Biograde zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) has found wide application in load bearing endoprosthetic implants due to high strength, fracture toughness, and wear resistance. In order to enhance bonding to acrylic bone cement (BC) for implants, fixation modification of ZTA with a thin layer of porous anodic alumina (PAA) was investigated. An Al‐layer of approximately 500 nm was sputtered on the ZTA substrate which subsequently was electrochemically oxidized by anodic polarization in H2C2O4 or H3PO4 solution. PAA layers with a total porosity ranging from 11 to 30%, mean pore spacing of 90–200 nm and pore diameters of 30–110 nm were prepared. Compared to unmodified ZTA/BC interface (≈ 30 MPa), the PAA modified specimens (ZTA/PAA/BC) achieved a significantly higher interface bonding strength (≈ 60 MPa) measured by four point bending on composite beam specimens. While crack propagation in the unmodified ZTA/BC specimen was found to proceed along the interface, fracture analysis on the ZTA/PAA/BC specimens showed a mixed mode fracture with part of the fracture propagation localized along the PAA/BC interface and part through BC. Thus, pore structure controlled mechanical interlocking is expected to offer a high potential for applying PAA surface modification to improve biomaterial to BC bonding.