SexHerald: How long have you been in porn?

De'Bella: I’ve worked for the industry going on five years in the office part of it. I started doing scenes at the end of May. Before porn, I worked for 25 years in a long-term care nursing home.

SH: What were some of the pros and cons you had about doing scenes before you actually began performing?

De'Bella: The cons were I didn’t think I could get in front of the camera. I’ve always been camera-shy so I didn’t think I could really do it. I was not happy with my body for one thing. A lot of women pick little things out that they don’t like and I just was really picky about it. And also the situation with my daughter [Jewel De’Nyle] that we had to deal with that first and see what she has to say about it. That was some of the cons of it and I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence in myself. Then also I worried about my work here at Red Light District, whether they approved of me performing because I worked here full time in public relations and marketing. I went to them and talked to them, and they said that if I wanted to do it I could do it. That was fine with them. I do it on my own time.

SH: Are you a very sexual person or did you discover more about your sexuality when you entered porn?

De'Bella: I think I got more sexual when I got into the porn industry. More open about it. I hadn’t been with anyone but my husband, Larry, for 28 years.

SH: So, you’re sowing your wild oats now.

De'Bella: Yeah, I’m sowing them now in my 50s instead of earlier.

SH: You’re having a good time being a performer?

De'Bella: I’m having the time of my life. I’m really, really enjoying myself. I have more confidence in myself as a person. I’m enjoying life. The only thing that bothers me that’s always in the back of my mind is my daughter. I love her so much and she’s the only daughter that I have naturally. I have a stepdaughter who really supports me a lot. I talk to her when I get down and need to talk about it because she’s real up about it. She loves porn, she loves to watch it, and her and her husband are real open about it. So, I can talk to her about anything. But I still have in the back of my mind my daughter, and the thing is we called and talked about it before I started doing anything, and she said “Go for it mom, I did it!”

There was a hesitation at first when Larry talked to her. And I said “Are you sure about this.” And she said “Yeah, why not? What can I say, I did it.” She said make some money, and go ahead and go for it. That’s the last I actually heard from her, then I heard on different talk and gossip sites where she said that I had gone way too far. I don’t know what she means by that. I am getting a lot press so I don’t know if that’s what she means or that I’m just not having boy/girl sex and I’m doing other types of sex also like girl/girl. I did my first DP for Red Light. Maybe she just thought that I was going to do boy/girl sex and that was it and I wasn’t going to do anything else. I didn’t explain to her what types of sex I was going to do. I figured she’d know it because she’d been in the business and that you pretty much do a little bit of everything. I do interracial, I do it all, basically.

SH: That’s interesting, because Jewel was known for doing gang bangs and hardcore sex. You think it’s a jealousy issue with her?

De'Bella: I think what she blames me for is that I am. . . the reason I am getting so much publicity is because of her, not because of myself, that it’s a takeoff from her. I try not to use her name anytime. I’m De’Bella, the people know who I am because I work at Red Light and I also worked in the adult industry with her as her father and I did when she fist opened Platinum X with a couple of other partners. And we promoted her. Everybody knew us. So when I would go out there and say De’Bella, they would say “Oh you’re Jewel’s mother.” Well, I’m not going to say no I’m not Jewel’s mom. A fact is a fact. I’m not going to lie about it and say no, that’s not my daughter because I’m very proud of her. I’m proud of her accomplishments. But she thinks that I wouldn’t get the publicity I’m getting without her. I don’t know if it’s jealousy or that she thinks that I’m taking her glory away from her now off of her name.

SH: You do believe that there will be reconciliation at some point between you and Jewel?

De'Bella: Yes, I’m hopeful about it but I don’t feel I should make the first step towards that because I never started anything with her from the beginning. And, I won’t say anything negative about her. She’s a good person, she’s got a good heart. I just think she’s in a place where she just has a lot of hate right now and I think she’ll get over it.

SH: What was your reaction when she told you she was entering the adult industry as a performer?

De’Bella: She told us a little bit at a time. She moved to California and first she was working at a strip bar wearing lingerie. That’s how she broke us into it. Then she was going to go topless, then she was going to dance at the club but it was only taking her top off. She told us a little bit at a time. And then finally, she called her father and told him what she was doing and I was devastated because I did not know, being from a small town in the Midwest and living in Colorado. . . and porn just wasn’t talked about; we didn’t know much about it.

