Pamela Anderson says she wanted to be a nun: ‘I don’t know what happened’

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Friday, February 17, 2023

Pamela Anderson, the former Playboy Playmate and "Baywatch" star, recently revealed on a talk show that her original professional ambition as a child was to become a nun.

Appearing as a guest on "The Drew Barrymore Show" earlier this month, the 55-year-old Anderson was asked several quirky questions about her life and personal preferences, including questions like "what time do you wake up?" and "do you have any superstitions."

Barrymore asked Anderson what she wanted to be when she grew up. 

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"I wanted to be a nun or a librarian. And I kind of took a different route. I don't know what happened," the actress said. 

Anderson, a Canadian who grew up in British Columbia, recalled how she was at the library almost every day as a kid.

"I was at the library every day. I was at story time every day, and I really wanted to be a librarian. And then I thought, 'No, I really wanna be a nun.'"

Anderson said she has always incorporated faith into her morning routine, waking up each morning around 4 or 5 a.m.

"I have my prayers I say in the morning. I have to do my routine — my Hail Marys, my little thing with my little Mary sculpture," she said. "I have my little routines, so I always feel like I have to do that before I do anything else." 

During the interview, the model also recalled that she would put photos of herself as a kid everywhere she could channel her inner child. She believed her childhood embodied a time in her life when she was "normal," before "weird stuff started happening to me."

Anderson's disclosure comes on the heels of her highly anticipated documentary, "Pamela, A Love Story." The documentary reportedly delves into her life, career and past love interests while also touching on the infamous sex tape with her ex-husband Tommy Lee.

In a 2003 interview, Anderson revealed that she didn't grow up Catholic. 

"I didn't grow up Catholic. When I grew up, my grandfather told me I was agnostic, that no one could tell me what to believe," she told Ronan Farrow. "But I was always really fascinated by rituals and religion and mythology and fairy tales. I was a really imaginative kid; that was my survival mechanism. I can look back now and laugh at some of the choices that I've made, but I was just living in this heightened movie that I was creating for myself."

She said in a 2003 interview with BBC that she was teaching at her son's Sunday school.

In 2014, Anderson shared publicly for the first time that she suffered extensive sexual abuse as a child.

"I was molested from age 6-10 by my female babysitter," the '90s star revealed. "I went to a friend's boyfriend's house — while she was busy. The boyfriend's older brother decided he would teach me backgammon, which led into a back massage, which led into rape – my first heterosexual experience. He was 25 yrs old. I was 12." 

In 2016, Anderson joined Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to denounce pornography in an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal. The two commented on the sexting scandals of former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

"If anyone still had doubts about the addictive dangers of pornography, Anthony Weiner should have put [them to rest] with his repeated, self-sabotaging sexting," they wrote. "What is required is an honest dialogue about what we are witnessing — the true nature and danger of porn — and an honor code to tamp it down in the collective interests of our well-being as individuals, as families and as communities."

Anderson and Boteach described pornography as having a "corrosive effect on a man's soul and on his ability to function as husband, and, by extension, as father."

"This is a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness given how freely available, anonymously accessible and easily disseminated pornography is nowadays," they wrote.

In 2011, Anderson was cast in the role of the Virgin Mary in the hourlong comedy sketch "A Russell Peters Christmas," drawing outrage from some who felt casting Anderson in the role was disrespectful.