Pamela Anderson like you’ve never seen her: healing, sourdough, and motherhood

In more ways than one, Pamela Anderson has become an icon.

But when you strip away the glitz, the glam, and the shame of Hollywood, who is Anderson? After years of reflection and healing, the model turned actress is ready to share herself with the world again in a way you’ve never seen her before.

While talking with Better Homes & Garden for the Aug. 23 Stylemaker Issue, Anderson opened up about the “pneumatic kind of image” people have of her from her time in Playboy and on Baywatch. The mom of two admitted that while her public life was a facade, she also “played into the image that was created” around her. 

“I’m glad I did all that,” Anderson explained, “but I’m really glad I’m where I am now.”

Now, Anderson sharing her love of homemaking and cooking, sharing her love of the simple life. “I was not in a good space when I moved back to Canada,” she shared with Better Homes & Garden. 

“I felt very sad and lonely. I didn’t feel just misunderstood, I felt like I had really screwed up, that my whole life was a bundle of mistakes. I was hard on myself, and I thought I put my family through a lot and put my kids through so much.”

Anderson added that she “don’t know what happened over the last few decades,” but now feels “so far removed from the image of who I was.”

“I came to a point where I decided to move home and disappear and get into my garden. And when I started building my garden, it was really like a metaphor of putting my life back together. I began planting seeds, and the smallest things became really profound.”

She said that during lockdown she was “finally able to sit with myself…I didn’t plan on this whole healing experience, but as the days went on, it’s what happened. It was like I went back home to ‘face it and erase it,’ as they say, to face things from back then that weren’t very comfortable.” 

And as those memories came “rushing back,” Anderson “slowly started working through it while putting all my heart and soul into my garden.”

Even though it wasn’t part of her image at the height of her fame, Anderson has always found joy in cooking for her two sons and throwing dinner parties for the people in her life. When the world shut down because of the pandemic, Anderson simplified her life, moving to her hometown on Vancouver Island, and “perfected her baking skills.”

Baking, she says, is “what sustains me and gives me a feeling of home.” Even when she’s on set anywhere in the world, she uses baking to keep her centered.

“I’m always taking in banana bread and muffins to the set for the crew. I’ve also created a new sourdough starter here,” Anderson continued, something her son’s girlfriend taught her how to do. “Her name is Vixen, and she’s doing so well. I have another one back home called Astrid, and she’s in the fridge waiting for me to return. This bread thing is such a meditation for me.”

Creating in the kitchen has become such a staple for Anderson that she’s sharing some of her favorites with the world in her new cookbook, “I Love You,” set to be released in October.

“The cookbook started out as a housewarming gift for my sons,” Anderson explained. “I remember my mom used to have these recipe cards in a box. I decided I had to find the ultimate recipe card box…The box was for the boys, who had just bought a house together, and their girlfriends, all four of them.” 

The proud mom admitted that her boys inherited her love of cooking. “My sons are young, bold, hardworking men. They’re ambitious, they’re talented, they’re creative, they’re gentlemen, and they’re good cooks,” she said.

In fact, it was her son Brandon, who suggested that she didn’t just share her recipes with them, but with the rest of the world as well. “Of course, my son Brandon, being the businessman, said, ‘This is a book, Mom.’ And so we did it, and titled the book I Love You since that was engraved on the recipe box.”