Pamela Anderson is firmly back in the spotlight, with a new memoir and Netflix documentary.
Marked by extreme highs and lows, her career has been rocky to say the least, with the Canadian-born beauty enduring more than her fair share of financial woes.
As the 90s pop culture icon reclaims her narrative, read on to discover how she's made and splashed her cash over the years. All dollar amounts in US dollars.
Pamela Denise Anderson was born on 1 July 1967 in the picturesque Canadian seaside community of Ladysmith, British Colombia.
She had a modest upbringing that was marked by trauma and abuse, which she confronts in both her new memoir and the Netflix documentary. After graduating from high school, the future superstar moved to Vancouver and got a job as a fitness instructor.
In 1989, Anderson's modelling career began by chance while she was watching a football game at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium.
Sporting a Labatt-branded cropped T-shirt, the 21-year-old Pamela was picked out by the cameras and broadcast on the stadium's supersized screen, eliciting a rapturous response from the crowd.
Brewery company Labatt wasted no time in hiring Anderson as a spokesmodel, and she featured in several of the brand's ads.
The Labatt ads soon caught the attention of Playboy. After auditioning for the magazine, Anderson quickly bagged her very first cover shoot, appearing on the front of the October 1989 issue.
The following February, the up-and-coming glamour model was chosen to be Playmate of the Month. At the time, Playmates were paid $20,000, which works out as about $44,800 (£37.4k) in today's money.
Anderson would go on to appear on the Playboy cover a record 14 times. The September 1997 issue was her top-paying gig, netting her $450,000 – the equivalent of nearly $821,000 (£685k) today. The star was reportedly offered $1 million ($833k) in 2008 to pose with Denise Richards, but the shoot never happened.
Anderson even fronted the mag's final nude issue, pulling in $25,000 (£20k) for the January/February 2016 cover shoot, which she donated to charity.
But back to the start of Pamela's career. With her profile on the up, Anderson made her TV debut in 1990 with a bit part on CBS sitcom Charles in Charge.
The following year, the budding actress was cast in ABC's Home Improvement, playing the part of Lisa for the show's first two seasons. She then secured a recurring spot on the long-running NBC soap Days of Our Lives.
In 1992, Anderson landed the role that would make her a global superstar. The Playboy model-turned-actress appeared as lifeguard CJ Parker in five seasons of blockbuster TV show Baywatch, becoming a household name around the world.
Incredibly, the star lacked an agent when she was offered the job and was paid just $1,500 (£1.2k) per episode during the first season, earning her a total of $33,000, or about $73,900 (£61.7k) in today's money, for the 22 episodes.
However, Anderson went on to score a substantial raise, with her salary peaking at $300,000 (£244k) per episode, or around $6.6 million (£5.4m) per season.
That said, she makes a relative pittance from residuals, pulling in just $4,000 (£3k) a year from Baywatch reruns.
In 1995, Anderson married Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee following a whirlwind romance. Later that year, disgruntled contractor Rand Gauthier, who'd been working on the couple's home, stole a safe containing a video tape of the pair making love while on honeymoon.
The rest is history. The notorious VHS cassette was eventually sold on to adult film production company Vivid Entertainment and reportedly generated a staggering $77 million (£63m) in the space of a year.
As dramatised in last year's Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, the fallout from the tape scandal essentially derailed Anderson's career.
Adding insult to injury, the couple didn't earn a dime from it, having turned down the $5 million (£4.1m) they were initially offered. In 2002, a court awarded them $750,000 (£610k) each, but the pair are said to have never been paid.
In 1996, Anderson starred in her first and only lead motion picture role as the lead character in action movie Barb Wire, for which she's likely to have earned around $1 million ($833k).
The film was a critical and commercial bomb, and this – coupled with the tape – dashed any hopes Anderson had of being taken seriously as an actress.
In fact, her Barb Wire performance was so bad that she even won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star.
From then on, Anderson could only score minor parts in movies, with brief appearances in the likes of Scary Movie 3 and Borat.
The star had more luck with TV, however, and from 1998 to 2002 was a lead character in four seasons of the syndicated show VIP.
