Pamela Anderson said that her ex-fiance 'threw a tray of silverware at my head' when she got the call to pose for Playboy

• Pamela Anderson's ex-fiance was throwing silverware at her when she received a call from Playboy.
• She eventually told an on-set makeup artist about her partner's history of domestic violence.

In her new memoir "Love, Pamela," former Playboy model Pamela Anderson described what she was doing right before she received the pivotal phone call asking her to pose for the iconic magazine.

The Canadian native had been living in her home country at the time and was engaged to a "budding photographer" named Mike.

"One day I came home to find Michael suspiciously washing his penis in the sink," Anderson wrote in the memoir, which was released on Tuesday.

"He was having an affair with somebody," she explained in her Netflix documentary "Pamela, a love story," also released on Tuesday. "When you see your boyfriend washing his penis in the sink, that's a sign that they're probably having an affair."

In the book, Anderson wrote that she and Mike had been arguing over her attraction to an actor, Mario Van Peeples, on the television when she answered the phone. On the other end of the line was Marilyn Grabowski, a photography editor at Playboy.

"I made sure I said it loud enough so that he could hear — Playboy?" Anderson wrote, referring to her partner at the time. "Michael came flying in from the bathroom, his eyes flashing wildly. He ran into the kitchen and threw a tray of silverware at my head. I ducked behind the counter."

The 55-year-old recalled dodging silverware as she told Grabowski to call back with a guaranteed offer to appear in the magazine instead of just a test shoot request.

Thankfully, the follow-up call came from Grabowski who promised the offer was "for real."

"I said, 'Yes, thank you' grabbed my purse and crawled on my hands and knees till it was safe to stand up and run out the door, slamming it behind me," Anderson wrote. "I ran down the sidewalk as fast as I could, him still yelling after me. I couldn't help but giggle at the thought of freedom. And revenge."

Anderson also explained how Playboy founder Hugh Hefner discovered her. She had been wearing a crop top featuring the Labatt's beer slogan "Enter the Blue Zone" at a Canadian football game when the Jumbotron displayed her to the crowd's delight. She became known as the "Blue Zone Girl" whose image appeared in Monday night football ads, and the rest is history.

During the hair and makeup test day for the Playboy shoot, the actor said she bonded with a makeup artist named Tracey.

"I told her I was nervous, how I'd left my fiancé, how he was unkind," Anderson wrote. Aware that Tracey would probably share her history of being abused with Hefner and Grabowski, she noted that sharing her story "may have been an unconscious cry for help."

"They got it loud and clear, and from that point on, Playboy was my family," she added in the book.

Anderson went on to shoot a record 14 covers for Playboy. When asked in a recent interview with The Times to name someone who has treated her with "complete and utter respect," she replied, "Hugh Hefner."

In "Love, Pamela," Anderson described additional experiences of physical and sexual abuse. She recalled a high school boyfriend who threw her out of his car while it was moving and another partner who raped her with at least five of his friends. Her earliest memory of sexual abuse in the book occurred when she was a child and a female babysitter touched her inappropriately.

"Love, Pamela" is available to read now.

"Pamela, a love story" is also available to stream on Netflix.