It has been close to 20 years since Yasmine Bleeth wore the now-iconic red swimsuit on the television show “Baywatch,” and since then, she has led a life that is strikingly different from the one she led in the public eye.

The former beauty girl, who is now 51 years old, was photographed earlier this week walking her dog in Southern California, and she appeared to be almost unrecognizable.

Bleeth, who was born and raised in New York City, made her professional debut at the age of ten months, when she starred in a commercial for Johnson & Johnson’s No More Tears shampoo. As a teenager, she had roles in soap operas like “Ryan’s Hope,” but she became a household name after playing Caroline Holden in “Baywatch,” which also starred Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff.

Before moving on to the television smash “Nash Bridges” starring Don Johnson, on which she appeared from 1996 to 2001, Bleeth dashed across the dunes from 1993 to 1997.

She has stated that her turbulent relationship with “21 Jump Street” actor Richard Grieco was the catalyst for her increasing use of recreational drugs, and in the year 2000, she checked herself into the posh Promises treatment clinic in Malibu to treat her cocaine addiction. It was there that she first met her future husband, Paul Cerrito, who owned a strip club.

The following year, Bleeth was taken into custody in Detroit on accusations relating to his cocaine use.

Bleeth entered a guilty plea for operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and for possession, and he was given a term of two years of probation as a result.

Bleeth talked candidly about her struggle with heroin addiction in an essay that was published in Glamour (via People) in April 2003. In the piece, she disclosed that she had once passed out during a photoshoot and that she had gone five days without sleeping.

Bleeth admitted that staying clean from drugs was now an integral aspect of his life and that it will remain so indefinitely.

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