August Ames: Adult film star revealed tragic past of sexual abuse and mental health issues before death
There has been an outpouring of condolences on social media
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Your support makes all the difference.Adult film actress August Ames opened up about childhood sexual abuse, mental health issues, and drug abuse, just weeks before her death from a reported suicide.
The 23-year-old - who’d starred in almost 290 movies - died in Camarillo, California, on Tuesday morning - after a homophobia row.
She had been under heavy criticism for saying she refused to work with men who have also appeared in gay pornography, actors who, in the industry, are described as “crossover” performers.
On September 13, less than two months before her death, she appeared on the Holly Randall Unfiltered podcast for a wide-ranging hour-long interview.
In it, she revealed that she’d experienced “a lot of sexual molestation” when she was growing up, but said the perpetrator was not her father.
She said the trauma of the abuse was compounded because she was not believed when she raised the alarm.
“It was just awful. It’s still recent where I have to keep myself occupied or else I start thinking about all that s*** and then I fall into a depression.
“I try to do therapy. I hate that word. I hate therapy.”
She said that one of the reasons she disliked therapy is because therapists would judge her for her profession.
“I would get in contact with some people and then I would feel badly because they’d be like ‘what’s your profession and I’d be like ‘oh, I’m in the adult industry’ and then I’d feel like they’re like ‘oh, that’s the whole reason that you are the way you are’ and then I’d get turned off.”
She touched on the use and abuse of drugs during the hour-long chat, revealing that when she was 15, the father of a child she was babysitting offered her cocaine if she would strip naked.
She said she’d used drugs to escape her issues, saying: “I don’t drink alcohol anymore. When I would drink, I’d black out every time. I used to smoke a lot of weed too, I used to be a big stoner but I’ve cut that out too. I just drink water now.”
Ames added that she was using medication to deal with bipolar disorder, depression and multiple personality disorder.
“It was so hard when I wasn’t on any medication when I’d just flip, you know? It was crippling.”
Towards the end of the podcast, she said that when she’s feeling low and depressed, she goes through her old photos to look for a happy selfie to post on Instagram to her followers.
After learning of his younger sister’s death, the actress’s brother lashed out at social media bullies, blaming the online abuse for his sister’s death.
Ames husband, Kevin Moore, asked for privacy during the difficult time, after telling industry trade magazine Adult Video News, “She was the kindest person I ever knew and she meant the world to me.”
Since the news of Ames death, there has been an outpouring of condolences on social media, with friends and industry professionals sharing touching tributes to the starlet.
The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet revealed the cause of death.