Pamela Anderson shares the surprising reason she left Hollywood

Pamela Anderson has opened up about what caused her to leave Hollywood and move back home to Canada.

The ex-Playboy model shared with Women’s Wear Daily her reasons, and it’s incredibly touching.

The actress, who rose to fame in the 90s after being cast in the hit US lifeguard series.

From then on, she became a sex symbol and went on to pose for Playboy several times, but has since stripped away her persona.

However, things took a turn after she got married to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee for a few years after their sex tape was leaked and the pair split up shortly afterwards.

The 1996 tape weighed on her significantly and brought an onslaught of criticism towards her, more so than her husband or the person who leaked the tape.

Even though 28 years have passed since the tape, it’s still very much alive in people’s thoughts today.

Because of this and the subsequent years after, Anderson needed to get back in touch with herself.

Pamela Anderson is shedding her previous image (Instagram/pamelaanderson)

She Women’s Wear Daily that she left showbiz and moved away ‘to really kind of look at [her] life and remember who [she] was.’

She explained: “Not what other people were telling me I was — and I didn’t want anything that had happened to me define me.

“I wanted what I do to define me… all these realizations came to me in the rose garden.”

She told the publication: “I didn’t want anything that had happened to me define me.

“I wanted what I do to define me.”

The 57-year-old left for Vancouver Island during a period of reflecting upon her life.

Speaking to Better Homes & Gardens in August, Anderson said she ‘kind of gave up at some point’ and ‘needed a change’.

She shared: “I don’t know what happened over the last few decades, but I feel now so far removed from the image of who I was.”

The actress also shared that she had felt ‘very sad and lonely’ and ‘misunderstood’ by those around her.

“I felt like I had really screwed up, that my whole life was a bundle of mistakes,” she said.

Anderson is inspiring others to bare their faces (The Drew Barrymore Show/ CBS)

But since moving away and getting out of Hollywood, she’s found it ‘such a relief that I get to be myself and enjoy this time’.

She said: “People have this pneumatic kind of image of me from Playboy to ‘Baywatch,’ to my rock ’n’ roll type of husbands, to everything else.

“But I also played into the image that was created around me. I’m glad I did all that, but I’m really glad I’m where I am now.”

Anderson recently made an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, where she spoke about being single, being happy in her skin and living life how she wants to.

Because of her infamous make-up-free look at Paris Fashion Week last year, Barrymore joined her in baring her face as they chatted and cooked together.

Anderson admitted to Better Homes & Gardens magazine earlier this year her reason for choosing to stop wearing make up: "That was the beginning of me letting go of the image I had always had of myself.

"What is this cartoon character that I’d created? OK, that was fun. But I’m not that person anymore."