Last November 15, Rocco Siffredi, a famous Italian porn actor, was a guest on Italian TV station Rai2’s Belve (“Wild Beasts”) program hosted by journalist Francesca Fagnani. Some might ask why we would talk about such a thing in a Catholic publication — after all, we expect very little edifying content from someone in his profession. And, in fact, the beginning of the interview lived up to those expectations: the performer responded to the host’s greeting with double entendre.
But there was one part of the interview that was particularly striking, and stood out from the porn star’s usual narrative of performances, lurid details, sky-high earnings, and drama that happened on the set.
Siffredi spoke movingly about a profound and painful side of his experience: his desire to castrate himself and to die in order to free himself from sex addiction.
And that’s not all. The interview opens up a serious reflection that we never expected to come from someone in his profession.
With 1,700 films to his credit, and 130 awards, the actor made an announcement: a few months ago, he stopped acting in pornographic films for the third time (he is hoping he will persevere this time) — although he hasn’t stopped making them. Because, he says, “Porn is not only my life; it’s also my job.”
“I don’t act anymore”
I finally seem to have stopped! For a while now I haven’t been doing anything as an actor, not in front of the camera anymore. (…) And it looks like I’m managing to stick to it this time, because this is the third time I’ve said I was going to stop and in the past I’ve relapsed; I’m very weak in that respect. (…) I’m completely focusing on my wife. Once they told me, “Rocco, the secret is to look only at your wife and direct all your energy only towards her.” I must say, it’s working.
Siffredi has been married to his wife Rozsa for 29 years and they have two children.
The abyss of promiscuity
In 2004 he had left the world of porn for the second time precisely to devote himself to his family, to have a more pure and authentic relationship with Rozsa. But unfortunately, he failed to fulfill his resolution. The reporter reads a past statement by Siffredi: “I frequented more than a thousand prostitutes on the street because I was crazy. My wife is very pretty, but I missed the variety.”
Men, women, trans
He goes on to describe his total lack of self control at that time:
Not only prostitutes, everything that addiction asks of you. You go out and see men, women, trans. Everything. (…) Our children would tell me, “Daddy let’s play, Daddy let’s play.” And I would say, “Daddy has to go out now, then I’ll be back.” Every day, every day.
And instead he would come home late at night, after having “non-stop sexual encounters” all day long.
“I didn’t deny myself anything,” he continued. “I would simply go with people soullessly (…). I’d go out and if I didn’t find a prostitute, it was a gigolo; it was the same, it was all the same.”
Francesca Fagnani read a second statement from the actor:
When this urge assails me in its most violent form, I even go so far as to think that I would like to castrate myself to solve the problem. But it’s precisely at that point that I ask God for help through the intercession of my mother.
“I was asking God to let me die”
The performer goes on to explain what the addiction led him to: a desire to die. This is one of the most impactful passages in the entire interview: “What were you asking from God or your mother in those moments?” the reporter asks. Siffredi tearfully responds, “To simply let me die.”
It was a tragic and very difficult period that lasted a long time, he recounts, and which he has now mostly left behind with the help of his wife.
“I’m afraid that I’ll never be completely free of it, but I must try to direct my energies to succeed. I must say that I’ve improved a lot. I can manage my personality, not to be too weak,” he says.
The host reads a third statement: “You once called this addiction a kind of devil, stating, ‘It drives me out of my mind at times, to the point where I become almost aggressive. There was a time when I was afraid I didn’t know how to stop.’”
The porn star replies: “When it comes to the devil, in my opinion today the devil is sex.”
Sex addiction has demonic characteristics
This is a very strong statement, as it is uttered by a man far from the Faith. And of course, it doesn’t reflect the view of the Catholic Church; a proper exercise of sexuality is a beautiful and integral part of marriage and of human existence. Siffredi’s experience of sexuality has been terribly distorted.
But whatever meaning one wants to give to the term he uses – “devil” – there is no doubt that Siffredi experiences his obsession with sex as something demonic. For him it’s a malignant force that is impossible to resist, that takes permanent possession of his mental life, leading him, through the seduction of unlimited pleasure, to self-destruction.
For people of faith, Rocco Siffredi’s anguished words sound like the living representation of the devious way in which the devil – today more than ever – takes possession of a soul, enslaving it to himself.
In this sense he unwittingly becomes the “perfect witness” to what the Church strongly affirms about the very serious damage that pornography and sex addiction does to individuals, especially the young, by draining them of their vitality and leaving them tremendously unhappy.
And today we celebrate...