Pamela Anderson is best known as the bubbly blonde who made the Baywatch one-piece iconic in her role as CJ Parker. However, the star’s life before Playboy, Baywatch, and Tommy Lee was anything but charmed. The 46 year-old star this week opened up about her past, revealing the extent of the sexual abuse she endured as a child.

Anderson spoke last week in Cannes, France at the opening of her new charity, the Pamela Anderson Foundation. The charity is dedicated to the things Anderson cares most about – human rights, animals, and the environment. Anderson used her speech as an opportunity to reveal some of the darkest moments of her past.

Anderson stated that she was first sexually abused by her female babysitter from the ages of 6 to 10. She also revealed that when she was 12 a friend’s boyfriend’s older brother raped her after seducing her with backgammon and a back massage. Her first boyfriend also abused her when she was early high school, gang raping her with six of his friends.

Though Anderson said that her parents were “loving,” she also described her father as an alcoholic and her mother as a woman struggling with two jobs and depression. Anderson, understandably, said that she had a hard time trusting people growing up and turned to animals as her “only real friends.”

Anderson describes this as the beginning of her life-long obsession with animal rights activism. In cooperation with PETA, Anderson has lobbied world leaders, advocating for animal rights across the globe.

Anderson’s full speech can be read on her blog. It contains an empowering message for sexual abuse survivors as well as the victims of all types of suffering. It also serves as Anderson’s thank-you to the many people who have helped her throughout her later life.

Image via PETA/Wikimedia Commons