Various circumstances have led to people working in the adult entertainment industry.
And while viewers may know nothing of their private lives, the "actors" they see on screen are people like you and me.
Eventually, there comes a time when pornstars reach a juncture in their lives where they start thinking about starting a family.
Some stay in the business while supporting a family, while others have left the past in the past.
But is the past really permanently in the past?
Kids with parents who were or are pornstars shared their stories when Redditor harambe4life69 asked:
"Children of pornstars - what was it like growing up?"
Marriage did not end well with these parents with children.
The Questionable Photos
"One day when I was in 2nd grade I checked the mail and discovered 2 returned photos of my mom and step dad each posing individually, completely naked. I imagine they were 'trying out' for a porno?? Or something..? I still don’t know."
"But when my mom saw me looking at the photos she quickly grabbed them and we never spoke of it again. I’m 27 now. Neither are attractive and oddly enough they both ended up divorced and pretty miserable. I’m fairly sure they did not get the job."
– Intelligent_Flower29
Epic Downfall
"My mom was a sex worker in the 90s, even so successful that she ran her own service and eventually only took the higher scale clients. I remember being 8,9,10 years old in Chicago, New York and Atlanta hotels, and able to buy / order anything I wanted. We had personal computers in every bed room in 1997 which wasn’t common. Catalog and early online orders."
"She at first actually said she 'worked in computers' until I called her cell and her voicemail had a different name on it. Brooke, her name was Kim & My dad got a New computer Christmas one year and she didn’t even know how to turn it on. By the next year she was open and honest about what she did. Between her and my dad, they had the service, a strip club and a pizza shop. My brother got mopeds and gas or electric scooters for gifts, dirt bikes to ride in the backyard."
"Our house was a constant party. My brother started smoking weed, and selling it (he was in high school) and my mom would have it delivered by the pound in laundry baskets to 'support' his 'business venture.' We had a vending machine in the strip club, that my brother and I were allowed to manage for lessons in business."
"She eventually divorced my dad for cheating on her (hypocrite) with the manager of his strip club and she fell off bad since my aunt was a pharmacist at cvs and before the 'epidemic' she would bring HUGE bags of percocets to my mom. Then she would have the clients at our house and go in her room after announcing to myself and my 2 siblings 'I’m going to pay the bills'. Or the men would come out of the room and take me and my siblings shopping at the nearby mall, one would show up with ps2 and an Xbox before paying for our thanksgiving cabin trip."
"Still making money, she started smoking hard drugs and didn’t come out of her room for months, just slipped 100s under the door for us to order 'cafe courier' which was an early 1990s version of door dash."
"It was 5 years. They went from nothing to everything to nothing again. The house in a prominent suburban neighborhood ended up foreclosed on, I was kicked out when I was 12 after a fight with my mom and went back there after I heard from family that the house was taken by the bank over some addition my mom had built on the back, the house had been paid off before she did that."
"When I went back there was spray paint on the walls, the glass block walls were destroyed, and upstairs in my old room was boards on the windows, a metal chair and rope. It was tragic and disturbing to see."
"She’s doing better now, lives in a small home in 2 acres in the country. But she drinks like a fish, and never let go of the betrayal from my dad or how great those few years were. They were Great. But I would have taken average /normal for 10-20 years over that 5 years of crazy greatness."
– LittLilBihh
Life in the fast lane isn't always as glamorous as it may seem.
Plot Twist
"There was an guy in an other town whose parents had made a porno movie, but the plot twist here is that the mom was pregnant at the time. So you could say he was in a porno too. And to top it up a some what known rapper used the sound of the movie, just the start of it, in one of his songs, which have been played at festivals and in the radio. Must have been hard for him."
– SvanseHans
A Few Caveats
"Mum wasn't a flat out porn star but she danced at one of the older strip clubs in Vegas- Glitter Gultch. Most men flirt with her but because it was only adults seeing her naked or going into a private room for other services so it never bled over into teasing by children. I just learned at a young age that you could pay your bills with your body but if you stay in the industry the more risk to your person is involved physically, mentally, and emotionally."
– mewdejour
Popular Student For The Wrong Reasons
"Someone from my high school."
"His mom was 'locally famous' for some apparent extreme sex tapes."
"He was teased non-stop about it once kids found out."
"He ended up leaving the country the moment he turned 18 (which was in the middle of his senior year) after legally changing his name."
"I wasn't in his class (I was a year under) but from what I remember, he hated his mom and was extremely aggressive in his last year before running off."
