Awful New Details Revealed About Why Adult Film Star August Ames Committed Suicide
Her death came just days after she received backlash for making homophobic comments on Twitter.
Hollywood Life August Ames, a 23-year-old rising adult film star, was found dead from an apparent suicide in her home in Camarilla, California December 5. According to Hollywood Life, the Ventura County Medical Examiner found that Ames, who was born Mercedes Grabowski, died of asphyxia due to hanging and confirmed that she did, in fact, take her own life.
Police are still waiting for the results of her toxicology test to determine if she was under the influence of any substances, but her friends say the star suffered from depression. Even more so lately due to some recent online bullying.
On December 3, Ames took to Twitter to complain about having to film a scene with a fellow actor who had down gay porn.
"whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews, you're shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let ya know. BS is al I can say...Do agents really not care about who they're representing? #ladirect I do my homework for my body."
Fans and other Twitter users called her a "homophobe" and said it was wrong for her to call out another performer on their sexuality.
"I think it’s hilarious that your discriminating against a man who does/did gay porn when half of this industry has performed with such performers," one user wrote. "ALLLLLLL performers must subject to the SAME testing in order to work."
While many people berated her for her comments, some also agreed that she had a right to choose who she wanted to work with based on their previous film history. Ames said she didn't mean the comment to come across as homophobic and that she was more concerned about "putting her body at risk."
"How am I homophobic if I myself am attracted to women? Not wanting to have sex with gay men is not homophobic; they don’t want to have sex with me either so byeeeee," she tweeted.
After learning of Ames death, her friend Annika Albright implied on Twitter that the backlash might have contributed to her decision to commit suicide.
“Omg, I can’t believe she’s dead," she wrote. "You people should have known better than to berate her over her personal thoughts! Shame on all you for beating it into the ground. Online harassment is a real thing & it claimed another life. Someone who I liked & would have even called a friend!”
Sadly, Ames last tweet was on December 4 and it read: "f--k ya'll."
Ames acted in over 270 adult movies and was married to 43-year-old adult film director Kevin Moore.
“She was the kindest person I ever knew and she meant the world to me,” Moore said in a statement. “Please leave this as a private family matter in this difficult time.”
Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).