Mum Quits Porn Career To Become A Pastor

Three years ago, Crystal Bassette was a successful porn star, featuring in over 100 films and was earning around over $300,000 a year.

But after 10 years in the industry, Crystal from Clay, New York, turned her life around after finding God and marrying a pastor.

Falling pregnant at 16, Crystal was determined to give her son the best life she could. However, after moving to Hollywood from North Carolina she realised that living in a safe neighbourhood came with a sky-high price tag.

Following a few years of modelling, feature dancing and pole competitions, Crystal - now 33 - met with an adult film agent to discuss starring in porn films, who told her that she could make $30,000 a month.

Starstruck by the opportunity to make serious cash to support her son, Justin, Crystal attended her first scene at a house in Malibu soon after the meeting.

She said: “I remember after the scene, I sat in the shower for about two hours crying. Then I stopped after that shoot and didn’t go back for about one month.

“I ended up going back to it again and that’s when I was numbing myself through taking pain medicine and drinking alcohol to get through the scene.

“It just became like this daily routine for me where I would drop my son off to school in the morning, go do a shoot and come home. It was like a regular 9 to 5 job.”

Stuck in a cycle of alcohol abuse and splashing her money on sports cars, a nightclub and a mansion, Crystal says she was sucked in by the materialistic lifestyle and lost herself in the haze.

She said: “My mind was so messed up and after reading the Bible I know that I was haunted by a spirit of Jezebel.

“I just lived for myself and my son and didn’t really think about the consequences of making films and dancing and everything.

"I started to become an object. I wouldn’t walk outside my house without showing cleavage, having a belly shirt on and high heels. It was like had to constantly look like the sex symbol.”

Shortly before meeting her future husband David - a pastor - Crystal decided to shun the porn world and devote her life to God instead.

She said: “He’d known about my past for years because my sister was going to his church. David is the kind of guy that thinks your past is your past. You can't keep looking back at it. It's done with.

"It is definitely the ultimate change. It's going from one extreme to the next. I had to get away from this whole life."

The couple married in December 2014, and they were soon joined by their son Carter, who was welcomed by older brothers 16-year-old Justin and seven-year-old Landon.

David, 26, said: “What I would like people to take away from us is that God can forgive you no matter what past you come from.

“I would like people to come to Christ through our relationship and our experiences. I hope it encourages everybody else to do the same, to realise that money and fame isn’t what it’s about.”

Bassette credits her reunification with Christ to several life-changing events, including a terrifying car accident in May 2014 and a visit to her sister’s church that encouraged her to leave a volatile relationship with her ex-boyfriend.

She said: “The day I was saved, I felt like the preacher was just speaking to me directly. It was like he was preaching to only me and you know that day I felt God was talking to me through his preaching and everything he said felt right.

“I ended up walking the middle. I got down on my knees and was just praying to God to just release me from everything and my mom was there and my sister came over and were just all crying. And that was the day I got saved.”

Unfortunately, Crystal was not able to drop her life in the porn industry instantly and she had to endure one last film before she could start her life anew.

She said: “I had a contract that had to be fulfilled. I had to fulfil two scenes which was horrible.”

Now on the other side, Crystal believes she knows what led her on a path to the adult film industry.

Bassette said: “I was sexually abused when I was a child by two different people. So I went through a lot of stuff as a kid.

“It’s wordless. I’m alright now but it took me a long time. I went through a few years of therapy and stuff and so I realised why I was choosing the life that I did.”

Luckily Crystal always had the full support of her family - in both of her polarising lives - even if they were a little disappointed in her while she was in the porn industry.

She said: “My mom was very supportive of it. She kind of let me make my own decisions. They were both pretty disappointed in me though. I mean my father, he was very disappointed in me, got mad at first but they eventually got over it.”

Crystal turned her life around after leaving the porn industry and soon graduated from college to become a paralegal and trained as a pastor.

After marrying, David and Crystal founded their own church called New Beginnings Christian Life in Fulton, New York where they hope to inspire others.

Crystal said: “I look back at my past now and you know I can’t say that I really regret anything because it has made me who I am today.

“It’s like if I grew up as a teacher, I probably wouldn’t be helping people now. I probably would be completely different.

“My past made me who I am today and God has changed my life completely.”