So I was thinking, “Oh my god, she’s going to get AIDS, she’s going to be shooting in those old, fleabag hotels in a dark room somewhere, and she was going to end up on the street. That’s what went through my mind. I was devastated, I was scared, I had her call me all the time. I said, “Call me when you get there, call me when you get back from your travels,” because she traveled around. And she always called us. It made me feel better. And I can tell in her voice she was fine. She was a contract girl for a company, and they flew us to the AVN Awards in Las Vegas in 2000 to show us what the porn business was really like, not like what I was thinking it was like. We went out there, they treated us very well, I was amazed at the awards show and I was amazed at all the publicity that she got. I felt like I was at the Oscars in a porn way. I never thought it was that way. I never imagined that it was an industry just like any other industry out there. We have a corporate office here at Red Light District, you don’t see girls running around naked or anything like that; it’s just a corporate office.

SH: Were the holidays rough?

De’Bella: Thanksgiving was rough because we always either got together or we talked to each other on the holidays, always. But what bothered me the worst was my 50 th birthday. She never called to wish me a happy birthday. But she’s on my mind every day. People say, “Why don’t you stop then that would stop her from disliking me and you can get your family back together?” But I don’t feel I have to stop my career or my life as an adult to satisfy my daughter. We supported her and her career and I feel that I should not have to do that. I don’t think I’m any more of an embarrassment to her anymore than what she was doing when she was doing scenes. And she’s still a director, she still directs porn.

SH: Since doing scenes has your self-esteemed improved?

De’Bella: Yes it has. The first thing I ever did was a photo layout to see if I could get in front of the camera nude. That was my first thing, I felt comfortable with it, I used toys in the photo shoot, and that’s what made me feel good. If I could do it in front of a photographer and camera, I think I can do it on video. So I tried video and I feel real relaxed and comfortable with it. I’m just myself on camera. I get a little bit more wild on camera than I do in bed at home. [laughs] But, I try to be very natural and not a put on.

SH: Do you feel exploited?

De’Bella: No, I don’t. Actually, everybody’s given me respect. Nobody’s disrespected on set or anything. I think they treat me with respect because I am older, and I’m kind of like their mom. A lot of the girls and a lot of the people call me mom or old school. [laughs] But just because of my age, I believe they give me a lot of respect.

SH: As a mature woman in this business, how does it feel when you have the opportunity to have sex with 18, 20-year-old good-looking guys?

De’Bella: For me, it’s difficult because they are so young. I feel like, “What are they thinking in their head that they have to do this with this old lady.” It depends on the guy. Sometimes the young men are really into the older women, and you can tell. But then there are some that you can tell, “They’re just doing this just to get a paycheck.” So when I see that, I pretty much have to handle the scene myself and turn the scene fun, and say little things to make the younger guy laugh or smile or say something, because otherwise they’re real serious and they’re scared to death.

I prefer guys at least in their late 20s and 30s. I work with 18, 19 and 20-year-olds because that’s the genre they want me to work with. But the most fun I have are when they’re in their 30s and older. Not too much older than that. The younger ones, I know they’re probably hating having to do it because they rather be with a young girl. That’s what I feel. But there are some that do like the older ones, and you can tell in their attitude and how they are performing. So I try to lead on the performance with those that are really not having a good time because that’s the genre of the movie and they need to do it. So I try to change it around and they change their attitude a little bit, and we have a lot of fun. Afterwards, they all say thank you that they had a great time.

SH: And with young girls?

De’Bella: Young girls, it’s OK. I like working with the girls but I’ve never done it in my past life, before ever. So, this is something new to me. I did a six-girl orgy, which was a lot of fun. It was just a bunch of girls having a big pajama party type of thing except that there was sex involved. That was just a lot of fun and laughter going on there. One to one, I’m getting better at it. One director had said, “You’ve done this before.” I said, “Only once before.” And he said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” What I’ve been doing is looking at some of our films at Red Light and learning from those and trying to take that experience from those films into my own films that I do.

SH: Do girls ever come to you seeking advice?

De’Bella: Yeah, the girls used to come in all the time and they knew who our daughter was, and they would ask, “How did your daughter get so big, how did she do it?” and my husband and I would both try to explain to them that they should save their money, don’t get into the cliques where they go out and that’s all they do is party all the time. You have to have another life besides just porn. You have to have an outside life with outside friends who are not only in the porn industry. Otherwise, you get caught up in nothing but the porn industry and all the money they worked 2-3 years for, where’s their money? They have nothing left and they’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars at 18, 19 years old when a lot of them make $1,200 a scene; that’s a lot of money if they’re working four or five times a week. If they’re not used to having that kind of money, they go out and blow it.

We tell them save it, invest it in property, CDs, lower cost cars, that type of thing. Some have taken our advice and some don’t. Those that don’t will probably be doing porn forever and just making it, or working in strip clubs. Our daughter hasn’t performed in over two years but she directs a couple of times a month, and that’s where she makes her income, plus she owns her own product.

SH: Who’s the type of person that should not enter the adult industry as a performer?

De’Bella: If they’re going to do it just to make a fast buck and they really don’t enjoy sex, those types of people should not be doing it.