Other small-screen acting roles have included a two-season stint on Fox workplace sitcom Stacked and a guest spot on ABC show 8 Simple Rules.
Branching out into the lucrative world of publishing, Anderson released Pamdemonium, her first autobiography, in 1997. A series of children's books came next, followed by the multitasking celebrity's debut novel Star in 2004.
Since then, Anderson has authored two further memoirs, a novel, and a book about rekindling passion in a relationship, as well as contributing to an anthology defending her friend, WikiLeaks whistleblower Julian Assange.
Acting work started to dry up for Anderson in the latter half of the 2000s, prompting her to take on a series of random jobs.
In 2008, for instance, the struggling star put on a raunchy cabaret show at Paris' Crazy Horse club. The following year, she made her pantomime debut as the Genie in the Lamp in Aladdin at London's New Wimbledon Theatre, reprising the role in Liverpool in 2010.
Anderson was reportedly paid the minimum wage for the London job, but is said to have earned $192,000 (£156k) for the three-week 2010 gig.
Reality TV has also offered something of a lifeline to Anderson over the years, especially when her money problems were deepening in the late 2000s.
In 2008, the star was given her very own unscripted show E!'s Pam: Girl on the Loose! and, while it was canned after the first season, a succession of big-money reality TV jobs followed.
Capitalising on her international fame, Anderson appeared on the Australian edition of Big Brother in 2008, earning $330,000 (£268k) for her three-day stay.
Two years later, she was paid $550,000 (£447k) to take part in Bigg Boss, India's equivalent of the reality show.
The star also went on to appear in the British, Bulgarian, and German versions of Big Brother, becoming one of the franchise's most prolific participants.
With her reality TV career flourishing, Anderson became a contestant on the 10th season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars in 2010, later returning for the all-star season 15 in 2015. She's also appeared on the French and Argentinian versions of the show.
In 2013, she took part in the UK's celebrity ice dancing TV show Dancing on Ice, which earned her around $235,000 (£150k), making her the highest-paid celebrity in the show's history.
Although she was voted out of Dancing on Ice after just one episode, tabloids reported at the time that she'd made an incredible £1,000 ($1,205) a second during her short-lived stint on the show.
Anderson has been married six times, including twice to the same person. In terms of her divorce settlements, the star hasn't done too badly at all. Deals worked out with her two most famous husbands Tommy Lee and Kid Rock were never disclosed, but in 2015 Anderson received $1 million (£833k) after divorcing poker player Rick Salomon (pictured) for the second time.
She also had her debts paid off to the tune of $200,000 (£163k) – or $100,000 (£82k) according to Anderson – by Hollywood producer Jon Peters, who she was married to for just 12 days in 2020.
Peters has also said he's leaving Anderson $10 million (£8m) in his will.
Last year, Anderson stepped out of her reality TV comfort zone and starred as Roxy Hart in the musical Chicago at New York's Ambassador Theater, garnering rave reviews for her performance.
The role was something of a vindication for the star after the critical panning she'd received in the past.
Also in 2022, Anderson starred in her second dedicated reality show, Pamela's Garden of Eden. Produced by Canada's HGTV, the series follows the star as she renovates a five-acre waterfront property in Ladysmith that has been in her family for decades.
In January of this year, her self-penned memoir Love, Pamela was released (the other two were ghost-written). The same day her book was launched, a revealing documentary titled Pamela, a Love Story landed on Netflix, charting Pamela's rise from small-town girl to international household name.
Now let's take a look at how Anderson has spent her money over the years...
In 1992, the rising star bought her first piece of real estate, the aforementioned Ladysmith abode, which she purchased from her grandmother.
A former motel, the property features a main store and nine cabins, including this charming clapboard cottage.
However, run down and unloved for years before Anderson embarked on her makeover, a lot of work would eventually be needed to turn it into the home that Anderson dreamed of...
After arriving in LA in 1989, Anderson was put up in a swish Bel Air mansion by Playboy boss Hugh Hefner before moving into her own place.
