Pamela Anderson’s Parents: Meet Carol and Barry Anderson

Despite Pamela Anderson’s parents, Carol and Barry’s best efforts to protect their daughter, her childhood was marked with dark events she only spoke to them about when she was in her forties.

Pamela Anderson’s loving parents are not afraid to speak their minds in front of a hot microphone like their daughter. Carol Anderson could not sleep for days when she found out about her daughter’s elopement to a heavy metal drummer in the 1990s.

The Playmate had a big cheerleader in her great-auntie Vie, whom she lived with in her late teens. The octogenarian, who was one of the reasons the actress went on “Dancing With The Stars,” ferociously defended her niece against a judge she thought was unfair.

Barry Anderson, Pamela Anderson, and Carol Anderson on April 17, 1993. | Source: Getty Images

Carol Anderson

Pamela emailed her mother after disclosing in a speech at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival that she had been sexually assaulted on two separate occasions in her teens and molested by a babysitter between the ages of six and ten. Her parents were not previously aware of the abuse.

While her children were young, Carol worked the day shift at the Hideaway Restaurant in Chemainus, British Columbia as a waitress. She was always with her kids—her prize possessions—at night, but like all working families, she needed hired help a few hours in the day.

Her husband Barry teased her track record of firing sitters who did not meet her standards of child care. Sadly as close as she was to her daughter, the actress did not confide in her about her abuse. Carol praised her daughter for her strength to rise above the pain and speak out when she did.

The mom of two was shocked when Pamela married Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in 1995, as her daughter had never spoken about the musician to her. The marriage caused a rift between the mother and daughter. The former waitress had trouble sleeping and lost 10 pounds.

Given the “V.I.P.” actress’ schedule, the Anderson mother and daughter, though close, rarely speak on the phone. During a 2014 interview at her home in the port city of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Carol said:

“We tend to email mostly, she’s got a busy life, she’s away a lot, but I don’t mind as long as I know she is okay.”

Pamela Anderson‘s sons, Dylan and Brandon Lee, got to spend quality time with their grandmother while they were in a private boarding school in Victoria, British Columbia. Their granny helped them with their washing.

In March 2016, the “Scary Movie 3” star’s mother-daughter pamper day was captured by the paparazzi. The day had a humble beginning with lunch at Cheesecake Factory and got more exclusive as the afternoon progressed when the ladies checked in at Cristophe Salon Beverly Hills.

Commenting on Harvey Weinstein and the Me Too Movement on “60 Minutes Australia” in 2018, the actress and self-proclaimed feminist said that her mother taught her not to go into a hotel with a stranger and to back away if, during a supposed business meeting, someone answers the door in a bathrobe.

Barry Anderson

Barry and Carol appeared in a few episodes of their daughter’s 2008 E! Network reality show, “Pam: Girl on the Loose,” and the 1995 documentary “Playboy: The Ultimate Pamela Anderson.” The couple has many media appearances on “Objectified,” “Howard Stern On Demand,” and “Inside Edition.”

Pamela and her family sent flowers and a “beautiful, sad note”…

During his kid’s childhood, he worked at a papermill, Crofton Pulp Mill, on Vancouver Island. Herman Anderson, his dad was Finnish, whose father, Juho Hyytiainen, changed the family name to Anderson. His paternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Rachel Evelyn Solmie, have roots in Hyytiälä Alapiha, Saarijärvi.

Pamela Was Also Close to Her Auntie Vie

Eoleia Zapshala was known as Auntie Vie to everyone who loved her, including her great-niece Pamela. The Playmate lived with her great-auntie, her maternal grandmother’s sister, for a time after graduating high school. Zapshala was a dancer from age three until her heart condition restricted her movements.

During the “Baywatch” star’s intro segment on “Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars” in 2010, the grand dame, one of her inspirations for signing up for the show, talked up her great-niece while simultaneously stealing the limelight. Afterward, she said:

“I just loved her dancing; I could watch it all the time. That middle judge [Len Goodman] is so mean. She worked so hard, and her little feet were so swollen. You’d think he could say something pleasant when she worked so hard.”

Auntie Vie passed away on March 23, 2013, at 88, in the Victoria General Hospital. Her daughter Eileen Zapshala said that Pamela and her family sent flowers and a “beautiful, sad note,” and she received many tweets from the public once the news broke. The “Barb Wire” actress mourned her great aunt online:

“Rest in Peace my sweet, dear Great Auntie Vie. A beautiful example to all women — soft, sparkly and happy despite this cruel world — La Vie en Rose.”

Eileen said her mother was “the matriarch of the family, the one that held it all together: the Auntie Mame.” Auntie Vie lost her husband in a logging accident in 1971. She took on many jobs to care for her daughter, including building manager, where she did everything from plumbing to fixing the furnace.

Author Cathy Converse’s biography-cookbook of Zapshala, “Auntie Vie: A Life of Pickles and Pearls,” was published in 2011. She was known for her eclectic sense of style and layered pearl necklaces.

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