'The porn industry remains obscured by unexamined attitudes towards sex. 'Theories arrive before grief,' Habib wrote in a blog post. 'I'm never going to really know the truth about how he felt towards his modeling,' she says.Ĭonner Habib, a porn star and activist, believes people rush headlong into the assumption that porn makes people suicidal because it confirms their existing prejudices. She tells me that he kept his career in adult entertainment away from her, so it's difficult for her to ascertain how he felt about it.
He died of an overdose in January.Ĭohen worked for a furniture company before his death, but I ask Shari if his modeling career with the gay porn company Randy Blue had contributed to his troubles. When he got out, he was homeless.Ī friend eventually offered Cohen a room out in Phoenix, Arizona, which was 'the beginning of the end,' according to Shari. He totaled two cars and ended up in jail, where he broke his hand and jaw. By the time he got into porn, under the name Xander Scott, he was mixing the two and getting behind the wheel. Beer bummed him out Vicodin didn't do the trick either. As a teenager, he began experimenting with drugs just to feel numb and good again. Diagnosed with ADHD when he was six years old, Cohen had trouble making friends and felt isolated and misunderstood in grade school. But while Shari considered Cohen's ingenuity 'a gift,' his hyper energy rankled some.