– Defoler
Why No One Comes Over
"Not me, my friend’s mom had been a nude model for motorcycle pinup magazines and nudie spreads in the 70s or 80s before he was born. I knew this guy for probably 3 years from hanging out at mutual friends’ homes before finally going to his place. He never mentioned his mom being a nude model before, but when we walked in to the house, his parents were sitting in the living room smoking cigarettes under this giant poster sized photo of her topless and sprawled out on a motorcycle, looking very seductive and horny. He explained it later and said this is why he rarely has friends over."
– FartAttack911
Dad's Magazine Spread
"My dad was in a nude magazine that circulated in the 90’s all around Australia called Picture Magazine. He was no porn star by any means. But he did have a nude picture inside of a magazine. People brought the picture to school I would show it to me like I haven’t seen my dad walk around the house naked. I was less embarrassed when I managed to wrangle this comeback 'why you got a naked picture of a guy in your backpack dude?'”
– thecretin
Banned
"My middle school banned my parents from coming to my graduation/promotion because it was 'inappropriate' to have them there."
"Edit: lmao yes, this really happened. This was like 2005/2006. Yes, religious, private school. Administration knew who they were because another parent recognized them at drop off and told the school they didn’t feel comfortable having porn stars (that they clearly watch) around their kids. School agreed. Definitely did not make me popular in school."
– lilsnuff69
The Kids Suffer
"There's a ~40 year old lady who posts nudes both here (username has 'poindexter' in it, I think?) and onlyfans that clearly show her face and always mentions she's a mom. Well, her kids' religious school found out and kicked the whole family out of the parish. It made the local news headlines when she tried to fight it, which is where I heard about it. Now everyone knows and it'll be googleable forever. I feel pretty bad for her kids."
– LetterSwapper
The home decor was a dead giveaway of their erotic profession.
The Boss Who Scored
"My former boss is married to a lady who also works at our company and who everybody knows. Once he invited his whole team home for a grilling party and to show us his newly built house (we are a construction company so that's not too weird). It was awkward enough entering the bedroom of my boss, but the huge framed nude photo of her above the bed took the cake."
– ellenitha
Cool Chauffeur
"One of my best friends in HS had a mom who did porn back in the early 90s. Found out after we graduated but nobody really cared at that point because we all knew her - she had driven most of us home blackout drunk from parties one time or another. She was cool, really chill, but apparently quite strict with her own kids. Died a couple of years ago from breast cancer, really (edt) bummed me out when I found out. She was a nice lady."
– MindlessNote3735
Wall Of Conquests
"I worked as house cleaner for a time, and one of my clients was a porn star. She had posters from all the movies she’d done hanging on the hallway walls. She had two kids, they were maybe 11 and 8. I couldn’t imagine growing up with pictures of my mom like that on the way to the bathroom every day."
– Effycrush
Not every childhood involving a pornstar parent was necessarily a traumatizing one.
No Judgment
"I’m late but I’ll give my personal take as the daughter of a mom who did porn in her early 20’s."
"I didn’t even know until I was around 15 so it didn’t affect me before that honestly. My mom moved on to non-porn line of work so it’s not like I grew up near it or really grew up while she was still in the industry or anything like that. Also, she’s not one of the extremely popular ones that a ton of people would know so she most likely wouldn’t get recognized on the street I don’t think haha."
"My cousin was actually the one who told me (but didn’t show me anything) and I confirmed it with my mom later on. Pretty awkward for me to say the least haha."
"Also, I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of it really and I don’t have any traumatic stories that relate to this tbh. Not sure what else I should add 😁"
– kafelade
A Good Mom
"It was not that memorable. I didn’t know until I was older that she did old-school playboy type stuff. I was shocked when i learned about it but since i never really knew as a kid it didn’t affect me all the much."
"Since everyone always asks."
"-no, there weren’t abusive boyfriends all the time. She didn’t really date, but one bf was nice and fairly normal. They broke up for the usual incompatibility reasons, not bc she was in porn."
"-she was not a drug addict."
"-she was just struggling as a single mom when my dad died and had to do what she could."
"-no, I’m not embarrassed. Most everyone I tell thinks it’s cool and then I have to explain childhood was normal, she was a good mom, she wasn’t a drug addict etc etc."
– 30-50_feralhogs
Beats A "Real Job"
"People expect her to have been some kind of dirty terrible person but she just simply wasn’t. If there weren’t lines of perverts buying the VHS’s and magazines the job wouldn’t have been as lucrative as it was. Sure beats a 'real job' at minimum wage where she wouldn’t have been able to be as good of a parent tbh"
– 30-50_feralhogs
While some would perceive having pornstars as parents as amusing, it's the kids who may disagree.
Based on some the experiences mentioned above, it seems not everyone who has dabbled in the adult entertainment industry wound up with happy endings.
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For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
Giphy
"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
Giphy
"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
Giphy
What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
Giphy
Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
Giphy
Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...