Inside rise in porn star deaths from Angelina Please to Dakota Skye as XXX-rated actors plagued with threats & suicides
THE death of porn star Angelina Please marks the latest tragedy to strike the industry - just two months after legendary adult actress Alicia Rio passed away at the age of 55.
Please's death was confirmed on March 16, 2022, and Rio, who appeared in hundreds of adult film titles during the 1990s, passed away on January 17.
Please performed in various X-rated titles during her career, with her work earning her a nomination for the Trans Performer of the Year at the 2022 AVN Awards, and has an OnlyFans account.
News of Angelina's death circulated after she was discovered in her Las Vegas apartment on Monday, March 14, 2022.
According to Please's neighbor and fellow performer Aspen Brooks, police were called to the locked Las Vegas apartment on Monday, March 14, 2022.
Angelina had allegedly been missing for five days. After much speculation, Aspen confirmed her death on Wednesday, March 16. Her cause of death is unclear.
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A spokesperson for the Clark County Medical Examiner confirmed Francesca's death to The Sun, but could not give any further details as to when she died or her autopsy results, simply saying it is a "pending case."
Meanwhile, Rio is reported to have tragically died from complications related to Covid-19.
An immediate relative posted online: "We believe it was ultimately about with Covid that cut her life shorter than we would have hoped and expected."
For an industry already suffering from a number of high profile deaths, the news of Rio's passing has once focused attention on the life of its stars.
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In December, Joey Ray died at the age of 51 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to reports.
The veteran adult movie star, who starred in more than 700 movies, was found dead on December 18.
His co-star Seth Gamble told that award-winning Ray, who began his porn career in 2000, had a "heart of gold."
Joey's death follows that of Dahlia Sky, whose passing at the age of just 31 in July sparked an outpouring of grief from adult film stars, including Stormy Daniels.
DAKOTA SKYE
Her suspected suicide came just weeks after fellow porn star Dakota Skye was found dead in a trailer aged 27.
All popular adult film stars with thousands of fans online, the three actors join a growing list whose life turned tragic.
That includes Olivia Lua who died in rehab in 2018 following a drug relapse; and January Seraph, who hanged herself that same year.
Yuri Luv died of an accidental drug overdose in 2017 with pills by her bedside; Shyla Stylez passed away in her sleep a year later aged 35, and August Ames tragically took her own life in December 2017 aged 23.
Olivia Nova died of a urinary infection that turned to deadly sepsis, reported in 2018.
TROLLED ONLINE
James Bartholet works in the adult film industry and was a friend of Dakota Skye.
He told The Sun: "A lot of girls in the industry are going through a lot of stuff. It's tough.
"In the adult film industry, you receive a lot of praise. But you are also the target for a lot of harassment and unnecessary correspondence.
"Look out for your friends, you do not know what they are going through."
Dakota's aunt Linda told The Sun that her niece had been trolled by other porn stars in the weeks before her death after she posed topless at a George Floyd mural.
"Her real-life story and how she came to be in that industry, has truly been a tragedy," she said.
Speaking shortly after her niece's death Linda added: "Lauren was a product of a highly dysfunctional family involving drugs, alcohol, physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse.
"She was stalked by demons like no one will ever understand unless you've lived it."
FACING THE STIGMA
In September last year - following the death of porn star Zoe Parker aged just 24 - adult performer Raylin Joy told The Sun: "It is a very fast-paced career span, even if you are in it for a long time it is still very short.
Joy, who worked as the adult performer Skin Diamond, added: "Because a lot of the new girls will pop up for a year or two maybe.
"Unless they are the top girls of the industry, they just sort of disappear into obscurity.
"Sometimes the stigma that can come with porn is too much for some girls to handle. Because it is not even the porn world that can really get to girls, it’s the bulls**t that girls can experience from the outside world.
"People think they have this idea of porn and that if you are a girl who does it then you must be a little bit weird or something."
HOMELESS IN TUNNEL
Jenni Lee, another big name in the porn industry, sent shock waves across the industry when she was found by a Dutch film crew sleeping in a rat-riddled tunnel under Las Vegas.
Although the 37-year-old is now homeless, the former actress claims that underground people - many of whom are struggling with drug addictions - are "more accepting" and she feels like she has made "genuine" friends.
Mia Khalifa, once voted PornHub’s most-watched star retired from porn in 2015 and has subsequently spoken out about an industry which "preys on callow young women" and "traps women legally into contracts when they’re vulnerable".
Lebanese-born Khalifa received death threats after filming a sex scene wearing a hijab. She claims ISIS shared images of her being beheaded, hacked her Instagram and posted a picture of her flat online.
“When the camera is on, everybody is happy,” behavioral scientist Gad Saad, a chair at the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, who studies the porn industry.
“The problem is that the work dries up. The phone stops ringing, and they say, ‘Now what?’ "Porn stars aren’t the best at making a ‘what if’ plan for their future.”
'SMACKED AROUND EMOTIONALLY'
US-based porn star Odette Delacroix, 28, said: “Adult performers get smacked around emotionally - they get it from every angle even within the industry.
"Plus, we’re all afraid to talk about any problems we have because it’s so competitive - if I say I’m depressed they’ll just use someone else.”
She added: “I don’t know if porn makes people depressed or if people who are depressed are more likely to be drawn into the industry.”
Odette revealed that bullying - both online and off - is a huge issue in the industry.
She said: "There isn't a day in my career I haven't had abuse from someone either online or in person.
"When my local high school found out about my career I was stripped of all my awards - they literally took my name off the wall."
Speaking in 2018 porn star Ginger Banks said: "The way society looks at and treats porn stars make us more depressed, it is hard to feel like we don’t belong or that we are second-class citizens."
"I have suffered depression because of the way people view my job. That is the worst part of this job, the way people treat me because of what I do for a living," Banks added.
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As porn industry veteran Ela Darling told in 2018: "It’s not like you can stop being a porn star and be a teacher.
"And not being busy can lead to bad things."
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