(CNN) Former model and "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson has hit out at the Australian Prime Minister for laughing off her plea to have detained WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brought back to his home country.

Anderson lambasted the Australian leader for his "smutty remarks," which "trivialized and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family" in an open letter posted on her website and published in the Daily Beast over the weekend.

Her comments follow an interview earlier this month with Australia's 60 Minutes in which she had pleaded with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to facilitate the return of Assange to Australia.

60 Minutes reported that Anderson and Assange have become close -- she described their relationship to the news program as "a romantic struggle" -- and she remains a vocal supporter of the activist. She has reportedly been visiting him in the Ecuadorean embassy, where he remains following an asylum request granted in 2012, for the last two years.

Morrison rejected Anderson's entreaty, but said that he had "plenty of mates who have asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort out the issue with Pamela," during an appearance on a local Australian radio station.

We've found the audio of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's #JulianAssange interview with Hot Tomato - "I've had plenty of mates who have asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson" #auspol pic.twitter.com/LFiwuyBkWK — Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) November 6, 2018