Pamela Anderson has shared new details about her on-off relationship with Kelly Slater in her new Netflix documentary.
The pin-up girl and the surfing legend were an item in the early 1990s after meeting on the set of Baywatch.
Amderson was one of the show’s biggest stars and when Slater joined to play a character named Jimmy Slade for 23 episodes they began seeing each other.
“He was my big love actually,” Anderson said in Pamela, a Love Story. “He was such a sweetheart to me and so good to me.”
The Barb Wire star confessed that the two weren’t exactly exclusive and “were together between lots of boyfriends and girlfriends for him too. He definitely was a heartbreaker, I mean he was just a free spirit, you couldn’t get your hands around him but you don’t own anybody”.
The documentary even featured classic vision of Slater winning a surf competition and accidentally thanking his “girlfriends” on the trophy dais.
But regardless of the ground rules, the way Anderson eventually cut Slater loose couldn’t have been more cold-blooded.
She was supposed to visit him in Florida to meet his family after travelling to Cancun for a photo shoot.
But Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee — who Anderson had met at a Los Angeles bar she owned — followed her on that ill-fated Mexico trip. And in four days they were married.
When the thrill of their impromptu beach wedding wore off Anderson faced the tough task of letting Slater know.
“My first phone call was to him to tell him I was married,” she said. “He was like, ‘What?’ That was horrible.”
Slater spoke about the relationship years ago, telling Metro “I learned a lot”. “I don’t have any ill feelings toward her. I wish her well. Hey, we had an amazing time together,” he said.
He also said he was looking forward to watching the documentary in a comment on photos from the premiere posted by Anderson’s son, Brandon.
Slater has previously spoken about his reluctance to appear on Baywatch because of the way it portrayed surf culture.
“I was very reluctant to do it,” said Slater, during an interview with American sports reporter Graham Bensinger.
“I really didn’t want to do it but my mum and my manager at the time really wanted me to do it. He more or less just signed me up without me approving it. I don’t know how that happens but in my life at that time, that happened.
“I was so embarrassed that I was going to have to do the show and I just really didn’t want to. I wanted to go surfing and win contests and be a professional surfer and that was it. I wasn’t trying to go be an actor. Surfing wasn’t some launch pad to acting. Surfing was my craft and that was what I was good at.
“I wish I had been a bit more mature in being able to deal with that but I didn’t have the skills at the time.”
— with Page Six
