In less than a month, two similar stories about female pastors endorsing and acting in pornography have surfaced. This time it’s Crystal DiGregorio, a former pastor of New Beginnings Christian Life Church in New York.
Crystal DiGregorio (30) married pentecostal minister David Bassette (23) in January 2015. The two started dating after DiGregorio’s sister secretly set them up to meet each other. Bassette’s father was the pastor of the church DiGregorio was attending, so she was familiar with David, having seen him occasionally help his father with baptisms.
David caught DiGregorio’s eye, but never thought the two would have a romantic relationship because he was eight years younger than her. DiGregorio was a single mother of two at the time.
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Nevertheless, the pair hit it off at a card game set up by DiGregorio’s sister. Their relationship moved quickly, and Bassette proposed to DiGregorio after only two months of dating. They walked down the aisle of his father’s church less than three months later.
DiGregorio’s Story
DiGregorio’s past was anything but typical. Prior to giving her life to Jesus in 2014, she had worked in the adult entertainment industry for 10 years, appearing in over 100 pornographic films and making over $300,000 per year.
Describing her life as a porn star, DiGregorio told ABC Nightline’s Diane Macedo in 2017 that she was “shocked” that making adult movies became a “normal” and “routine” thing to her.
An honor-roll student in high school, DiGregorio became a single mother to a son at the age of 16. A few years after her son was born, DiGregorio said she started stripping to make money. She later moved to California, where her life in pornography began after her agent suggested she give it a try. DiGregorio said the experience after her first pornographic shoot felt similar to abuse, and described how she sat in the shower crying for hours afterward feeling gross and dirty.
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However, money brought her back. Growing up poor, DiGregorio wanted a better life for her son. Eventually, she became famous in the adult entertainment industry. DiGregorio said none of this made her happy. Instead, it drove her to start mixing painkillers with alcohol to “numb” herself and get through the pornography shoots.
DiGregorio says the sexual abuse she suffered as a child is what led her into the adult entertainment industry. According to DiGregorio, she was “constantly seeking for male attention. Attention I didn’t get when I was a kid.”
DiGregorio started attending church with her sister after totaling her SUV in a serious car crash while driving under the influence. DeGregorio said this “wake-up call” led to her surrender her life to Jesus.
After DiGregorio and Bassette got married and had a son, they left their church due to the negative attention they continued to receive because of DiGregorio’s past. One year later, they planted New Beginnings Christian Life Church, where they led as the pastors.
The former porn star started the church with the hopes of reaching abused women in the adult industry with her preaching. DiGregorio said her past helped her connect with people of all backgrounds.
“With us, there was no judgment on people. People felt free. It didn’t matter if you came through the doors with full body piercings and tattoos and stuff…we didn’t judge them. Everybody’s got a past,” she said.
DiGregorio Returns to the Adult Industry
Fast-forward to six years later. DiGregorio and Bassette had divorced and she has since left the church. While no longer an active pastor, she is still an ordained minister and identifies as a Christian. She has remarried, and the couple recently welcomed a daughter, Olivia.
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“Now, I just want to be me,” DeGregorio said in a recent YouTube interview with “Brand New Me,” adding that she is returning to the adult entertainment industry by starting an OnlyFans page. (OnlyFans is a subscription service where content creators can charge for exclusive content, including sexual content.)
As a Christian, DeGregorio says she knows she is “going to have criticism” doing OnlyFans, and that people are already telling her she is going to hell.
“Nobody in this world can send me to hell. Only God can.”
“My experience as a pastor was extremely difficult,” DiGregorio said. “I have a lot of respect for pastors and stuff that they go through after going through it myself.”
According to DiGregorio, judgment in the church is what ultimately drove her away from ministry. DiGregorio said, “They judge you for everything. I mean, God forbid a pastor has a drink of wine or any type of alcoholic beverage, because you’re definitely going to Hell for that.”
When she shared her desire to be an adult entertainer again with Andrew, he said, “I’m not here to control you. I want you to do what makes you happy. As long as it doesn’t break up our marriage, I’m down with it. I told her I support her 100 percent.” He even manages her OnlyFans page and doesn’t mind that others look at her pictures and videos. “She’s all mine, so I’m not really too worried about it,” Andrew said with a chuckle.
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Explaining how she reconciles her adult entertainment work with her Christian faith, DiGregorio said, “The way I look at posting adult content is God brought me into this world naked.” Though she once said she was done with X-rated films forever, DiGregorio now says, “Posting pictures naked—I don’t think is this big, huge crime or, you know, this big sin.”
Recalling her time attending church and serving as a pastor, she now resents the fact that “when I was in church, it was girls can’t wear pants. You have to wear skirts. You can’t wear makeup. You can’t dye your hair. You can’t cut your hair. God forbid you show any cleavage [or] you’re going to Hell for all those things.” Reflecting on her evolving moral beliefs, DiGregorio admitted, “I literally went from one extreme to the next.”
“Looking back in my life as a pastor, I am grateful the experience of it. I learned a lot about myself and I learned about about other people,” DiGregorio said. “I will always be a believer, but I don’t want to be in a religion where people are controlling who I am or my whole life. I’m happy being in the middle. Not all porn and not all church—just being me.”
The mother of four did say she is fearful about her newborn daughter finding out about her career and expressed that she doesn’t want Olivia to go down the same path.