Adult entertainer August Ames has died of apparent suicide—she was 23-years-old.
Ames was found dead at her home in Camarillo, California. The cause of death was determined to be ‘asphyxiation due to hanging,’ the medical examiner said.
Ames committed suicide following successive tweets in which she defended her refusal to perform a pornographic movie with a man who had previously worked in gay porn and sparking an online firestorm.
Friends said she suffered from depression.
whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews , you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know. BS is all I can say????????♀️ Do agents really not care about who they’re representing? #ladirect I do my homework for my body????✏️????
— August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
NOT homophobic. Most girls don’t shoot with guys who have shot gay porn, for safety. That’s just how it is with me. I’m not putting my body at risk, i don’t know what they do in their private lives. https://t.co/MRKt2GrAU4
— August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
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
— August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
“She was the kindest person I ever knew and she meant the world to me,” her husband, Kevin Moore, told Adult Video News. “Please leave this as a private family matter in this difficult time.”
At the time of her death, she was one of the most popular porn stars on the internet—her videos on Pornhub alone received more than 415 million views as of December 2017, making her the 9th most popular porn star on the website.
Ames, born Mercedes Grabowski, was a Canadian pornographic actress and model who appeared in almost 290 movies and won two AVN Awards in 2015 and in 2017.