All About Pamela Anderson's Parents, Carol and Barry Anderson

Pamela Anderson’s 2023 documentary. Pamela: A love storydid more than reintroduce Chicago a public star on her own terms. Fans also met her parents, Carol and Barry Anderson.

The couple, who have been together since their teenage days, had a tumultuous relationship in Pamela’s youth. According to Pam, Carol left Barry at one point to live in an apartment with her daughter and Pam’s brother Gerry.

The family also had financial difficulties. The Baywatch alum recalled growing up in a “little shack” in Ladysmith, British Columbia.

Times became even more difficult when her parents split up. “We lived on welfare,” said Pamela.

Despite the chaos, the actress stated in her diary entry from the documentary that she did not hold any grudge against her mother or father during her childhood. “I certainly don’t blame my parents for my upbringing,” the entry read. “I’m grateful because I’ve acquired a lot of good qualities along with bad ones.”

Keep reading to learn more about Pamela Anderson’s parents and her relationship with them over the years.

Carol and Barry married as teenagers

Carol Anderson and Pamela Anderson in the movie ‘Pamela, a love story’.

Courtesy of Netflix

Although it is not clear exactly how they met, Pamela’s parents married when they were still teenagers. “My parents were married, I think when they were about 17 and 19, when my mom was pregnant with me,” the actress said in her Netflix documentary, adding, “They were still just raging.”

Barry was known as the “bad boy” in town

In her 2023 documentary, Pam noted that her father was quite wild in his younger days. “Everyone has a story about my father, the notorious bad boy from Ladysmith,” she said in Pamela: A love story.

One such story involved an accident he and Carol got into while he was racing his car. “Mum’s got a scar across her forehead because her head went through the windshield when she was pregnant with me,” Pam said, adding: “We like to joke around. [that] that’s probably why I’m a little crazy.”

They had ordinary jobs

Unlike their famous daughter, Pam’s mother and father had more humble beginnings.

Pam talked about her parents’ occupations in her Netflix documentary. “My mom was a waitress and she worked at Smitty’s Pancake Shop,” she said.

As for her father, Pam said Barry had a few odd jobs. “My dad was a poker player, a con man, a chimney sweep with a top hat and everything.”

Barry also worked as a furnace repairman, according to Regina Leader-Post.

Carol and Barry have a son

Pamela Anderson and her brother Jerry during ‘A Day at The Mansion’ in Los Angeles, California.

Laurence Cottrell/FilmMagic

In addition to Pam, who was born on July 1, 1967 in BC, Canada, Barry and Carol also have a son.

Pam’s brother, Gerry Anderson, was reportedly born in 1971.

In addition to attending public events together in the past, the siblings ran side-by-side in the ING New York City Marathon in May 2013. “So proud of my brother Gerry,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet on X, the platform formerly known as like Twitter. “Thank you G for running beside me today – I love you so much.”

Carol encouraged Pam to do it first Playboy shoot

Pamela Anderson and mother Carol Anderson at the exclusive ‘Baywatch’ behind-the-scenes tour on April 17, 1993.

Barry King/Alamy

The Associated Press reported in 2018 that Pam’s mom was the driving force behind her decision to fly to Los Angeles to film for Playboy. “My first reaction was ‘no’, I talked to my mother and she said, ‘Why not?’ ” she recalled, adding that her mother also told her. ” ‘Leave this small town, go to Los Angeles. How exciting!’ ”

Model discovered in Pamela: A love story that she also had her mother’s blessing when she decided to be a playmate in 1990.

According to barbed wire star, the opportunity arose after her first major magazine cover in 1989, after which photography editor Marilyn Grabowski took her out to lunch. “She said Hefner really wanted me to be a playmate,” Pam recalled in her documentary.

Carol encouraged Star author to stay in Los Angeles and take advantage of the opportunity. “I called my mom, she said, ‘Do it,'” Pam recalled.

During the documentary, Carol also reflected on the advice she gave her daughter, saying: “I told her to live her life. Be free!”

Carol and Barry have appeared in multiple reality shows with their daughter

Carol and Barry starring in their daughter’s 2023 Netflix documentary didn’t mark their first time in front of the camera.

Both Scary movie 3 The star’s parents appeared on her 2008 reality series on E!, Pam: Girl on the loose. In one memorable episode, Pam even returned the visit to her native land with a gift for Barry.

In 2022, the couple appeared on the small screen once again Pamela’s Garden of EdenHGTV Canada series focused on Pam’s renovation of her family’s estate in Ladysmith, where Carol and Barry spent their early days as a couple.

