CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I didn’t really want to
do like crazy, nasty porn. I mean, it’s all nasty, but it was absolutely all about the money then.
COMM: Crystal Bassette is a dedicated wife,
mother and pastor. But less than three years ago, she was working as a porn star.
COMM: As a single mom, she moved to Hollywood
with her young son and started stripping to earn money. But the cost of living in LA turned her to porn.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: When I spoke to the agent,
he was like, “Oh! You can make $30,000 in a month.” So, I was thinking, “Oh, wow!
I can do this for a month and be done with it.”
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: My first shoot, I remember
after a scene, I sat in the shower for about two hours crying. About a month went by and
then I ended up going back to it again and that’s when I was like you know, the only
way I would be able to numb myself is through taking pain medicine and drinking alcohol
to get through a scene.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I was making about $20-30,000
a month, I wouldn’t walk outside my house without showing cleavage, having a belly shirt
on, high heel. I constantly had to keep up this image of being a fake plastic Barbie doll.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I had a house in Malibu,
I had a night club, I had seven cars. You know, I had a Ferrari, two Escalades. I mean,
it was crazy. The amount of money that I used to blow at the mall a week would probably,
like, I look back now…I was like, “What? I was dumb!” I was recognised everywhere
and I realised how big the adult world is.
COMM: Despite appearing in over 100 porn films,
Crystal has always had the support of her family.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: My family was good with
it. Both my mom and my dad were disappointed with me at one point. Well, my dad was very
disappointed in me. He is a truck driver and he had a break room and there is magazine
there and it was opened up to his daughter in a magazine, naked and that was his introduction
of me to the adult industry. So that was a bad day.
COMM: In May 2014, Crystal was involved in
a car crash, receiving a DWI as a result. It was then that she realised something needed to change.
COMM: She attended her sister’s church where
she met a pastor who helped her turn away from her life in the industry for good.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: You know parents react out
of fear. You text your kids and if they’re not texting you right back, you’re freaking
out, “Oh my goodness they are dead.” You know, “The house is burning down, the squirrels
have mauled them”, you know. I’m one of those parents. I freak. The world has become
so evil that fear has set in us so big.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: After you get saved, you
know there is something wrong and something that you don’t want to do. I haven’t gone
back since and I never will.
JUSTIN DIGREGORIO: I got bullied a lot a while
ago and sometimes people still bringing it up now. They’re like, “Oh, I watched your
mom last night” and I was like, “Oh, okay”. I like tend to like just throw it off to the
site, like it doesn’t really bother me that much anymore. She did it because like she
wanted to support me and everything.
COMM: Crystal’s visit to the church turned
out to be a fateful one as she met her future husband and co-pastor David there.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: It was love at first sight.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I mean, we were attracted
to each other right away. I loved the fact that he was a true man of God. That was such
a huge attraction for me.
DAVID BASSETTE: I think one of my biggest
things was seeing her strength. She is a very strong woman and that definitely attracted
me to her. What I would like people to take away from us is number one that God can forgive
you no matter what past you come from. In this day and age, I hope it encourages everybody
else to do the same.
COMM: Reflecting now, Crystal thinks she knows
what first led her into the porn industry.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I was sexually abused when
I was a child by two different people. I was about five years old the first time. I would
say the sexual abuse lasted for a couple of months and the other time it happened, I was probably seven.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: I went through a few years
of therapy and stuff and started realising like why I was choosing the life that I did.
CRYSTAL BASSETTE: Being a porn star and then
becoming a pastor, it’s like I’m not worried about my outlook appearance, I'm not worried
about money. Now, I’m worried about helping people. I can’t focus on one thing that
I regret like, you know, I regret doing this, I regret doing this, because I look
back at my past now and, you know, I can’t say that I really regret anything, because
it’s made me who I am today.