With the passing of Olivia Lua, five prominent porn actresses have died in just the last two months. Stars Ginger Banks and Raven Hart tell us EXCLUSIVELY why this is happening.
This is becoming alarming! A fifth porn actress has died in just the past two months, as 23-year-old Olivia Lua died in a West Hollywood rehab facility on Jan. 18. She joins a sad list that includes Olivia Nova, 20, Yuri Love, 31, Shyla Styles, 35, and August Ames, 23 who have left us since Dec. of 2017. So what is going on? Adult film actress Ginger Banks tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that its painful how people in her industry are looked down upon. “The way society looks at and treats porn stars makes us more depressed, it is hard to feel like we don’t belong or that we are second class citizens,” she says. “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.”
Ginger thinks she has a solution to the problem that has included overdoses and in August’s case, a suicide that was possibly the result of cyberbullying. “We need to facilitate more networking and community for sex workers and entertainers, it is important so you don’t feel like you have a dirty secret. So you have an outlet and maybe find a therapist who is OK with your job and who doesn’t make you feel ashamed for what you do,” she continues.
“Once someone in a community commits suicide it is more likely to happen to others in the community, so that could be what is happening with some of these porn star deaths. We need to reach out to people we know are struggling with depression and talk about it and educating people about mental health” Ginger advises.
Her fellow adult actress Raven Hart agrees that mental health issues need to be addressed within the porn community. “If you get into this business really young, and you are already predisposed to your own personal issues of depression or whatever else, working in porn may intensify your issues, this is not a career for everyone. When you are younger you get taken advantage of more and if you don’t stand up for yourself or you don’t make it known that you are a professional, then these types of things can happen,” she tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY.
“As someone who is already predisposed to a drug problem or depression, or another mental health issue, working in porn will only makes things worse or more difficult, your issues will be intensified,” she reveals to us. “I think it is a bit of coincidence that so many people in the industry have been dying, it is unfortunate. I know in the case of August Ames, there was a lot of issues, there was cyber-bullying and stuff like that, so that is it more of a newer phenomenon and maybe social media could have had an impact on that.”
HollywoodLifers, do you think Ginger and Raven are right with their theories on why so many porn actresses have been dying recently?
