‘Pam & Tommy’ reopening wound for Pamela Anderson, says close source

Hulu’s new series Pam & Tommy, based on Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s marriage and sex tape scandal, is ‘reopening a wound’ for Anderson, a close source has told PEOPLE.

Following the Wednesday premiere of the show’s first three episodes, a source reportedly close to Pamela and Tommy in the ‘90s said, “There's a sense that the show is re-exploiting Pamela.”

“After the tape was made public, it was a very traumatizing situation and it's unfair that she is being re-subjected to this trauma, like re-opening a wound,” they went on to add.

The insider further stated, “Pamela deserves a level of respect. She's a human being and a mom. There's a sense of hypocrisy about it. It's her life and she should have the decision [as to] whether it's turned into a commodity for public consumption.”

They added that at the time when Pamela and Tommy’s sex tape was leaked in the late ‘90s, the Baywatch star wasn’t looking for attention.

“If you go back to her Playboy cover… that was her conscious choice, but somebody taking her personal home movie, that was not her choice. When someone steals your home movie, that is criminal and that's a violation. That was her privacy,” the source stressed.

Pam & Tommy, starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan in the titular roles, focuses on the couple’s wedding and the subsequent robbing of a safe in their house that contained an explicit tape of them which was then leaked to the public.