Pamela Anderson says Playboy's Hugh Hefner is the only person who ever treated her with respect

• Pamela Anderson says the only person to ever treat her with respect is the late Hugh Hefner.
• Hefner, Playboys founder, invited Anderson to model at the Playboy mansion when she was 22.

Pamela Anderson said Hugh Hefner is the only person who has ever treated her with complete respect.

Ahead of her Netflix documentary and memoir release on January 31, Anderson told The Sunday Times how she met the late Playboy founder and how his invitation to shoot the cover of his magazine was key to reclaiming her sexuality.

In 1989, she was 22 and living in Vancouver with her then-fiancé. The former "Baywatch" star said she found out her partner was cheating on her the same day she got called up with an offer to be on the cover of Playboy's October issue.

"Doing that first photoshoot gave me this little kind of portal on what it felt like to be a sensual woman," Anderson said. "My sexuality was mine. I took my power back."

Since then, Anderson has been on the cover of Playboy Magazine 14 times – the most anyone has done to date.

After Hefner died in 2017, age 91, Anderson touched on their close relationship in several interviews. During an appearance on "The View" in 2019, she called Hefner a "civil rights activist."

"He's empowered so many women and broke down walls," she said. Anderson came to his defense when asked if she felt like he had exploited her and other women at Playboy.

"We exploited ourselves," she said. "We had the choice to do it, and we weren't vulnerable in that way that he was exploiting us."

"Hefner, he just did it another way. He had this chivalry. He really was a wonderful person," Anderson added.

However, her latest comment about Hefner being the only person to ever truly respect her comes after several bombshell allegations were made against him in A&E's docuseries "Secrets of Playboy."

Released in January 2022, the series featured women who accused Hefner of recording them without consent, bestiality, and refusing to use protection during group sex.

Following the series debut, however, a group of ex-Playboy employees — including former Playmates and Bunnies — signed an open letter, shared by People, in support of Hugh Hefner, whom they called "a person of upstanding character."