinking about having children when she posed for Playboy.
After welcoming her children, she hoped she could talk to them about it before they found out on their own.
Unfortunately, her children were told about her career before she had a chance to tell them and she also revealed that they were teased at school after her sex tape with her father and ex-husband Tommy Lee was stolen.
Pamela explained, “I wasn’t thinking when I was at Playboy that I was going to have kids soon and they were going to grow up and it would be embarrassing for them.”
Looking back: Pamela Anderson has revealed how her glamorous modeling career and stolen sex tape impacted her sons Brandon and Dylan (pictured in 1995 shortly before the tape’s release)
She continued: ‘But I always thought I would tell them, age appropriate, but I never got the chance, they always found out before I could talk to them about it… But a tape of your parents having sex is another level.’
Brandon, now 26, confessed: “When I was a kid, I thought everyone knew things about me and my family that they never should have known.” Everyone had this dirty little secret about my family.
“I just remember that at school, if someone mentioned my mother, I was too quick to fight. I would blush with anger.
An emotional Pamela recalled: “I remember one day after school, Dylan came up to me crying and said, ‘Mom, why did you make that tape?’ I was like, “Oh, gosh, seriously, we didn’t do a sex tape.”
Dylan, 25, later revealed that it “would have been a different story if she had profited from the tape,” explaining, “She cared 100 percent that her family was okay and that I was okay.” She didn’t care about money.
Brandon added that he “wished” she had made money from the tape, noting, “She would have made millions of dollars, instead she sat with nothing and watched her career fade away.”
Pamela has consistently stated that she and her ex never saw money from the widely circulated sex tape.
The tape was stolen in 1995 by Rand Gauthier, an electrician who had worked on the couple’s home. After Tommy refused to pay him for the work he had done, he stole a huge safe from his garage.
It was only after she had a chance to review the content that she learned that the sex tape footage had been locked away in the safe.
Family: Pamela’s children were told about the career before she had a chance to tell them and also revealed that they were teased at school after her sex tape with ex-husband Tommy Lee (Brandon and Tommy Lee) was stolen pictured with dad Tommy Lee)
The tape was later obtained by Seth Warshavsky, who initially streamed the video online, before attempting to set up a distribution deal with Pamela and Tommy.
The couple eventually signed the agreement to reduce their stress from the lawsuits, but the settlement, which Pam supposedly thought would limit online distribution, ended up being much broader than she thought.
With the agreement signed, Warshavsky then licensed the video to a video company to print physical copies for sale in adult stores.
Sales of the tape reportedly brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, but none of that money was coming back to Pam and Tommy.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the couple filed a copyright lawsuit over the physical distribution. Since they had made the film together, and not just starred in it, they were considered the copyright holders.
The couple was eventually awarded $740,000 each in a lawsuit against Warshavsky, but reportedly never paid either of them.
Pamela explained: “When I was in Playboy I didn’t think I was going to have kids anytime soon and they’d grow up and it would be embarrassing for them.”