I became a porn star to survive in America — Afro Candy opens up on her life, career

 US-based Nigerian actress, singer and porn star, Judith  Mazagwu popularly known Afro Candy has been in the country since last week. She is in the country to pay her last respect to her mother, Agatha Opara, whose remains were laid to rest on Saturday, April 30, in her country home, in Imo State. She was our guest on Vanguard Live Chat with celebrities on Instagram yesterday, where she revealed so many things about her life and career, including what inspired her to become a porn star among others.

You are truly enjoying your stay back home after being away for almost eight years?

There is no place like home. I think I love it here. I missed Nigeria for  years and I’m glad to be here againYou mean different things to different people. Some people see you as an actress and a singer, while many others describe you as a porn star. So, who’s Afro Candy?

Afro Candy is everything just as you noted. Everything I mean to everybody to a specific group of people. I am everything you just mentioned. But you probably did mention that I am also a mother of two beautiful daughters. I am also an entrepreneur, I have my own company back in the United States called Invisible Twins Productions. I am everything you mentioned anyway.

What ‘s story about you that you haven’t been able to share with anyone?

Iguess if there is any story I haven’t been able to share with anyone that means I don’t want to talk about it. There are certain things you will like to go to your grave with. So, I’d rather keep it where it is or tell it at the right time. But this is not the right time to share any secret things about me for now.

People say that you became controversial the moment you relocated to the United States. Is that true?

in Nigeria, I was a regular Nollywood actress who couldn’t take off my shirt in a movie. I remember, on one or two occasions where the directors had to fight with me to play a scene, where I had to tie a towel and lay beside Kenneth Okonkwo. I was forced to do it. That’s to tell you the kind of actress I was then. 

Another one was the movie I acted alongside Mike Ezuruonye, where I had to kiss him. It was difficult for me to kiss him in that movie, and when I did, trust me. I was so afraid of the scene that what if my husband gets to see the movie. It means that I am a dead person. Then I was trying to be a regular, married actress. But when I got to America and what happened happened. America is like Nigeria. You have to hustle in order to survive. That was why I became controversial.

I delved into music and released my first single, “Ikebe Na Money” between 2007/2008, where I was captured on camera laying on top of a guy almost naked and tongues started wagging. To cap it all, I produced my movie, “Destructive Instinct”, where I went naked. And the movie went viral on the internet because of the fact that I flaunted my boobs and was sexy. And from there, people started calling me a porn star. I said okay, since you are calling me a porn star, I am going to give you what you people want then. That was how I became a full time porn star.

Was it part of the reason  marriage crashed?

My marriage had crashed before I became controversial. It’s a long story that I now consider as my past. I don’t like to address that issue in public because I have survived it with my two daughters. My ex husband later came back to beg me. He doesn’t care what I do now with my life. Even if I go naked it’s  not his concern. I don’t like talking about my past.

Your sex  tapes are all over the internet, do you sometimes feel guilty, or perhaps, express worry that this is not part of African culture?

No, don’t feel guilty because it’s a means of survival. This is something that brought me out of the darkest moment of my life. Being abandoned in America when I was just one year in the country. I had nothing  to fall back on, I just started picking the broken pieces of my life together in order to survive in America. Something like that encouraged me to do what I am doing today, and I don’t care whatever it is. I am sorry that it’s not part of our culture. What is not our culture in the first place? Anywhere you turn, you see people having sex. Since I came back, I have been observing things and I can tell you that nobody is a saint. I have been seeing ladies flaunting their bodies. I’m just observing things before I will unveil the real Afro Candy. Afro Candy has not come out of the box.

I have seen ladies that dressed worse than me walking naked in the streets of Lagos. We have to stop this hypocrisy. Even most women are worse than myself. What dignity are we talking about? Every woman is currently doing what I am doing for a living, both the ones in the church, those in the banking hall and many others. I was listening to a discussion, while hanging out in my hotel in Nigeria, where a married woman was complaining to her pimp that her clients weren’t paying her well. And this woman is sleeping with six men, including her husband .

I don’t go down easily like that. I might stay for one year without having sex. I control my body. May be, when I post a sex tape that was shot last two years, tongues will start wagging that what this woman only knows is sex. It’s not like that. So everybody is doing what I am doing. There’s  no dignity anymore in this life. You have to survive at all costs.

In 2015, you threatened to report some Nigerian men of God to wives for preaching repentance to you after visiting your porn site to feed their eyes. Do you have any problem with them showing concern over your life?

It wasn’t specifically about men of God, but those men who claim to be religious. I get so much preaching on my DM. When they ask for my phone number or beg me for a relationship and they don’t succeed, the next thing they will do is to start preaching to me to give my life to Christ. Some of them will send their nakedness to me and at the end of the day, they will start telling me to give my life to Christ. 

Another set of people are those that will beg me for financial assistance after preaching to me. I’m like, which money will I give to you? The dirty money I made from my nakedness, from sin and from porn sites. I am a sinner but you like the money I made from sin. So, I was telling them to keep their preaching . Everybody is a sinner, nobody is holier than the other. I threatened them that if they come to my page again to preach to me, I will take all the screenshots and send them to their wives. And I meant it. I have my small Bible that I carry about anywhere I go. They don’t know God more than myself.

Is there anything that will make you change your lifestyle?

I have a goal, and once I strike my goal in future, I will definitely change my business. Subsequently, I will not be doing much of the porn, but I will have girls that will be doing it for me. Once I strike what I am working on, I will reduce my appearance in porn sites. Like, everything is hustling for survival. Maybe , when I make billions of Dollars that I am expecting, I will stop acting too much porn , But for now, the hustle continues.