Paying a Lifelong Price for Porn Stint

May 27, 2004 -- The frail, waif-like porn actress Lara Roxx has become one of the most recognized names inside the porn industry today — but not in a way she ever expected.

[WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual acts that some readers may find offensive.]

She got her start in porn earlier this year, and worked for only three months. But just a few weeks later, her name hit national headlines in the mainstream media.

Roxx, 21, was one of two adult sex performers identified as having tested positive for HIV in April, causing an industry shut down. The other was a man with the stage name Darren James.

Altogether, at least 53 performers were exposed to the two infected actors — either directly or indirectly — and were quarantined for a month. Three others so far have tested positive.

Roxx says she went into the porn world to get money for school. For that gamble, she is paying a lifetime price.

"Who's going to want to marry me? Who's going to want to have a dog and kids with me, you know, and a house? No one," she told ABC News.

Descent to Tragedy

Roxx (also a stage name) grew up an only child in a French-Canadian middle-class home in Montreal.

She says her parents often bickered, and eventually divorced. "Seeing that my parents were unhappy together — that made me unhappy," she said.

She says she always tried to get their attention as a child, but when she became a teenager, she began to act up.

Her parents put her in a facility for troubled teens. Afterwards, she got a job in a strip club in Montreal. Then to earn some extra money she got an agent, and thought she would do a short stint in porn movies.

Roxx says she was firm: she would not have any unconventional intercourse, and absolutely no scenes without a condom. But, she says, her agent pushed her to do more.