Carol was angry that Pam ran off with Tommy

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee at Planet Boom in North Hollywood, California in 1996.

Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Pam famously married Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee after spending just four days with the rock star in Cancun, Mexico. “I got married in a bikini, and Tommy was in shorts,” she recalled Pamela: A love story. “My bridesmaid was someone we met at the club that night,” she added.

Their love was so fresh that Pam didn’t even know her new last name. “I remember asking him, ‘What’s our last name?’ “, she remembered. “It was really full, heart to heart, explosive, in a way, love.”

However, Carol wasn’t so thrilled with her daughter’s decision to let her guard down when it came to love.

Pam detailed her mother’s reaction to the news in her 2023 memoir. Love, Pamela. “She was furious,” she wrote. “‘Who’s Tommy?’ She couldn’t believe that I got married, she cried that she had always dreamed of being at her only child’s wedding.”

Carol and Barry were married twice

Growing up, Pam recalled that her parents had a rather volatile relationship. “They were fighting quite a bit,” she said in her Netflix documentary.

According to the animal activist, the couple would often passionately reconcile. “We just had to wait for them to stop screaming, then we’d go in and they’d be against the wall or on top of the table, just kissing,” she said.

Pam said that Carol has ended things with Barry on more than one occasion. “We ended up leaving my dad a few times,” she said.

However, the couple would always reconcile in the end. “He came for us and we returned to the island,” Pam recalled one such case and added. “They just moved a few towns up [from Ladysmith].”

The documentary also revealed that the two got married for the second time. “Are you going to get married?” Pam asked in the video where her mom and dad are dressed in white. “Yes,” they answered. When Pam asked, “Again?” Barry confirmed, “We’ll try again.”

As the actress summed it up: “My parents fought a lot, but they reconciled.”

As of 2022, West Coast Now reported that Carol and Barry still live “near” their daughter in Ladysmith, BC “I love the island,” Carol said in Pamela: A love story. “Living by the water. People are very friendly. Ladysmith is a beautiful little town.”

In September 2024, Pam said Glamour yes, although she sometimes “blamed” her mom for staying in a relationship with her dad, in the end she “just accepted that their relationship is theirs; it’s none of my business.”

“Well, I know my parents, my dad was a terrible drunk and my mom somehow found a way… And I blamed her too, because why did she stay in this relationship?” Pam said. “There were many times when I didn’t want her to stay in it. But they worked it out. They’re madly in love.”

Carol and Barry’s relationship affected Pam’s love life

Pam admitted Pamela: A love story that her parents’ tumultuous relationship affected her love life. “I would choose people who are similar, I guess, in some ways,” she said.

According to Pam, Carol also took some of the responsibility for her daughter’s failed marriages. (Pam was married five times to Lee from 1995 to 1998, to Kid Rock from 2006 to 2007, to Rick Saloman in 2007, which was later annulled, according to Reuters, and to Lee again in 2014, to Dan Hayhurst from 2020 to 2022 and hopes to marry for the sixth time.) “My mom always told me, ‘I feel bad, I’m setting an example for you,’” Pam recalled in her documentary.

She concluded: “Maybe because of how I grew up and how I saw my parents, and maybe because of some relationships I had, maybe I didn’t equate being in love with being good.”

Carol found the cure through Pam’s self-reflection

Carol Anderson in ‘Pamela, A Love Story’.

Netflix

Pam told PEOPLE that reflecting on her life for her Netflix documentary and best-selling memoir didn’t just affect her, it had a profound effect on her family members.

“I had no idea how much anger I had inside or how therapeutic it would be not only for me, but for the people around me, like my mother,” she told PEOPLE in 2023. “It’s been a healing process. I’m so happy that I can share that and hopefully people will be inspired.”

The Broadway star reflected on the positive impact of her trip, saying: “I think a lot of it has to do with keeping secrets and keeping things safe [repressed]. In my case, stories are written and things happen, but you can’t really get to know someone if you don’t hear the whole story.”

Pam told PEOPLE that while she had an editor for her memoir, she got to the bottom of it herself, writing the book without the help of a ghostwriter. “I wanted to go through all the chapters of my life and feel those feelings,” she said. “It was hard. It was very hard.”

In an earlier interview with PEOPLE, she described the finished product as “a raw, unpolished attempt—a very personal true account of my life, from my first memory to my last.”

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Source: HIS Education