Millionaire porn star quits job to become a pastor

A man who has made millions working in the porn industry has switched professions - to work as a pastor.

After six years of working in the industry, Joshua Broome, who has filmed more than 1,000 explicit movies under the pseudonym Rocco Reed, quit the industry in 2012, claiming that he endured "emotional trauma" and lost sight of who he was.

At that time, he wrote: "I would like to state that my time in the adult industry in every aspect has now come to an end. I would also like to state that I am not or never have been gay, just an adult performer. I am retiring not because of any other reason than it's time to move on."

A decade later, Broome told the New York Post: "Everything was lies and fiction … I wanted to take my own life and didn't have the guts to do so."

This turning point happened two years after he moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina.

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In 2014, he met a woman named Hope at a fitness facility he worked at, and they decided to go for a run together. While on their run, Broome admitted his past in porn and was shocked that she didn't judge him.

"Through her kindness and not rejecting me, she cultivated a curiosity in me," Broome told the outlet. "The next weekend, we went to church together."

Before marrying Hope in 2016, Broome studied Biblical theology. The couple now have three young sons.

Broome is a pastor at the Good News Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and also preaches and teaches across the US.

Speaking about his former career, Broome said that he doesn't feel the shame or burden he once did and that his family life is "amazing."

"You can allow your past to own you, or you can take control and own your past."

Other people in the limelight have also opened up about their experiences with the world of porn.

In December 2021, Billie Eilish admitted that she watched porn so much as a child that it “destroyed” her brain and impacted her love life.

Additionally, a woman named Katy Bampton has said that her husband is a porn star Although she initially judged, she came around and realised it was mainly her “conditioning from society."

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