In 1992, she rented a two-bedroom townhouse in this gated complex in Malibu, paying $1,725 (£1.4k) a month – the equivalent of nearly $3,600 (£3k) today. After splurging $100,000 (£82k) on updating the property, Anderson bought it in 1994 for $270,000 (£220k) and owned it for five years before selling it for $390,000 in 1999. That's about $685,000 (£572k) in today's dollars.
Fittingly given her role on Home Improvement, Anderson developed a full-on passion for renovating property.
After tying the knot with Tommy Lee, she moved into his mansion (which he nicknamed "Tommyland" during an appearance on MTV Cribs in 2000), and the couple spent incredible sums of money doing it up.
The duo ended up firing the contractors and allegedly refused to pay them, which prompted Rand Gauthier to break into the pad as an act of vengeance and steal the safe containing their intimate tape.
After Pamela and Tommy's acrimonious divorce in 1998, Anderson rented a beach house in Malibu for $16,000 a month. In 2000, she dropped $1.8 million on one of her own, the equivalent of $3 million (£2.5m) today.
Ever the hardcore renovator, the star proceeded to all but tear down the existing property and oversaw a complete revamp, spending a whopping $8 million (£6.5m) on the pad in total.
Struggling with debts after funnelling so much money into the home, Anderson listed it for rent in 2012 for $50,000 (£41k) a month. The following year, she put it up for sale for the first time, for an impressive $7.75 million (£6.3m).
The stunning four-bedroom, three-bathroom beach house was on and off the market for a number of years before it finally sold for $11.8 million (£9.6m) in 2021.
In 2006, Anderson married Kid Rock and moved into his $11.6 million (£9.5m) Malibu mansion.
According to Today, the star "started spending Kid's money from the get-go". She reportedly told him when she moved into his beach house in Malibu, 'If we don't fix this house, I'll throw up'."
Anderson filed for divorce from the country rocker that same year.
Up to her eyeballs in debt, Anderson was forced to move into a one-bedroom trailer home that she'd originally purchased as a guest house in 2007. At the time, units of this size sold for around $300,000 (£245k).
Located in Malibu's uber-luxe Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, this was no ordinary trailer. Again, the hard-up star splurged money she didn't have on making over the property – although the work clearly paid off, as the trailer was sold in 2018 for a jaw-dropping $1.7 million (£1.4m).
That same year, Anderson moved to the South of France to live with her then-boyfriend, French soccer star Adil Rami, setting up home with her beau in Marseille's upmarket Corniche-Kennedy neighbourhood.
After the relationship broke down in 2019, Anderson relocated to her Ladysmith property on Vancouver Island.
After she sold the Malibu beach house, Anderson officially moved into her Ladysmith property in 2021.
As we've mentioned, HGTV followed the renovation-mad celebrity as she undertook the revamp, which cost her $563,000 (£460k). The transformation was little short of incredible, and Anderson was later honoured with a prestigious Ladysmith Heritage Award for her efforts.
Though she was effectively underpaid during her 90s heyday, Anderson has admitted she's not a "good financial planner".
The star has spent like crazy on everything from plastic surgery and partying to those OTT renovation jobs, and has also been involved in a number of court cases that are bound to have cost her dearly in lawyers' fees alone.
Tax troubles have also beset the former Baywatch babe. In 2009, the IRS slapped Anderson with a $1.7 million (£1.4m) lien, and the following year she was declared one of California's 500 worst tax delinquents, with a debt of $493,144 (£402k) owed to the state.
The star's money woes have even resulted in her credit card being declined on a number of occasions.
Anderson is a passionate advocate for human, animal, and environmental rights, and despite her financial issues, she's channelled plenty of money into her chosen causes over the years.
Recent gifts from the philanthropic star, who heads up her own eponymous charitable foundation, include $100,000 (£82k) in 2021 to PETA, for which she's an honorary director.
After years of struggling to pay her bills, things are finally looking up on the financial front for Anderson.
According to sources, the 90s icon is now worth a very respectable $20 million (£16m). In addition to that, she's tipped to make a tidy sum from her memoir, which is already an Amazon number-one bestseller.