Why I quit my career as a veterinarian to become a porn star
A former veterinarian has revealed why she ditched her respectable profession to move to Los Angeles to become a porn star.
Charlie Forde, 36, started her career as a physical therapist in Australia working in the intensive care unit of hospitals, before pivoting to become a veterinarian.
She first entered the adult industry while getting her degree as a way to make some extra money and quickly decided that she saw a more promising future for herself in porn than as a vet.
‘Being a vet was so exhausting and we have six times the national suicide rate,’ she told DailyMail.com.
’50 percent of vets leave within the first five years of graduating. It’s such a demanding job,’ she continued.
Charlie recalled her time studying at veterinarian school, where she battled sleepless nights and long hours for weeks at a time.
‘I was doing 130 hours a week at my peak. I remember being on a placement where I was on call for every two hours, every other night of the week,’ she recalled.
Former veterinarian Charlie Forde has revealed why she ditched her respectable profession to move to Los Angeles to become a porn star
‘I was working so hard to pay to graduate, to sit my exams and to get grades that I wasn’t surviving financially.’
Things got so bad that Charlie suffered a car accident after a long night, which is when she knew things had to change.
‘I tried to figure out what I could do in order to pay my way through vet school and someone suggested that I actually try porn,’ she shared.
‘So porn gave me a space where I could drop euthanasia and angry clients and sad animals and I could just do something fun for a change.’
Charlie started her adult career in Australia before heading over to work in Europe, where she was eventually able to sign with the biggest porn agent in the business, Mark Spiegler.
‘I realized that I was doing something right so I got a Visa for America and the rest is history,’ she said.
In addition to working as an adult performer, she was able to start her own production company – which has led to multiple nominations at the AVN Awards, aka the ‘Oscars of porn.’
The 36-year-old said that vets have a high suicide rate and work grueling hours
‘Porn gave me a space where I could drop euthanasia and angry clients and sad animals and I could just do something fun for a change,’ she said
‘I love the process of producing and directing specifically. I mean, I love performing as well, but I think my heart is more so in the creation,’ she gushed.
Charlie said that running her own company has helped her secure her future, but she’s cautious about encouraging others to throw away their degrees for sex work like she did.
‘I do well on OnlyFans, but the average amount of money made from an average person on OnlyFans is about $400 a month,’ she said.
‘So unless people are coming into OnlyFans with a business mind prepared to work full-time, be savvy with marketing and spend money to make money, they’re never going to make big money,’ she continued.
‘I know people who are veterinarians who have OnlyFans and they don’t make a lot of money, whereas I’m in a slightly different category because I built a name for myself in the adult industry.’
In addition to working as an adult performer, she was able to start her own production company – which has led to multiple nominations at the AVN Awards, aka the ‘Oscars of porn’
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) recently stated that it has had to focus on reducing vet deaths by suicide in recent years because the rate is higher than that of the general public.
The admission follows the death of a ‘talented’ vet who killed himself with a drug used to euthanize pets after he became increasingly distressed at putting animals down.
Dr John Ellis, 35, from Winchester, was upset that pet owners with ‘brand new’ cars parked outside his surgery would not pay to help their animals and instead asked to put them down, an inquest heard last year.
The RCVS said in a statement: ‘Research suggests that suicidal ideation is not higher in the veterinary profession compared to the general population.
‘However, we recognise that the likelihood of completion is increased due to knowledge of and access to lethal means.
‘As such, reducing instances of suicide in the veterinary profession has been an area of focus in many aspects of our work in recent years.’
