Saying Goodbye To All That: When Pornstars Quit The Business

The porn business is a notoriously transient industry, with performers coming and going all the time (even if we’re most used to seeing them coming). Most of those exits are quiet, like the anonymous babelog model who slips back into civilian life after a handful of shoots. But there are some gals who like to leave a little more memorably. After the jump, a look back at some of our favorite—or at least best remembered—porn star exits. After all, isn’t it always better to go out with a bang instead of a whimper?

The Semi-Retirement: When some girls quit the business, they just quit one part of it. Take Lexi Bardot, for instance, who may have left Porn Valley but who still creates online content. Wich is something we’re extremely grateful for.


The (Very) Brief Exit: We were heartbroken when Belladonna announced that she was going to be retiring from the hardcore life due to an STD scare Thankfully, we weren’t heartbroken for very long: less than a month after that announcement, she was back in the saddle again, which is exactly where we like to see her.


The Higher Calling: When Jesus calls, porn stars answer — at least when those porn stars are Crissy Moran and Erica Campbell, who left the jizz biz for the Jesus biz. We tried telling them that looking at them naked was a different but equally valid religious experience, but they chose to take a different path anyway.


The Very Public Exit: Who could ever forget Jenna Jameson? And who could forget her announcing, in the thick of the 2008 AVN Awards, that she “would never spread [her] legs for this industry again”? Hey, if you’re going to quit porn, you might as well do it in front of a live audience comprised of a lot of the people who made you a star in the first place.


When The Past Comes Calling: Sometimes, even webcam girls get the blues (and the urge to quit): Tiffany Teen was driven to quit the life of a barely legal webcam girl after pictures from her high school yearbook were posted online. Sometimes, the past should stay the past (especially when it scares pretty girls away from being naked.)


Committing Suicide: With all the drama that’s gone on at alt megasite SuicideGirls, it’s not surprising that they’ve inspired more than a few creative (and dramatic) exits, including the one time near thirty models quit at once. For sheer style, though, we’d like to single out Flux, who managed to quit with a pretty piece of prose that tugged at our heartstrings. And let’s not forget Dia while we’re at it.

So did we miss anyone? Let us know your favorite porn star exits in the comments.

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  • ChokeHerGently

    You missed the absolutely incomparable Temptress.

  • Sexbobomb

    Wait, Erica Campbell did porn?

    How did I not get that memo?

  • Brian47

    I don’t know… choosing Jesus over legions of adoring male and female fans? Does that seem logical? Maybe I being too cynical and focused on being adored here on this planet…

  • hatey

    It seems like a fair share of girls in the sex industry quit when they’re murdered. Usually when feminist politics are discussed on this site, it’s in a lighthearted, Fleshbot-y way that makes me smile, but for serious: it’s really awful that so many sex workers– including porn girls– meet sad ends.

  • Anonymous

    Hetero porn is a young woman’s game. The current vogue of the MILF doesn’t provide enough continuing careers for the current stars , and with a new crop of eighteen year olds every year, there must be an incredible amount of pressure to perform or get out of the way (eerily similar to the other film industry). With departure being the norm, I’d have to say that I find those who stay in the industry far more compelling, Nina Hartley being a paragon.

  • Mazda Eric

    I thought Jezebelle Bond left the business…I hope it’s not true though :(

    And isn’t Raven Riley quitting?

  • I.M.B.Y What’s THIS for…!

    @CloudCarrier:
    I can’t agree more about hoping they found happiness. Missing them is one thing, but as long as those I saw and got enjoyment from got on with a new life and are feeling better for it…. I makes me happy, in a “wish your friends well” kind of way.

    [start The Kinks "Better Things"]
    Hoping all the verses ryhme, and the very best of choruses too….

  • StlHakusho

    I always wondered what happened to Sky Lopez, than I found her on myspace under Sky “Spring Break” Lopez. Apparently she’s also a Jebus freak now.

  • Anonymous

    How about Barbie Bridges aka Pastor Melissa Scott on late night cable TV?

  • Anonymous

    Shame about Lexi. What a performer. At least it’s a semi-retirement kind of thing.

  • CloudCarrier

    @CaptainCelery: The difference with Nina is that she’s been strong enough to both survive the fickleness of the industry as well as blooming as a person within it. It does help that she’s crazy about sex in all its facets, which is something that not too many people, even performers, can draw out past the 5+ year mark, but young’ns like Belladonna still give me hope for the future.

    @hatey: I think the scared teenager in me, and possibly Chuck Palahniuk, would love to believe that the murder rate in the industry is higher than that of a steelworker or grocery store cashier, and I guess that myth runs with the territory. But I can’t say, right now, that this business is different from any other entertainment-bred industry, in that it attracts all kinds of people, from the sedate and well-mannered to the coffee table-throwing psychopaths with agoraphobia, and everything in between. It can be Star 80, but it can also be Office Space.

    The non-camera based sex trade, on the other hand, is a whole different topic altogether.

    For me, the girls who make one or two appearances and disappear forever are no less compelling than the continuing career arcs of performers like Jenna Haze or Katja Kassin, who have the staying power to keep going and keep doing what they’ve done so well. The endless possibilities concerning those unaccounted fates, however, are probably the hardest ones to endure. But I’d like to think that everyone found happiness away from the spotlight, even if it was in the service of a savior (Sierra Sinn), behind the camera (Veronica Hart), or within a believable myth of marriage in Brazil (Vanessa Chase) or within the states surrounding California (Cherry Rain, I miss you!).

  • Anonymous

    Just noticed that the link to the Lexi story is over a year old. Geez, I must’ve been off watching porn or something.

  • hatey

    @Lux Nightmare: Yeah, but there aren’t as many strippers and porn-types as there are Wal-Mart cashiers and high school teachers, etc. Though it’s true the early demise of sex workers is more sensationalized– which is why I might think it happens often– I still think that, numbers-wise, we (oh, funny. I haven’t stripped in years.) are a smaller population and, hence, might die violently at a higher percentage.

  • Lux Alptraum

    @hatey: Honestly? I think a lot of women — not just sex workers — meet sad ends. Which is pretty fucked up.

  • hodayathink is walking in the glow of love

    My vote:

    Hannah Harper quitting hardcore to do softcore. I’m not sure if that had happened before, and it just seems really out of the ordinary to me.

  • Lux Alptraum

    @hatey: Good point!

  • Anonymous

    who’s the girl with the glasses in the last picture?

  • Anonymous

    who’s the girl with glasses in the last picture?