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Joshua Broome went from porn star and Penthouse to preacher after leaving the industry over a decade ago.

Unashamed about how Jesus Christ authored that redemptive arc in his life, he added the book 7 Lies That Will Ruin Your Life to his outreach ministry in 2024.

Broome has also been featured on the Shawn Ryan Show, Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey, CBN, and I Am Second, where, in 2023, he recalled how he escaped pornography for good.

Darkness in the Porn Industry

In 2025, Broome warned the Texas Senate’s Joint Committee to Study the Effects of Media on Minors about the dangers of being exposed to pornography.

From a fatherless home, Broome added, “I was exposed to porn at age 13. Seeing that at 13 years of age without knowing what real intimacy, or a healthy home, was, conformed my mind.”

“This shaped how I lived my life. 10 years later, I am in the adult film industry.”

“This led to me trying to take my life. That led to 40 people I was in the industry with taking their lives.”

“Why? Because they themselves didn’t believe that their reality was escapable and the world would not allow them to live a different life.”

The average age of exposure to pornography, he said, was 11–12 years old. But with social media, “it’s teetering towards 8. 80% of that is secondary exposure.”

Broome then said he wanted to point out that “90% of pornography depicts violence.”

“I would argue that pornography in itself should be deemed a public health crisis.”

“It’s contributing to sex trafficking. It’s contributing to paedophilia. When I was in the industry, the most popular type of porn was teen porn that was a niche, but the girls were dressing up in pigtails and stockings and that in no way depicts a teen. It depicts a child.”

“There’s that appetite being created online. How can we protect kids when we’re saying, ‘Hey, this is deemed appropriate in the public square?’”

Recruited into Shame, Humiliation, and Despair

After moving to Hollywood at 22, Broome recounted for I Am Second a kind of cliché actor’s existence. High competition, limited opportunities, and a silver screen dream known for devouring more than it delivers.

He wasn’t prepared for the grind, Broome explained, and ended up working in a restaurant.

Using the lure of being a model and an actor, he found himself being recruited by an agent for pornographic films.

“I knew that this was not a place that I should be, but I went anyway,” he recalled for I Am Second.

After being promised money and fame, Broome agreed to do one film.

“I felt shame. I felt guilt. And then afterwards, I remember looking at this cheque and just thinking, ‘What have I done?’”

After the girl he’d been dating at the restaurant found out, he found himself out of work and without a girlfriend.

“All of a sudden, she’s telling me to take a hike,” he said.

“I’m humiliated. I’m ashamed. I don’t have friends really anymore. I can’t go back to that restaurant. I don’t have a job anymore.”

“Then I get a phone call, and it’s the agent, and he’s saying, ‘Hey, do you want to sign a contract?’ And I didn’t know what else to do. So, I said yes.”

That one film turned into six years and over 1,000 movies.

Success, fame, accolades and money only left him feeling “empty, broken and disappointed.”

“It actually didn’t fix the pain that I had. It actually escalated the pain. It deepened the depression.”

“I found myself in a place so deep and so dark that I was certain that I didn’t have a life ahead of me worth living.”

Tempted to take his own life, Broome said, “I didn’t feel like there was any going back.”

“I didn’t feel like I would ever be a husband or father or contribute in any capacity because who’d want anything to do with me.”

Known as “Rocco Reed,” he felt like Joshua didn’t exist anymore.

“I was called that pseudonym in real life by my barber, at the gym. I didn’t exist.”

The Turnaround Begins

Repeating some of chapter 1 in his book, Broome told I Am Second, his first real awakening happened at a bank after being asked if he was okay.

Pills laid out for an overdose death, he’d put that on pause to bank his latest cheque.

“I assumed my mom or brother would end up with whatever money I had left in my account after my death, so I didn’t want to end my life with the cheque uncashed,” he explained.

Usually keen to avoid the cashier counter because he didn’t want the shame of what he had been doing to stick, Broome said that on this particular day, he instead chose to wait in line.

“Then, something unexpected happened. The teller broke my streaming suicidal thoughts by looking me in the eye and posing a simple question.”

“Joshua, are you okay?” she asked.

This was the moment, he stated, that “changed the trajectory of his life.”

He ran home, called his mother, and quit the porn industry.

Broome exited the industry in 2013, declaring, “I would like to state that my time in the adult industry in every aspect has now come to an end.”

The press release, published by an industry news site, included a declaration about him leaving Los Angeles, as well as the blunt clarification:

“I would also like to state that I am not or never have been gay, just an adult performer.”

“I am retiring not because of any other reason than it’s time to move on. Thanks.”

The industry news site said his retirement coincides with a six-month contract he signed in 2012, which moved him to the online homosexual side of the industry.

Running for his life (his words), Broome told I Am Second that he moved home.

Infamy made a new job working in a gym complicated, he said.

“I kept being recognised over and over again, and it was just so humiliating because all I wanted to do was not be that person.”

“I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to be me.”

Still, gym life came with new career advancements, even if it wasn’t a full escape from what he once did.

Rescue and Redemption

The door to complete rescue opened in the form of a date with a Christian woman, who’d later become his wife, Hope.

Broome recounted telling Hope everything.

“She looked at me and said, ‘You know, a person’s not defined by the worst thing they’ve ever done, and a person’s not defined by the greatest thing they’ll ever accomplish.’

“I believe God defines who you are,” she told him.

Asked if he believed in God, Broome replied yes, because he grew up in the church.

He said he even believed he was a Christian.

“Then Hope prodded a little deeper, asking, ‘Okay, well, what’s your relationship with Jesus like? What’s your prayer life like?’”

Not being able to answer, Broome recalled thinking, “I couldn’t believe that she didn’t reject me.”

Hope invited him to church, where he heard the gospel preached, heard God’s Word on how sinful we all are, how we sinners are saved, and it transformed his life.

“It met me where I was in that moment because I believed that there’s no way that someone would die for me.”

“There’s no way that someone would see value in me,” he told I Am Second.

“I saw God for who he was that day. The Holy Spirit just softened my heart, and I gave my life to Jesus.”

God, Broome added, “didn’t stop there.”

He now has a theology degree, is an author, pastor, father of four, and has been married to his wife, Hope, for 10 years.

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Image via screenshot of YouTube.