Pamela Anderson: Pal Julian Assange 'hated because of the Clinton monopoly on the media'

Pamela Anderson has visited Assange several times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. (Reuters)

Former Playboy centerfold and "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson has claimed that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is "misunderstood" and even "hated" because of what she has termed "the Clinton monopoly on the media."

Anderson has made several visits to Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Australian has remained in legal limbo since 2012.

"We talk about everything," she told The Hollywood Reporter about her friendship with Assange. "We talk about the Bible, we talk about what's happening with my kids, what's happening with his family. It's not just about politics, even though I do take a lot of notes and it's so overwhelming, the information he gives me."

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Wikileaks coordinated with Russian intelligence to release hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election campaign. In April 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters that arresting Assange was "a priority" for the Justice Department.

Anderson, for her part, believes the claims against Assange are "a way of keeping him down and keeping him ineffective."

"He's just ruffling the feathers of people that are powerful," she told THR. "I always try to humanize him because people think he's a robot or he's a computer screen or he's not this human being.

"He's so misunderstood, especially in Hollywood, and really hated, because of the Clinton monopoly on the media," she added, without elaborating.

Anderson has repeatedly declined to reveal the nature of her unusual friendship with Assange, which has led to speculation that the two are more than friends. In March, after Ecuador announced it had revoked Assange's visitor privileges and Internet access, Anderson told the New York Post that she was "deeply concerned about his health and well-being" and said he was undergoing "a slow, painful death [at] the hands of the U.S. [and] U.K."

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